Former Father Ted star Ardal O’Hanlon stepped into Kris Marshall’s shoes as Death In Paradise’s new detective tonight, but fans of the series missed the old lead.

Last week, Kris bowed out of the BBC One crime series as his character Humphrey decided to stay in London, swapping roles with Ardal’s detective Jack Mooney.

Death In Paradise
Ardal O’Hanlon took over the detective mantel tonight (BBC)

But some of the audience struggled to embrace the cast change, complaining that the programme just wasn’t the same without Kris.

Fans of Death In Paradise mostly agreed that they had preferred Kris’s Humphrey as island detective.

Although some still wished that the original sleuth played by Ben Miller had not been killed off.

However, it wasn’t all bad news for Ardal as some viewers admitted to liking his character more than Kris’s.

It’s early days for the new detective – let’s see how he fares next week.