End game

IT’S BEEN like The Mental-lust at times, but the scruffily successful police consultant Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) has finally got together with Detective Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) in one of the best murder-mystery series to come out of the US studios.

Those who have followed Jane’s battle to revenge himself on Red John since 2008 will be delighted to finally see the seventh series, even if it’s going to be the last.

In this opening offering, Teresa asks Patrick not to tell their colleagues about their new relationship yet, as she only recently broke up with Agent Pike. Returning to the CBI offices, they find Emily Swallow has left for Seattle and has been replaced by Quantico rookie Michelle Vega. They must also deal with the murder of an FBI agent who had been investigating a gun runner.

Now the series is coming to a close, 45-year-old Baker admits it's the right time. The dynamic of the series changed, he notes, after his character's quest for revenge - against the serial killer who murdered his wife and daughter - was concluded last season.

"That's all he was living for," says the Australian star, who had roles in Aussie soaps Home And Away and Heartbreak High before moving to the US. "Once he catches the bad guy and exercises revenge, what has he got?"

"We're now going to shift the dynamic of the show, to the perspective of two adults who work together," explains Baker. "Can they succeed in having a relationship at the same time, or are they too selfish, too self-destructive?"

After being colleagues for almost a decade, he admits the change in their fictional relationship took a bit of adjusting to.

"It's a little bit like kissing my sister," confesses Baker, who's been nominated for two Golden Globes during his career; in 2002 for US TV series The Guardian, based on a Pittsburgh law firm, and later for The Mentalist.

The ending of the show might already have been dictated, but the actor, who has three children with his wife, Australian actress Rebecca Rigg, confesses he was hoping for a "slightly different" finale.

"I think the most tragic endings are more romantic in a way. I also think about the character that I signed on to play," he adds. "He was a tragic character from the beginning, and to me, it only ever felt right that there was sort of a tragic ending to it."

We have been warned.

Death in Paradise (BBC1, 9pm)

PART of the winning mix of sunshine, great stories and much-loved characters, is down to actors like Newcastle’s Don Warrington.

"All kinds of people love it; it spreads right across the nation, which is great," he explains.

So what was it about Selwyn Patterson that attracted him to the role? "I thought he was a lovely character; he was very interesting - a man who loves his island; who loves the fact that it's a divided island and he stays resolutely on his side of the fence."

In the latest offering, Saint Marie celebrates getting through to the final of the Inter-Island Volleyball Championships. However, when one of the players is stabbed through the heart, DI Goodman (Kris Marshall) and the team have to solve the crime asap, while Commissioner Patterson faces off against old enemy Anton Burrage, the governor-elect of the rival volleyball team's island.

Joe Absolom and Colin McFarlane guest star.

The Great British Sewing Bee (BBC2, 8pm)

DURING this six-week run, more than 100 garments will be produced by the competing stitchers.

This week, the nine remaining contestants scale down items and make children's clothes. Waistcoats, plain T-shirts, hand-me-down dresses and a fancy-dress costume are all on the to-do list. Judges May Martin, from the WI, and designer Patrick Grant decide who goes, but not before a "two garments into one" item leaves them in raptures.