Death in Paradise
An archaeological dig turns deadly for an academic in Saint Marie…
THURSDAY 14 January, 9pm BBC1 Drama
The poisoning of top archaeologist Professor Roger Harkness (Richard Mccabe) means DI Neville Parker and the team must dig deep to find clues. Among those who could help them are the professor’s timid assistant Rebecca, played by former Call the Midwife star Bryony Hannah, and PHD student Ed, portrayed by The Musketeers and Our Girl actor Luke Pasqualino.
But should they really be suspects?
Academics from a British university come to Saint Marie to conduct an archaeological study this week, but they find themselves
under investigation when Professor Roger Harkness, who’s leading the dig, collapses and dies.
Neville and Florence discover that Professor Harkness wasn’t much liked by Assistant Professor Rebecca Morley (Call the Midwife’s Bryony Hannah) or PHD student Ed Lancer (Our Girl’s Luke Pasqualino), after he’d dismissed Rebecca’s ideas and threatened to get Ed kicked out of the university – but did either of them plot to make him history?
‘The set for this case is amazing,’ says Joséphine Jobert, who plays Florence. ‘You believe it’s a real archaeological site – it’s really cool!’
Meanwhile, Neville reluctantly upholds his promise to embrace island life by taking part in a cooking competition as part of Saint Marie’s annual crab festival. Florence is on hand as his sous-chef, and helps Neville work through his phobia of crustaceans.
Facing fears
However, off-screen, it was Joséphine who had to take on her fears…
‘I’m terrified of spiders, and anything with legs that looks like spiders,’ admits the star. ‘I got an email saying, “Joséphine, can you read this scene and tell us if you feel comfortable with it?” – I have to hold a crab in my hand. I was shaking, but I said, “OK, I’ll do it” – although I asked if I could have a bit of a rehearsal, and meet the crabs before!
‘The first time the crab men came on set to show me the crabs, I literally cried of terror. But I succeeded – we did the scene and everything was fine! Although the crabs run very, very fast, so the crew were running after them, trying to get them back in their box – it was so funny!’