Death In Paradise will not air in its usual Friday slot this week owing to a change in scheduling on the BBC as its replacement has now been revealed
Death In Paradise will be off air this week(Image: BBC)
Death In Paradise is off air this week after it was pulled from its usual slot. The BBC show is back for a new series, with DI Mervin Wilson – played by Don Gilet – at the helm.
It usually airs in the Friday 9pm slot each week on BBC One but it has been changed for this week. Death In Paradise follows the story of a British police officer in the Caribbean, working out of island paradise Saint Marie.
The BBC show will not air this Friday as planned as the BBC will instead be broadcasting the football. The FA Cup tie between Hull City and Chelsea will air that evening instead from 7.30pm, with kick off 15 minutes later.
Instead, Death In Paradise will air its latest episode on the following Monday, which follows the story of a pensioner who has been shot dead in his home. The commissioner is also busy trying to get everyone on side after his recent departure.
Meanwhile, Don Gilet previously opened up about his character’s development on the BBC detective drama series.
Speaking about his character, Don – who plays Mervin Wilson – said: “Just by his nature and the way he is when it comes to his work and the way that his mind works, there’s always going to be a bit of kickback with the people he deals with.
“Last year, there was this antagonism between Mervin and the team because they just worked in very different ways, and both had to earn the respect of each other in the way they work.”
He added: “And let’s not forget, he didn’t want to be on the island, so he was going to be particularly reluctant to work with these people because of the personal issues he was dealing with.
“But as time has moved on, he’s realised that he needs these people. They are now gelling, they’re working as a team – now it’s cracking the cases that frustrate him, and they become frustrated as a group. You’ll still see him sometimes working at odds with the team, but they know each other now and can allow for that a little more.”
Of course, in this series, there is also the twist about Mervin’s half-brother Solomon, whom he finally gets to meet this series. However, things don’t get off to a great start.
“It was a great emotional cliffhanger because at any moment in that series Mervin could have just said ‘that’s it, I’ve done my time’, and now he literally can’t go.
“The one thing he was in pursuit of at the start of this series was family, and then to throw that in at the end, that he’s not alone… He’s powerless to resist that and he has to stay now for the next chapter in his family quest, because he thought he had no family. So how can he turn his back on that?
“Well, I think phrases like ‘two peas in a pod’, do not apply… They couldn’t be more opposite. There’s Mervin and then there’s this guy who is on the opposite side of the tracks, potentially the opposite side of the law too…”
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The U.S. Navy has shown no signs of reversing course on major changes to its pipeline for new naval aviators in its latest draft requirements for a replacement for its T-45 Goshawk jet trainers. The Navy has already axed carrier qualifications from the syllabus for prospective tactical jet pilots and has plans to significantly alter how other training is done at bases ashore. These decisions have prompted concerns and criticism, but the service argues that advances in virtualized training and automated carrier landing capabilities have fundamentally changed the training ecosystem.
Aviation Weekwas first to report on the recent release of the latest draft requirements for what the Navy is currently calling the Undergraduate Jet Training System (UJTS). The service is looking to acquire 216 new jet trainers to replace the just under 200 T-45s it has in inventory today. The Navy has been pursuing a successor to the T-45 Goshawk for years now, and the UJTS effort has been delayed multiple times. The goal now is to kick off a formal competition relatively soon, ahead of a final contract award in mid-2027.
T-45s on the flightline at Naval Air Facility (NAF) El Centro in California. USN
A number of companies have already lined up to compete for UJTS. This includes Boeing with a navalized version of its T-7 Red Hawk, the TF-50N from Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI), the M-346N offered by Textron and Leonardo (and now branded as a Beechcraft product), and the Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC) Freedom jet.
Clockwise from top left: Renderings of Boeing’s navalized T-7, the TF-50N from Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries, SNC’s Freedom jet, and the Beechcraft M-346N. Boeing/Lockheed Martin/Textron/Leonardo/SNC
The newest UJTS draft request for proposals reinforces the aforementioned changes to the carrier qualification and so-called Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) training requirements. Though conducted at bases on land, FCLP landings have historically been structured in a way that “simulates, as near as practicable, the conditions encountered during carrier landing operations,” according to the Navy.
The Navy’s plan now is to eliminate the actual touch-and-go component of FCLP training, also known as FCLP to touchdown, at least for students flying in the future UJTS jet trainer. Instead, the syllabus will include what is described as FCLP to wave off, where student pilots in those aircraft will fly a profile in line with being waved off from a landing attempt on an actual carrier prior to touchdown.
F-18 Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP). Touch-and-Go Landing.
“The Naval Aviation Enterprise has determined that the UJTS air vehicle will conduct FCLP [field carrier landing practice] to wave off,” a Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) spokesperson explained to Aviation Week. “However, FCLP to touchdown will be trained via other means in the UJTS system of systems.”
TWZ has reached out to NAVAIR for more information about the other elements of the planned “UJTS system of systems” that will be used to support continued FCLP to touchdown training requirements.
As noted, the Navy has already cut the carrier landing qualification requirement from the pipeline for individuals training to fly F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and F-35C fighters, as well as EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft. At least as of last August, carrier qualifications were still part of the syllabus for student aviators in line to fly E-2 Hawkeye airborne early warning and control aircraft, as well as for all international students.
“Field Carrier Landing Practice (FCLP) landings ashore are still required for graduation,” a Navy spokesperson also told TWZ in August 2025, but did not specify whether or not this meant “to touchdown.”
TWZ has reached out to the office of the Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA) for more information on current and future planned naval aviation training requirements.
All of this has major ramifications for the forthcoming UJTS jet trainer competition. Not even having to perform FLCPs to touchdown, let alone actual carrier qualifications, fundamentally changes the aircraft designs that can be considered to replace the carrier-capable T-45s. Carrier landings and takeoffs stress airframes, especially landing gear, in completely different ways compared to typical operations from airbases on land.
US Navy T-45 Goshawk carrier qualifications on USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78)
As it stands now, only SNC’s clean sheet Freedom offering is explicitly designed for touch-and-goes on carriers and FCLP-to-touchdown landings ashore, and the company has been putting heavy emphasis on the continued importance of those capabilities. The other competitors that have emerged so far have presented variations on existing land-based jet trainer designs.
Freedom Family of Training Systems (FoTS)
“The strategic decision of moving carrier qualifications from the training syllabus to their fleet replacement squadrons was driven by increased technological capabilities in the fleet, as well as the need to reduce training pipeline times, enabling the fleet to receive qualified pilots faster,” the aforementioned Navy spokesperson also told TWZ last August. “After earning their initial qualifications after graduation, naval aviators in the strike pipeline are required to complete touch-and-goes and carrier landings at sea during their assignment at the Fleet Replacement Squadrons (FRS).”
FRSs provide initial training on specific types of aircraft before individuals move on to operational units. What this all means, in functional terms, is that the Navy is planning for a future where tactical jet pilots will not make a full FCLP landing, let alone touch down on a carrier, until after they are winged and flying a front-line aircraft.
There is also a cost benefit arguement to be made. Eliminating the need for features required for carrier-based operations could help keep down the price tag of any future T-45 replacement, as well as reduce developmental risk. The overall changes to the training syllabus will have their own cost impacts with the cut down in time and resources required for a student pilot to get their wings.
At the same time, concerns and criticism have been voiced about the possible downstream impacts of cutting elements long considered critical to naval aviation training. What can be done in virtualized aviation training environments, in particular, has become very impressive in recent years, but they still cannot fully recreate the experience of live training events.
“Carrier qualification is more than catching the wire. It is the exposure to the carrier environment and how an individual deals with it,” an experienced U.S. Navy strike fighter pilot told TWZ back in 2020. “The pattern, the communications, the nuance, the stress. The ability to master this is one of our competitive advantages.”
The Navy does still has yet to issue a final set of requirements for the UJTS jet trainer. However, signs only continue to grow that the service is committed to its new vision for training future naval aviators.
