Death in Paradise is the shepherd’s pie TV we can’t get enough of

Death in Paradise, set in the Caribbean, is just the thing for a dark British winter. Photograph: Denis Guyenon/BBC/Red Planet Pictures

Tonight, without anyone really noticing, Death in Paradise hits its 100th episode. By stealth, the deeply uncool BBC series has clocked up more instalments than Happy Valley, Sherlock, Luther, Cracker and Prime Suspect put together. How did this TV travesty happen? Why is such a vanilla production one of our longest-running crime dramas?

For a start, Death in Paradise is unerringly popular. Averaging 8 million viewers, it was British TV’s second most-watched drama last year – behind the aforementioned Happy Valley – and the sixth most-watched programme overall. Its new spinoff, Beyond Paradise, was placed eighth. Another offshoot, Return to Paradise, lands later this year. Somehow the Paradise franchise has become one of the BBC’s biggest properties, exported to more than 240 territories worldwide.