Over the years the BBC’s hit murder-mystery drama Death in Paradise has featured a rotating cast of characters, with four different actors now having played a new lead detective in the show.
Kris Marshall’s Humphrey Goodman and Ardal O’Hanlon’s Jack Mooney both got to walk off into the sunset following their time in charge of the Saint Marie police department, with the latter making way for the incumbent, Ralf Little’s Neville Parker.
However, the show’s first detective wasn’t so lucky. Ben Miller’s character, Richard Poole, was stabbed to death at the start of season 3, with his murder becoming the first case of the week for Kris Marshall’s incoming investigator.
Despite this untimely end, Miller made a return to the role a special dream-like appearance in 2021’s 10th anniversary series. Now, when speaking exclusively with RadioTimes.com, the actor has teased that another return could be on the cards in future.
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Asked whether he would return to the role if he was asked, Miller said: “Yeah, of course I would. It was wonderful to come back. I did come back as my character in season 10 earlier this year. I came back as a ghost, so I guess anything is possible. Don’t you worry, I’ll be struggling into that wool suit. I’ll be in that wool suit before you can say Harry.
It seems one reason Miller would be so keen to return to the show is how much he misses his character, Richard.
He said: “I’ve loved every character that I’ve played. I really miss Richard Poole from Death in Paradise. He’s a wonderful, wonderful character. And inevitably there’s a sort of sadness in me that I’m not going to get to play him again. You miss them.”
While speaking with RadioTimes.com Miller also gave his own thoughts on the upcoming Death in Paradise spin-off series, which sees his replacement as the original series’ lead detective, Kris Marshall’s Humphrey, return to crack cases in rural England.
He said of the spin-off, Beyond Paradise: “I just think it’s a brilliant idea. I think it’s a fantastic idea. And I think everyone misses the character of Humphrey and I think it’s a great idea to bring him back. It’s only right that Death in Paradise should get a spin-off series as well.
“It’s been so successful, so popular for over 10 seasons now. And it’s a world we want to explore a little more, isn’t it? I think people really underestimate how hard it is to write and create Paradise because it’s such an easy watch, you think it would be maybe easy to make, but it’s not.
“The easiest something is to watch, the harder it is to make. It’s very light in tone, they use the expression cosy crime, and everyone talks about cosy crime as if it was a thing that everyone knows about but before Death in Paradise, it didn’t really exist.”
Miller is currently starring as another detective in ITV’s Professor T, which is currently airing new episodes in its second season weekly.
Additional reporting by Abby Robinson.
Death in Paradise is available to watch on BBC iPlayer. Professor T continues on ITV on Friday 30th September at 9pm.
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