Christmas comes but once a year … unless you’re Ralf Little. The star of the ABC’s Death in Paradise filmed the now-traditional feature-length Christmas special back in May. And that’s not even the weirdest thing about it, he says.
“We’re filming on [the French Caribbean island of] Guadeloupe, so not only is the Christmas special done months beforehand but it’s bright sunshine and beaches. But with Christmas decorations. All of the cultural signals are wrong.”
When I point out to Little, who is British, northern and used to December being cold, that in Australia the Death in Paradise Christmas special will also go out at a time of sunshine and beaches, he makes the international hands-opening-out-by-temples sign for “that’s just blown my mind”.
“The thing is, it is a strange one to get your head around but the popularity of the previous Christmas specials we’ve done – this is my third – gives us the confidence to just kind of really lean into it and enjoy it for what it is. Or was. In May. I don’t know …”
He’s right — the Death in Paradise Christmas special has become a seasonal staple, trotting reliably from a discovered body via a knotty whodunit to the show’s sunny, satisfying conclusion. This year, in Little’s telling, promises to be no different.
“The puzzle revolves around a wealthy family. This entrepreneur is found at the bottom of a ravine and it looks like a suicide or an accident. The dead guy’s dying words were, ‘It’s behind you,’ which obviously is a nice nod to pantomime. And that’s the mystery.”
Except of course it’s never that simple in paradise. As DI Parker (Little), DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson), Officer Marlon Pryce (Tahj Miles) and Trainee Officer Darlene Curtis (Ginny Holder) set to work on the whos and hows of the dead body in the ravine, the entrepreneur’s visiting digital marketing guru, Debbie Clumson (Bronagh Waugh), a family friend who might or might not have been a witness, suddenly disappears.
“And then her other half Dave (Youssef Kerkour) comes over to just search the island for clues,” says Little. “And it all unwraps itself … like a delightful Christmas gift.”
A further nod to Christmas tradition comes in the form of Neville’s mum appearing on Saint Marie largely unannounced for a bit of family time.
“The fun stuff for the actors on Death in Paradise,” Little says, “is what’s going on with the characters. Neville’s still really not in a good place. He’s sort of given up on the idea of ever really finding love at all – like, he’s had a really rough ride of it with Florence [Cassell, Joséphine Jobert] and then Sophie, who was actually Rebecca [the aggrieved sister of a criminal Neville had imprisoned back in the UK who posed as his girlfriend], as we now know. So he’s not in a good place at all.”
Neville’s mother Melanie, played by Smack the Pony’s Doon Mackichan, is a social tornado – the polar opposite of her son.
“I was surprised too!” says Little. “You could be forgiven for thinking that she would be quite mother hen-ish, quite mollycoddling towards Neville, and that’s how he ended up being like he was, but actually it’s the exact opposite. She arrives on the island and takes the dating market by storm.”
Mackichan isn’t the only guest star for the Christmas Special: Patsy Kensit (EastEnders) and Geoff Bell (His Dark Materials) join an ever-growing list of actors who’ve made the trip to Guadaloupe for a few weeks of the TV industry’s most desirable work. Little – and before him Ardal O’Hanlon, Kris Marshall and Ben Miller – are the only constants as the show’s main detectives in a series that is closing in on 100 episodes.
“I’m like a tour guide for when they come,” says Little. “I’m always like, ‘Guys, first things first, get yourself a car because there’s so much to see.
Get around the island, these are the places you want to go, these are the nice restaurants, this is where you can see turtles, this is where you can scuba dive, this is a nice walk,’ you know, all of that kind of thing. It’s because I’m so proud of the island — it’s been my home for a long time.”
For the past four years, Little has spent six months of every 12 living on Guadeloupe, filming Death in Paradise.
“I sort of really have built a life there. Whether it’s a social circle or playing football, all the things that I love doing, I’ve really started from scratch. And I’ve loved every minute of it.”
Yet just as the series shows, even in paradise life is not without its challenges. Like staying in shape – Little says that the nearest, or rather only, gym is an hour’s drive each way (and there’s only one road.) The flip side is that life takes place at a different pace.
“You just sort of mentally change gear and relax into the rhythm of what that life is. Everything about this job, if you fight it, it can be really hard work. But if you just roll with the whole thing, it’s absolutely magical.”
Indeed, he says that living on Guadalupe has changed his whole outlook. Whereas once Little, who came to fame in his teens as Anthony on the classic Brit sitcom The Royle Family, would be fretting about where the next job was coming from, he says it’s impossible to be anything but easy-going when that’s what’s all around you.
“A lot of being an actor is having slight anxieties about it. I reckon even Brad Pitt still thinks, ‘What if this next film doesn’t go well?’ And managing the psychology of that is one of the biggest parts of being an actor.
But having this job, having a show that I enjoy doing that is really well received critically, that people really like and that I’m trusted to shoulder most of the responsibility for … yeah, it’s just put me in a really good headspace. I think I’m a lot more chilled now than I was when I started. It’s enjoyable, and it’s an adventure.”
