When did Beyond Paradise’s Martha and Humphrey actually get married?
There's a mystery afoot.
The Paraverse fans were treated to an extra special Christmas treat when Dᴇᴀᴛʜ in Paradise‘s Commissioner Selwyn (Don Warrington) not only popped up in the Beyond Paradise Christmas special, but was also Best Man to Humphrey (Kris Marshall) at his secret wedding to Martha (Sally Bretton).
It was a moment that held more meaning than can be gleaned on the surface, cementing something special for the steady-ish romance between the pair.
But special guest Selwyn’s time at their celebrations was interrupted when the Commissioner received an urgent call all the way from Saint Marie. Detective Inspector Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) was in desperate need of some help on a case…
Selwyn had to hop-skip over to Swindon to do some on-the-ground detective work for the London-leg of the investigation, arriving there on Christmas eve. However, isn’t that when Humphrey and Martha’s wedding took place? And if they got hitched after 5pm, as was explicitly stated in the episode, how could Selwyn have arrived in Swindon on Christmas Eve during the day?
The answer is, he couldn’t have. (Feels a little bit like a Dᴇᴀᴛʜ in Paradise mystery, minus the actual Dᴇᴀᴛʜ ).
While there were big bold letters reading ‘Christmas Eve’ on the screen accompanying Selwyn’s arrival in Swindon, giving us concrete confirmation of the date, Beyond Paradise‘s Christmas special doesn’t actually state what day it is.
It could easily have been assumed that Martha and Humphrey got married on Christmas Eve because of the frequent wishes of a “Merry Christmas” across the episode, giving us the impression that the day was only hours away.
Viewers could have deduced that the episode couldn’t actually have been set on Christmas Day, because of the events surrounding their wedding. Businesses were open, no one made reference to Christmas Day activities, or missing Christmas in lieu of solving the case, so the most natural thing would be to assume that they got hitched a day before.
However, despite all the heavy talk of Christmas, there is absolutely no way Selwyn could have made it from Devon to Swindon while it was still bright outside, given the distance (roughly 127 miles). This means that the wedded pair must have become Mr and Mrs Goodman a few days before.
There’s an argument for the wedding taking place on the 21 December (the same day the episode dropped for us viewers). But, given the urgency of Mervin’s case, it’s more than likely that Selwyn would have had to travel to Swindon the next day, which means Martha and Humphrey could just have easily become husband and wife on Christmas Eve Eve.
In short, we will never know for sure, unless Beyond Paradise reveals the information in later episodes.
Hopefully we won’t have to wait until next Christmas special, for their anniversary, to find out.