Death In Paradise star breaks silence on show replacement amid exit fears

04 February 2024 , 20:00

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Ralf Little - who plays DI Neville Parker - has opened up about his time on Death In Paradise so far (Image: BBC / Red Planet Pictures / Denis Guyenon)

Ralf Little has opened up about his future on Death In Paradise amid the new series.

Neville is returning to lead the Saint Marie police team and they have a big task to start with when the Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) is assassinated as he celebrates 50 years in the police force. Of course everyone is worried for Selwyn and if he will be alright, but Neville star Ralf has opened up about his future on the show after he became the longest running detective in the BBC drama show.

Neville and his team must crack even more cases this season (BBC / Red Planet Pictures / Denis Guyenon)

Speaking in an Instagram Q&A session, he said: "I don’t know. I have no idea, I’m not gonna swerve answering the question. I don’t know. I don’t know which direction they’re gonna go in. I have honestly no idea and they haven’t told me. Maybe they had no idea yet. I, like the rest of you, are going to be just sitting and asking, ‘Who’s next?’ Who knows?' No idea. But we’ll see what happens."

Ralf had also teased what fans can expect from the new series, as he warned more "challenges" are ahead for the team. "We’re going to try and pick up with the tone of the end of last year. We really tried to push the boat out in series 12. It was not just a mystery every week and solving the mystery and moving on, but really trying over the course of a series really trying to find challenges for the main characters, to try and find things for them to overcome, emotional things," he said.

Discussing the prison scenes, which saw Neville arrested for murder, he added of his character being framed: "We took a bit of a leap with that last year and it worked out really well and people seemed to really enjoy it and we felt that we made a really good show, so there’s going to be more of that this year and more challenges for the characters."

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Asked how Neville is coping after Sophie's betrayal last series, he shared: "With difficulty. He's obviously very hurt and bruised by it and mistrustful of people. The concept of romance and love has left him extremely jaded.

"He feels like maybe it's just not for him and that for some people, it just doesn't work for them. We join him this series very much feeling like he's one of those people and this is all just something he should give up on or he'll get hurt again. He’s broken by the whole experience and ready to give up on the idea of loving in any way at all."

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Jasmine Allday