Karaoke, happy hour, murder... it's a package holiday Death In Paradise! CHRISTOPHER STEVENS' five-star review of Benidorm Is Murder

Benidorm Is Murder (Channel 5)Rating: Five stars out of fiveBenidorm's back! The high-rise hotels, the tourists in crop tops with lobster-and-cream sunburns, the OAP racers on mobility scooters....go on, admit you've missed it.Writer Ian Jarvis has pulled off a stroke of genius by snaffling the distinctive look and atmosphere of ITV's hit comedy drama and adding one tongue-in-cheek ingredient - a weekly homicide.Benidorm Is Murder serves up the package holiday equivalent of Death In Paradise.Other serials have attempted similar ideas, such as Sky's A Town Called Malice, about a London crime family on the Costa del Sol, and Channel 5's cruise holiday mysteries, The Good Ship Murder.But what makes this brazen copy so enjoyable is its familiarity. If you loved Madge and Mateo, hairdresser Kenneth, and swingers Donald and Jacqueline, in writer Derren Litten's original Benidorm which ran for 11 years, you'll feel instantly at home here.It's got karaoke, truculent hotel staff, shots of real holidaymakers under parasols on the sand, sticky cocktails, queues for the sunbeds, neon-lit booze dens, layers of identikit rooms overlooking a single pool, plus a weekly murder-by-numbers. This is an all-inclusive detective show. Benidorm Is Murder, Christopher Stevens writes, serves up the package holiday equivalent of Death In Paradise John Hannah plays Dennis, alongside Carolina Becquer as Rosa, who becomes his self-appointed sidekick Hannah plays ex-copper Dennis, running a basement bar that serves warm ale and toasted sandwichesIt opened in classic Benidorm fashion with a cheesy tribute act performing singalong pop for punters guzzling Happy Hour beers. Four fat lads with Nineties haircuts, calling themselves Mis-Take That, were showing off their dodgy dance moves.Only four, you ask? Who's missing? One of the band later told police he was playing the roles of both Jason Orange and Howard Donald, 'because people could never tell the difference. I'm Joward.' Wartime heroine of the week: Harriet Walter was ‘astounded’ to learn, on Who Do You Think You Are? (BBC1) that her mother, Xandra, worked in Naval Intelligence, planning the 1944 D-Day landings. ‘I had no idea,’ Dame Harriet gasped. ‘I thought she was just flirting with the boys.’ Without any statistical evidence to back this up, I suspect that, if you asked 100 people which Take That star they'd most like to see murdered, 97 would say Robbie Williams. And who'd be prime suspect? Gary Barlow, obviously.Robbie ended up face down in the pool, and Gary in cuffs. The crime happened between 1.46am and 1.47am. 'It only takes a minute,' mused one policeman.John Hannah plays ex-copper Dennis, running a basement bar that serves warm ale and toasted sandwiches. He's got one regular customer, but that's all the excuse he needs to drink and watch TV all day in his shorts, looking like an expat Inspector Rebus.His sidekick is out-of-work actress Rosa (Carolina Becquer), who is helpfully obsessed with shows such as Midsomer Murders and Murder, She Wrote. According to the law of cosy mysteries, there must also be a real police officer, who tries and fails to solve the case.Benidorm Is Murder leaves no cliche unexploited, and so Ariadna Cabrol not only playsSergeant Hernandez, but she's Dennis's on-off lover, too. He calls her 'a complete waste of taxpayers' money', and she snaps back, 'As if you paid tax!'This is a six-part series, and I'm already demanding a second season. Want you back, want you back for more.