Ere murder is magic
t, do the show, they just want to do it for the fun of it. They bring out the best in you.”
He adds, tellingly: “But let’s face it, for the guest stars, it’s a jolly. For me, it’s very annoying because I’m stuck there for five-and-a-half months!”
Two episodes are shot every five weeks, he reveals. They try to do it in sequence
“but it doesn’t always work out like that. So for your typical guest actor they might be here for one to three weeks. They might only be in it for three or four days’ shooting, too.”
Clearly they’re not suffering for their art with Death In Paradise. But they can’t appear in it twice. Or can they?
“I had this great idea,” Ardal tells me, “for a ‘super’ episode like a Celebrity Death In Paradise in which you would bring back your favourite guest stars who would be suspects in another murder. That would be possible. I think it would be brilliant.
“From last year, I’d like to see Simon Callow, Nigel Planer, Sian Gibson and one other. There could be a ballot for the fourth and then bring back all three detectives and we solve it together. It’s good, isn’t it? The BBC should listen to me more often!”
Jack is settling into island life, he reveals, doing things such as crab racing. “It is a real thing,” Ardal insists.
“There is a fantastic scene in one of the episodes. I, too, thought they were making it up. But when we went to shoot, it was like cock fighting for some of the older folk. The crabs are numbered and have to run out of a circle. Everyone was going mad.”
WITH ALL that excitement in this fictional paradise, it’s good to hear there’s a downside. “I don’t like to complain,” he says, “because people just won’t take it. They think we’re having a great time out there. But it is too hot; too humid. The weather is also very temperamental. So there are lots of difficulties with filming.
“There is a full-time team of people who cool you down. The big one, and the main tip for anyone going there, is to dip a bit of chamois leather in ice and, when you get a minute, put it around your neck. Stays cold for half an hour. Or use big, industrial fans!
“There’s a lot of new clothes, too, changing out of those soaked with perspiration. That’s to keep the ‘fantasy’ of paradise, if you like. It’s not like a Graham Greene novel where it’s all sweat.”
He stays in a house, not a hotel. “It’s a five-and-a-half month block. There’s no time to fly back. It’s tough! OK, there is a break in the middle for a week but it’s not enough time to go back. My family do come, though, for a six-week break in the middle of it.
“To be honest, I’ve loved it and you do get into the rhythm. The family come to the set now and then but mostly go off on wonderful adventures and get to know the marine life! But there are now loads of British tourists here, just because of Death In Paradise.”
We talk about the wonderful 1990s comedy Father Ted, in which he memorably played Father Dougal. He recalls: “It just had a real charm about it and a childish quality, which is good. I think because they’re priests and they’re on a remote island, it doesn’t date.
“But the writers were clever in that they made it physical, like a visual cartoon.
There are pop culture references, like Sinead O’Connor, but not too many. My favourite episode is Speed III, the one on the milk float!
“It was, yes, the most fun I’d ever had doing a series. There was also a little feeling that we were on to something. Nobody knew it was going to fly but as we were doing it we thought it was funny and it turned out well.”
And the current state of sitcom? “I do think that since The Office there has been a move away from having the live studio audience, so there’s more concentration on character rather than the gag count. It’s coming up with a good idea. But it’s the holy grail if you can come up with one.”
There’s little doubt that Death In
Paradise has some of that magical quality.
‘I can’t reveal who’s in this series but I can say in one single episode there are three household names. THREE!’
Death In Paradise, BBC One, Thursday, 9pm