Death in Paradise: Ardal O’Hanlon returns as lead detective in brand new series

Death in Paradise is set to return to BBC One tonight for a hotly-anticipated seventh series, which will feature some familiar faces as well as some new ones.

The sun-soaked comedy drama is set to add some warmth to our screens as it is about a British police officer who gets sent to the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie to investigate a death but ends up becoming the senior detective on the local force.

Following Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman’s (Kris Marshall) departure from the show, Father Ted star Ardal O’Hanlon will take the reins as the newly appointed lead detective, DI Jack Mooney.

At the end of the last series viewers got a glimpse of DI Mooney in action but tonight we will see Jack claim his place as the show’s third lead detective.

The 52-year-old actor spent six months of last year filming season seven’s episodes in Guadeloupe, a French island in the southern Caribbean Sea which is also an archipelago of five islands.

The show is mainly shot in Deshaies, Basse-Terre, which doubles for the town of Honoré. Some scenes are filmed in the Fort Royal Hotel, and the DI’s ‘shack’ is built on La Perle beach – which is widely recognised as one of the most beautiful spots on the island.

Despite having an acting career that spans over 20 years, Ardal admits he feels very nervous about the show airing and he still doubts whether he is the right man for the job.

And who can blame him, as the over the past six series, the show has pulled in 9.1 million viewers to cement its position as one of BBC One’s highest rating midweek dramas.

During an interview with Ardal in Jack’s Shack, the beachside hut where his character lives in Guadeloupe’s Plage de la Perle beach, he said: “I have no idea if I am the man for the job, I just enjoy it.

“I’ve never seen it in terms of the pressure, that side of things have never bothered me that much. I always think just be honest with yourself and do your best.”

He continued: “The BBC cast me and I don’t know why, if it all goes terribly wrong it won’t be my fault. Someone came up to me and said comparison is the enemy of joy, so comparing stuff to other stuff is just dead luck.”

As the clock strikes 9pm tonight, Ardal revealed he will not be joining the legions of fans and viewers watching the show. Speaking to Yahoo! he said: “I will eventually but once the episode comes out I’ll be hiding for dust, you won’t see me for two months, once all the dust settles.

“I have always been subconscious about being in the public eye. Where I come from in Ireland, showing off is one of the worst things you can do.”

Ardal remained tight-lipped on any spoilers but he did give us a teaser on what to expect from tonight’s episode. “It’s a great first episode and we have a good guest cast, everything isn’t as it seems. There’s a suicide from a wealthy family dynasty and Jack doesn’t really like the family that much,” he explained.

Joining DI Mooney in his quest to find out whodunit is his capable sidekick Sergeant Florence Cassel, who is played by French actress Josephine Jobert. Josephine has given her new co-star her seal of approval as the new lead of the show and says their characters have a blossoming connection.

She said: “Ardal is such a sweet person and we get on together in real life, so I think we can see it on the screen. His character is so sweet, very funny and I think the two characters go well together.”

Florence really wants him to feel good and she knows how fickle it is to be the new detective because she’s been in this position before so she helps him to get on with the team.”

The star’s only complaint about her co-star is his strong Irish accent, she said: “Sometimes his accent is a bit hard to understand and I think he knows so every time he talks to me he tries to talk slowly.

“I have people in the crew whose accents I still don’t understand even after a couple of years of working on the show.”

The show’s other loveable characters set to reprise their roles are Dwayne Myers (Danny John-Jules), JP Hooper (Tobi Bakare) and Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington).

Talking about the show’s ongoing success, Tobi said: “I think this show is like a holiday for a lot of people, it comes on at the right time of the year, Guadeloupe’s beautiful and the show is a family show.

“There are a lot of shows that have a similar format to Death in Paradise but this show is set in the Caribbean and it doesn’t take itself too seriously.”

He added: “The characters are allowed to be colourful and free and the culture of this island being ingrained into a murder mystery attracts people to watch it. We have so many tourists coming to Guadeloupe because they see not just the beauty of the island but the people and its culture.”

Meanwhile, Danny John-Jules spoke of his character’s ‘frustrating’ relationship with DI Jack Mooney.

He said: “Dwayne’s relationship with the detective is based around frustration because he finds it tedious that he has to explain the basics of life to this nomad of an Englishman swanning around the Caribbean. “At first Dwayne is like ‘what is this guy doing here, we we’re happy before he came’.

“There’s always tension between Dwayne and the detective because he sees himself above him in his head, not in education but in a life university. Dwayne feels like he’s got the BA in life’s university where Jack has the qualifications and the training. Dwayne thinks he’s schooling him and that makes it funny.”

Don Warrington, who plays Commissioner Selwyn Patterson, predicts his character might loosen his stiff upper lip during season seven.

He said: “I think Selwyn has different experiences, I think that he develops in that way in that he will depurate situations that maybe Selwyn isn’t use to. I supposed the fun will be how he deals with that.”

Death in Paradise airs on BBC One at 9.00pm on Thursday January 4th