ON SET WITH... Ardal O’Hanlon

Father Ted star Ardal took over from Kris Marshall as the fish-out-of-water detective near the end of the last series of Death In Paradise. This year Ardal, 52, is back as DI Jack Mooney for the entire season. Here he takes us behind the scenes on the show’s Guadeloupe set.

6 MONDAY

Death In Paradise goes out in the winter when people are at their lowest – they’ve no money left after Christmas and they’ve broken all their resolutions. Then they watch this and the sun is shining and there’s nothing too taxing – just good oldfashioned murder. It feels strange that this is now my job, as I was a big fan of the show before. I think changing the lead character every few years (before Kris, Ben Miller was the main detective) hasn’t done the show any harm – viewers love it for what it is.

7 TUESDAY

One of the things that’s difficult about being here is working in the heat. Kris gave me some invaluable advice, which was to try and do the harder scenes in the morning when it’s not quite so hot. It can be a long day and we often film inside with no air conditioning, which can be stifling. So in between scenes I find a dark corner and take off my clothes – except for my underwear – and I just kind of go into myself, imagining I’m turning my internal organs off and zoning out until I’m needed again. It seems to work.

8 WEDNESDAY

Today I’m filming with Joséphine Jobert, who plays DS Florence Cassell [right]. We end up in one of the island’s original coffee plantations. It’s stunning – you can see whales from the garden overlooking the sea – but there are huge, hairy spiders everywhere. People swear they aren’t dangerous but I have to admit I’m afraid.

9 THURSDAY

My family are staying with me at the moment – I have three children between 15 and 20 – and they’re huge fans of the show. They also love the lifestyle here. The internet doesn’t work half the time so you have to put your devices away and get out into the sea or the rainforest. My kids are different people when they’re here. I can see why it was harder for Ben and Kris [who both left because their young children were starting school] to be away from their children, and I feel blessed that mine are old enough to love me doing this job – they’d be very upset if I left.

10 FRIDAY

Every week we have some fantastic guest stars who come out for a fortnight. This year’s cohort includes Simon Callow, Denis Lawson, Mark Benton and Sian Gibson. They all bring a tremendous enthusiasm and it helps to keep that energy burning for the rest of us. I enjoy showing them around the island and introducing them to the local punch. We always test each other to see who’s guessed the culprit in the scripts. I haven’t managed to do it yet – I’m obviously not a very good detective in real life.