BBC Beyond Paradise: Leeds actor Felicity Montagu known for Bridget Jones’s Diary and I’m Alan Partridge stars in new BBC One Death in Paradise spin-off series

The next episode of Beyond Paradise will air on Friday, March 3, 2023 at 8pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

The BBC show follows DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) and his fiancee Martha Lloyd (Sally Bretton) following their tense will-they-won’t-they romance which reached its emotional finale in 2017. They arrive in Shipton Abbott, Martha’s hometown near the Devonshire coast.

For a recap, viewers were thrilled to see Humphrey take control of his destiny and followed Martha back from Saint Marie to London to express his love for her. In the new spin-off series Beyond Paradise, the couple embark on their new life as they are quickly thrown in the deep end when Martha sets out to pursue her dream of running her own restaurant and Humphrey joins the local police force.

They quickly make an impression on the somewhat eclectic team: DS Esther Williams (Zahra Ahmadi), PC Kelby Hartford (Dylan Llewellyn) and Margo Martins (Felicity Montagu), Humphrey sets out to help crack a host of cases, with the Shipton Abbott squad witnessing a whole new approach to police work.

Every week the team will be faced with a new crime with a unique puzzle at the heart of them.

The town of Shipton Abbott will be shocked by the disappearance of an entire family without a trace; a woman claiming she was attacked by a suspect from the 17th century; the robbery of a highly prized painting; a body strangely discovered in a crop circle and a serial arsonist with a mysterious penchant for nursery rhymes.

As Humphrey gets stuck into his new job, he and Martha must also navigate life’s ups and downs, as faces from their past, the decisions they make and the challenges they face of setting up life in a new town put their relationship to the test.

Who is Felicity Montagu?

Felicity will be portraying the role of office support, Margo Martins, who is a tough cookie, but her tough exterior hides genuine vulnerability and a life of tragedy; she has buried three husbands, two dogs and 11 cats, and rarely sees her grown-up children.

Despite threatening to retire every year, Margo secretly loves her job supporting the team, as Esther comments, she practically runs the office and she doesn’t initially warm to the new detective inspector, but isn’t personal as she also doesn’t immediately warm to anyone.

Felicity was born in Leeds to Lieutenant-Colonel John Drogo Montagu, whose great-great-grandfather Admiral George Montagu was great-great-grandson of Hon James Montagu. He is also the third son of Henry Montagu, 1st Earl of Manchester.

She studied at Loughborough University and the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art.

Her major acting credits include Perpetua, Bridget’s colleague in Bridget Jones’s Diary, the long-suffering assistant of Alan Partridge, Lynn Benfield, in the TV show and movie, highly strung magazine editor Vivien Kay-Wylie in the 2006 film Confetti, ‘Clipboard Nazi’ in 2008 film How to Lose Friends and Alienate People and Jocelyn in the Channel 4 show The End of the F***ing World.

She also starred alongside Rowan Atkinson in the 2013 West End production of Quartermaine’s Terms as Melanie.

She married Alan Nixon in 1984 and they divorced in 2006. The couple have two children, Olivia and Luke. Olivia and Felicity worked together in 2016 in the BBC Radio 4 series Guilt Trip.