PARADISE MAKES MY EYES WATER

Ralf Little is sunning himself on a balcony overlooking a pristine beach and a turquoise sea when I catch up with him over Zoom, but it’s fair to say he appreciates just how lucky he is to have landed the role of DI Neville Parker (left).

‘My friends are all furious with me,’ he admits. ‘My brother and sister are both working hard in the NHS in the middle of a pandemic while I’m here in the Caribbean, so I know how much harder everything is for people at home.’

Ralf, 40, played a suspect in

the second series of the show, but landing the lead part is his biggest role since he played mouthy teenager Antony in The Royle Family. Neville was sent to the island from Manchester after the mysterious death of a Mancunian woman. He solved that crime quickly enough, but then found himself stuck on the island with deep-vein thrombosis – he’s a chap who’s always got some sort of health problem. Ralf can empathise.

‘There’s something out here that I really am allergic to –

I’m still not sure what – so our on-set medic has to have antihistamines for me,’ he says. ‘Dogs are one of my issues too, and there are lots of strays on the island – we’ve actually rescued two of them. I can’t resist patting them but then my eyes start streaming. Neville still has lots of issues; he comes out in hives if he eats the wrong foods and has a nasty reaction to sandflies, but this series is about him learning to deal with his weaknesses.

‘I think that’s one of the keys to the show’s success, that the detective arrives broken or incomplete in some way. The process of being on the island heals them to the degree that by the time they leave, they are more rounded individuals.’