Ralf Little will never forget the call from his agent. “My other half and I had pulled up in a car park on the west coast of Ireland. I was standing in the rain when I was told they wanted me to be the new detective in Death in Paradise. I was banging on the windscreen, trying not to shout it out loud, waving at my girlfriend inside the car, ‘I got it, I got it!’ You could say I was really delighted.” Then he phoned his mum. “She said, ‘I’m so pleased, I’m really proud of you.’ She then called back two minutes later and warned me not to ruin it.”
She had no need to worry. With a Christmas special on Boxing Day and Little’s third series beginning on 6th January, his character DI Neville Parker is now the longest-serving expat British cop to be trapped on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie. “That doesn’t particularly mean anything,” he says, humbly. “It’s just nice to have been accepted by the public in a role that means such a lot to people.”
The Christmas special was shot in Guadeloupe at the end of May. “It’s not an unusual thing in the industry to have to don your Christmas jumpers and party hats at the wrong time of the year,” Little, 42, reflects. “But there’s always something psychologically heartbreaking about picking up one of the presents the props department have left under the tree and realising it’s empty. And the beautiful bright sunshine takes a little bit of getting used to. Christmas is dark nights, chillier weather and cosy houses.”
And sprouts, if DI Parker has anything to do with it (“I’m with him on that,” says Little, “and my mum’s gravy is a must”), but that is merely an intriguing subplot. “The Christmas episode is like a slightly eerie ghost story in a vaguely Dickensian style. There are some spooky goings-on the gang has to try to explain but Neville, of course, is a cynic. It’s got that lovely, let’s-huddle-on-the-sofa vibe, and Les Dennis is magnificent as the psychic. I think people will love it.”
The new series, he promises, will also not disappoint. “There are a couple of surprises. It’s Neville’s most challenging time on the island yet. He has to deal with things that he never thought he would have to.”
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Stopping a runaway jet ski, however, is unlikely to be one of them. “This is the one downside about playing Neville,” says Little. “All the stuff he hates doing is all the stuff I love doing. I can’t wait to get on a jet ski and go scuba diving, but I have to pretend to be scared when really I’m thinking, ‘Please let me go faster!’”
Not that he’s complaining. As with faking Christmas, he says, “It’s all for the art.” But do mince pies in May mean that his Christmas is already half-done?
“No, not at all. I’m looking forward to it. It’s all about family for me. We’ll get together, exchange gifts, hang out and cook nice food. We don’t really get to see each other that often, especially with me being away filming Death in Paradise for six months of the year. It’s an opportunity to reconnect with my family and remind them what I look like.”
The Death in Paradise 2022 Christmas special will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 9pm on Boxing Day, 26th December, with previous episodes available to stream on BBC iPlayer.
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