Info Post Time- Meet DI Humphrey Goodman

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Meet Humphrey Goodman!




Death in Paradise TV Show was in production by BBC in the UK. It is a crime comedy-drama created by Robert Thorogood and is a joint UK and French production. The cast is predominantly British/English and the majority of the show is filmed on the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe.

The show follows UK detectives who have been sent to the small police outpost on the Caribbean island of Saint Marie (fictional) and the work they do at the Honore Police Station. Throughout the series, a total of four different Detective Inspectors have come to the island and the show is about their process of adapting to the unique and vastly different life on the island as they figure out their place on the island and among their team on the small and tight-knit team.

The show starts off in season one with Detective Inspector Richard Poole (Ben Miller) being sent from the Metropolitan Police in London to investigate the death of a police officer on the island. At the start of season three, a new detective inspector is sent to the island to replace Richard Poole. DI Humphrey Goodman (Kris Marshall) appears in 30 episodes of Death in Paradise. The other two DIs to appear on the show after DI Humphrey are Jack Mooney (Ardal O'Hanlon) and Neville Parker (Ralf Little) who is still currently acting DI in the show as of 2023.



The running theme for Humphrey’s time on the show is his bumbling and ‘messy’ habits and disorganization showing just how unlikely he is as a skilled and highly successful DI. He solves cases that seem impossible and despite of, or at times because of, his unique and often unorthodox approach and way of looking at things, is able to unlock the clues needed to solve the case. His knack for crime-solving coupled with the stammering, stumbling, and bumbling makes Humphrey a popular character in the show.

Watch on YouTube

Humphrey in all his clumsy brilliant glory!!!

You watch the show during Humphrey ’s seasons thinking “How on Earth could this guy ever possibly capture a murderer?” and yet he does and seeing how he does it and what mischief and mess he gets into in the process is what keeps you watching each new episode to see just how he manages to do it this time!






The Myth the Man the Legend

Humphrey is sent to Saint Marie to investigate the murder of one of the officers on his predecessor’s team. He is seen as an outsider and is not well received by the team at first who see him as a threat and trying to ‘take over’ his predecessor’s role and replace him. The team did not ask for Humphrey to be sent and they do not want him around at first.

Humphrey follows the typical tropes of the awkward outsiders and the fish out of water during his early episodes on the show. Over time the team accepts him and his very messy and clumsy mannerisms and obviously ADHD and autistic tendencies. He is very cumbersome and easily flustered, often forgetting things like a pen or paper for notes during an investigation, misplacing said notes because he is so disorganized, or finding himself in socially awkward situations he does not quite know what to do with. However, over time he does embrace Caribbean life much more than his predecessor and finds himself falling in love with the islands and the people- particularly his team as they begin to grow into something of a family themselves.


He has a knack for being able to solve murders, looking at the meaning of small details, often fixating on small, seemingly unimportant or happenstance evidence that later turns out to be key details that help in solving the case for him. For example, in one case he solved the murder because of a random beetle found on the crime scene, another was solved partly because of nail polish, and another Humphrey was able to solve the case because of a random text message. For Humphrey, moving to the Caribbean has been an exciting and unexpected adventure. He’s won the respect and trust of his team and also made good friends of them along the way. He came to the island to escape his old life and while doing so he also found a new purpose and meaning he was not expected.

Humphrey is married, but his wife Sally had grown unhappy with their marriage and with the life Humphrey was giving her. So she broke the news that she was leaving him shortly after he arrived on the island of Saint Marie and started working. This opens the door for romantic interest that often falls short and leads to hilarious and awkward situations for Humphrey as he tries to navigate his social and romantic life in his typically fumbling ways. Over time, and finally, with a love interest in sight and the hope of a possible marriage down the road, Humphrey leaves Saint Marie and the team to go back to England, handing the reigns over to his predecessor, DI Jack Mooney.
“Mess and I are very old friends.”- Humphrey Goodman during initial introductions to the team.





Personality

Disorganized, distractable, messy, awkward, bumbling, and incredibly accident-prone, Humphrey often struggles to survive social interactions and avoids putting his foot in his mouth or saying something embarrassing and awkward at an inappropriate time. But this doesn't stop him from being an absolutely brilliant detective.

Humphrey’s dishevelled and at times chaotic exterior and continual insistence on clinging to little quicks and ticks of his hide a cunning instinct for solving murders. It’s second nature for Humphrey to think outside the box and approach each case from a unique and surprising angle. To the observer his methods seem random and haphazard at best but nine times out of ten he will figure out the case and bring a murderer to justice by the end of the episode.



His initial focus in a case is on his training with the core basics of any DI working a case- "means, motive and opportunity", Humphrey's aim is to answer the questions of "who, how and why". However, he will obsess and focus on the most mundane and out of place things, stating that nothing is a coincidence and that the smallest thing that is overlooked could be what breaks a case wide open. He obsesses over small details, possessing the ability to make a rapid series of deductive connections while appearing crazy as he paces and mutters to himself about random things that don't seem connected at all until he lays out the evidence and solves the case.

Despite his intelligence as a police officer, Humphrey is extremely clumsy, and a recurring joke is him tripping or having accidents to such a degree that his colleagues physically try to herd him and screen him from potential danger. He has fallen off balconies, out of windows, tripped down stairs, fallen off ladders, tripped over his own feet, fallen off boats, fallen off docks, and a host of other missteps while at the Honore Police Station, investigating crime scenes, interviewing witnesses, or even making an arrest.



He also mangles proverbs and famous sayings and often applies the wrong idiom to a situation though it is usually clear what he was trying to say, he just misses the mark in the usual Humphrey fashion. To the observer, his methods seemed random and tangential, but after spending some time working with Humphrey, you would quickly realise that his eccentric and sometimes bizarre methods of detection always got a result.
Humphrey is kind, caring, compassionate, and friendly, and there is not a malicious bone in his body. He avoids an argument or fight if at all possible, even to the extent of taking years of verbal and mental abuse from his father over his career as a police detective.

He bent over backward to try and keep his wife happy before she finally left him, focusing on her happiness and wants as much as he could. He always tries to see the good in people and never takes joy or gloats in the arrests he makes, knowing he is bringing someone to justice for the murder and running of someone’s life, but he also knows that they have ended up running their life as well. Humphrey wants justice but never sees it as a power play and never carries out an investigation or arrest with selfish goals in mind. He can be a bit of a pushover but he just wants to do right and follow his own moral compass- sometimes to his own detriment.



Strengths

Humphrey is friendly, easygoing, smart, caring, and fearless. He’s not afraid to make a fool of himself, usually by tripping, stumbling or rambling- something that happens on a nearly every-episode basis. He shares a special bond with his Aunt Mary, and spent much of his childhood years with her working on puzzles, playing games, solving riddles and reading. She is the only member of the family who appreciates his offbeat demeanor and who doesn't look at him with a mix of pity and confusion. It is this early ‘brain work an problem solving’ focus that Humphrey says made him such a great DI.





Humphrey also cares about his team and the people on the island of Saint Marie. He soon sees them as more than just people he is living among and serving as a DI. He wants to know them and understand them and be part of the island vibes. He constantly seeks out ways to more deeply ingrain himself into the culture such as trying local delicacies and drinks- even those warned to be far too spicey for his ‘delicate bland English palette.’ He also shows his go-with-the-flow personality by installing a hammock outside the beach bungalow where he lives, buying a rust bucket boat he wants to refurbish to sail around the island, and his overall seldom down-and-out attitude during cases.

He is a hopeless romantic and is willing to give the shirt off his back for the people he cares about. This is evident in how he tried to make things work with his wife, even after she left him at first, and how much it took for him to finally tell her no he would not take her back. Humphrey flirts and has several attempted relationships, including with his very attractive DS on the force. But none of his attempts go well and he usually ends up in an awkward or embarrassing situation. Towards the end of his time in the show, he meets a woman named Marsha and eventually, he leaves Saint Marie to go back to England to be with her, finally having found someone he loves and who seems to genuinely love him back in return.


Vulnerabilities/Tics/Quirks/Flaws

To say Humphrey is disorganized doesn’t quite capture it. He’s a disaster. He is forgetful, awkward, and exceedingly accident-prone. He’s disposed to muttering to himself, thinking through things without realizing his vocalizing his thoughts, which of course leaves those around him utterly confused, exasperated, or thinking he has lost his marbles. He’s often forgetful, stammers frequently, and is totally oblivious to what’s going on around him most of the time. There is much evidence in the show that Humphrey is autistic and has severe ADHD. His habits and social awareness as well as his quirks and little ticks all support this theory.

“I just wanted to say well, I suddenly realized, it's all a matter of perception, really. Some of us are dung beetles, some of are butterflies, or a parrot.” - Humphrey Goodman trying, and failing, to talk/flirt/be social like a normal person.



Relationships

Sally Goodman
Sally was Humphrey's wife back in London and at the time went to Saint Marie. She was supposed to follow him and come to the island with him, but shortly after he arrived she called and left a message on his answering machine. She told Humphrey she was not coming, she did not want to be with him, that she had fallen out of love with him and their life, and that she was leaving him. Later in the show she visited him in Saint Marie. During the visit, she said she wanted to give their relationship another go, but Humphrey rejected her as he had already realized how better off he was with his life in Saint Marie and that he had already started to fall in love with Camille Bordey.



Camille Bordey
Humphrey fell in love with his Detective Sergeant Camille Bordey, shortly after coming to the island and finding out his wife was leaving him. They were at odds at first but soon came to have fond feelings for each other. Humphrey especially felt strong feelings for Camille and often came close to revealing his feelings for her but in his bumbling and awkward way never quite managed to do so. He tried to stop her from leaving the island when she requested to be transferred to her dream job in Paris, but eventually, Humphrey conceded. He shared a passionate kiss with her just as she was sailing off to leave the island.



Martha Lloyd
Humphrey meets Martha when he nearly runs her over while driving around the island. It turns out that he had previously known her back in London. As the two old acquaintances catch up, Martha spends time with Humphrey and stays in his bungalow for a time. Eventually, Martha leaves to go back to London to work on her dream of opening her own restaurant and bar. Later, Humphrey and the team are sent to London to work on a case. During the case he visits her a couple of times, finally declaring his love for her and his intention to move back to London so he can be with her.



Martin Goodman
Martin is Humphrey’s father. They do not have the best relationship, to say the least. The oddball all of his life, Humphrey found it difficult to live up to his father’s expectations as a child and young man, and that has not changed any now as an adult. Martin visits Humphrey on the island to try and convince him to return to London and that this is a mistake and Humphrey doesn't know what he actually wants or what is good for him. But since coming to the island and being on his own, Humphrey has changed and he stands up to his father. He tells him he is happy on the island, he is thrilled with his work being a DI, and he is staying on the island and is not going back to London with him like his father wanted.



On the Island

Humphrey left Saint Marie to come to Fandom just before the conclusion of his canon show run. He has not yet hooked up with Martha, his canon love interest. He has feelings for her but after his past romantic fumblings, he is not sure he wants to take that leap with her yet. Humphrey will be conflicted, confused, and a bit lost as to what he wants to do with his life.

Humphrey will end up in Fandom when he decides to leave Saint Marie for a small break to clear his head and figure out what he wants to do with his life. He’s had two and a half years of being on Saint Marie with his team, and there’s been talk of him continuing to be the DI, returning to England to his old team, or doing something else with his life. Humphrey has no idea what he wants to do at this point. Fandom is the chance to see what else might be there for him, even outside full-time DI and police work.



There is not an aggressive, cruel, or mean-spirited bone in the man’s body! Humphrey is more likely to let someone push him around and intimidate him than to try and bully or cause a fight with anyone else. As long as he is not on someone’s tail for a murder or crime no one would really ever fear or have anything to worry about with Humphrey. The only case where Humphrey might cause problems for anyone on the island is through his bumbling and poor social skills- saying something accidentally offensive, pumping into some, dropping his coffee or spilling it on someone, that sort of thing. Otherwise, he doesn't cause trouble, it just usually seems to find him somehow!





Must note- not canon but have to include the one shirtless pic I have managed to find LOL

There, that is DI Humphrey Goodman- questions, comments, and snide remarks are welcomed!