What’s in store for 2022
Covid-19 has kept Ralf Little away from England for the last year and a half and restricted him to the Caribbean island where Death in Paradise is filmed and the Florida home of his American fiancee.
Coming back to see his family for Christmas stirred strong feelings about his homeland.
“It’s horrible,” says Ralf. “I hate to say this, but I’m over it. I’m from Manchester so grew up in the cold, wet and drizzle. I was back two days and was like, ‘this sucks’. I‘ve been away for 18 months and not been cold.
“As I was flying in to Heathrow I looked out the window and as far as I could see, stretching out across the horizon, was thick cloud.”
Oldham-born Ralf, 41, is only halfjoking but has been spoiled. He knows the Death in Paradise lead as DI Neville Parker is a plum role.
“It’s the best job in TV,” he says. “Not just in terms of location, because Guadeloupe is wonderful. But the show itself has become pretty iconic.
“In the space of an hour we get a puzzle and a murder which are fully resolved, along with a red herring and a couple of twists. And you’ve got however many main characters who all have interplaying relationships and their own foibles and challenges to overcome.
“If you think of pretty much every other detective show, they have at least 90 minutes to get that done. I think being part of the show is a huge treat for me and kind of an honour.”
Fans of the series, which attracts eight million viewers in the UK and is sold to more than 90 countries, are desperate to know if Neville and Sgt Florence Cassell, played by Josephine Jobert, 36, become a couple.
In the Christmas special, Neville finally confessed his feelings on a Zoom call. But just as he laid his heart bare, her video froze.
“Neville is really taking the plunge because Florence is much more in touch with her emotions and able to articulate them than he is,” says Ralf.
“Generally it’s the same in America, where if people have feelings for each other they just tell that person and ask them for a date.
“But in England, everyone knows that if you have feelings for someone what you’re supposed to do is never mention it for 10 years and then hope that maybe one day you might both be drunk at the same time, have an accidental snog and try to take it from there.
“So Neville taking the plunge the way he did was a huge deal for him. But because Florence froze on Zoom, now he’s thinking, ‘do I have to do this again?’ He doesn’t quite know how much she heard or didn’t hear.
“So the whole thing plays out slightly agonisingly. We’ve filmed it all and although I can’t tell you anything, we definitely reach a resolution.”
Ralf ’s real-life relationship with his playwright fiancee Lindsey Ferrentino is coloured with culture chasms even during everyday activities like having dinner with her American family.
“There are loads of cultural differences between us.
Hundreds of them,” he says. “One winds me up even talking about it because is the maddest thing I’ve ever seen.
“They have a knife in the right hand and fork in the left. They cut themselves a mouthful, then they put their knife down on the table to switch hands so their fork goes from their left to their right hand, and eat the food off the fork. “Then they start the whole process again. It’s the most convoluted, ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. “I’m like, ‘why are you guys doing that?’ They say,
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