When you think of a relaxing holiday aboard a luxury cruise ship, you don’t usually think of murder. Unless, of course, you’re a fan of The Good Ship Murder. Forget all that smooth sailing on The Love Boat: over the last few years this UK series has been working hard to build up the kind of ocean-going body count not seen since the Titanic set sail.
Of course, there’s no point in having a ship fully stocked with murderers if there’s nobody around to catch them. Fortunately, The Good Ship Murder has one of the all-time classic cosy crime double acts hard at work bringing the killers on board to justice.
Jack Grayling (Shayne Ward) was once a Manchester police detective, but he gave it away to follow his true passion: becoming a cabaret singer on a cruise ship. Fortunately for him, he managed to combine his two passions by finding a gig on a ship where the passengers constantly end up dead.
Providing the much-needed authority to throw any and all killers in the brig is the ship’s First Officer, Kate Woods (Catherine Tyldesley). You’d think solving mysteries would come a long way down on the list of skills required to run a ship with six thousand passengers and hundreds of crew, but it turns out she’s surprisingly good at it (and the job gives her a lot of leeway to race around both on and off the ship).
A big part of what makes this series so much fun is the chemistry between Jack and Kate. The relationship between the pair is very much an “opposites attract” deal. She’s focused on her career, a bit stand-offish at first, someone who takes things seriously – everything you want from a top officer on a very large ship. There’s just one weakness in her armour: she likes true crime podcasts, and that’s all Jake needs to crack her stern facade.
As for Jack, he’s a smooth operator. As a nightclub crooner, he’s a likeable guy getting by on his charm. But as a detective, he’s driven to track down the truth. Luckily, he always finds his killer in plenty of time to belt out a cover version of a recent-ish pop hit before the end credits (Ward was a winner on the UK version of X Factor, as well as a household name on Coronation Street).
Season three starts off with the familiar formula in disarray. Jack unceremoniously departed the ship at the end of last season, and it seems his musical role as “the voice of the ship” has been claimed by Eve Fontaine (Michelle Holmes) . She’s what you’d charitably call a “showbiz veteran”, but with Christmas just around the corner she has the kind of old school charm that suits the season.
None of this is making much of an impression on Kate. Life on board clearly isn’t the same without Jack; even a photoshoot with Eve and terminally ill influencer Donna (Joelle Dyson), who’s enjoying a crowd-funded trip with her bestie Bernie (Rebecca Harland), can’t lift her spirits.
Things move fast at sea, and no sooner is Donna sparking up a new relationship with fellow passenger Jason (Gary Lucy) than a trip ashore to a local monastery has resulted in a possibly-fatal bashing. If only there was a detective-slash-cabaret singer handy!
Fortunately, it turns out Jack has been singing in a local dodgy bar for the last six months. Kate isn’t exactly impressed he never got in touch, but that can wait – there’s a mystery to be solved, and if that involves visiting a number of scenic Mediterranean locations so much the better.
Future episodes this season feature at murder at Cannes, a wellness guru who may have been bumped off by a disgruntled patient, and a murder that disturbingly seems to point to the highest levels of the ship’s crew. Plus there’s an unofficial Birds of a Feather reunion as the two stars (Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph) of that long-running sitcom play widows on a “grief cruise” who might not be quite as grief-stricken as they claim.
The Good Ship Murder is cosy crime at its cruisiest. The whodunnits are twisty without ever being shocking, the detectives are likeable and determined, the guest stars are clearly having fun, the shore locations are stunning, the supporting cast are solid, and each episode manages to be familiar enough to be comforting while staying fresh enough to be surprising.
By the time Jack takes the stage to belt out another classic hit - this season he’s covering hits by Take That, Bryan Adams, Simple Minds and Shania Twain, amongst others – you’ll be looking to book a return journey. Just don’t bring on board any dark secrets that might leave you on a slab in the ship’s overcrowded morgue.
The Good Ship Murder seasons 1-3 are now streaming at SBS On Demand.
