Our take
The fourth Christmas special does two jobs at once, setting a gloriously silly puzzle about who would shoot three Santas while introducing a brand new lead detective. The case is convoluted even by the show's standards, but it moves at a lick and the guest cast play it with relish. Don Gilet's Mervin arrives prickly and rude, and the special is smart to let his grief explain the bristles by the end.
What happens
With Neville Parker gone, Saint Marie has no detective inspector when holidaymaker Stuart Fullwell, fresh from singing karaoke dressed as Santa, is found shot dead on the beach by a young boy, Ollie. It soon emerges that three apparently unconnected men in Santa suits were shot with the same gun at the same time; a second, Tony Hurst, is dead and a third, Tyrus Demille, is wounded. Commissioner Selwyn Patterson hears a British detective is on holiday on the island, and Londoner DI Mervin Wilson, already on his flight home after a disappointing solo trip, is seconded to Honoré whether he likes it or not. His brusque manner grates on the team, and for a while he is a suspect himself, until he admits to Selwyn that he came to find the mother he never knew, and learns she has died. Officer Dwayne Myers, meanwhile, has a bumpy Christmas with his father, Nelson. The solution: Ollie, playing cowboys, got hold of the gun his father Jamie Barton had brought to threaten Tony over a grievance about his mother. Stuart challenged Jamie and was killed by accident in the struggle. Musician Kenny Simmons saw it and blackmailed Jamie into helping him murder Tony to secure a business deal, fudging the times and firing at a third Santa so it looked like a Santa killer. Told it is island tradition, Mervin gathers the suspects for his first reveal, then sits outside his late mother's house weighing Selwyn's offer of a job.
Can the kids watch it?
No BBFC rating found for this special; earlier specials were rated 12, and with three shootings it is best for children from about 12.