Ralf in paradise

Ralf Little joins BBC crime drama Death in Paradise as Saint Marie’s latest detective

- EMMA BULLIMORE, CAREN CLARK

It’s been described as the best job on television and this week Ralf Little wins the golden ticket when he joins the cast of BBC1’s murder-mystery series Death in Paradise as the show’s new lead detective Neville Parker.

The Manchester cop is dispatched, somewhat reluctantly, to the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie in this week’s episode when a woman from his home city is murdered.

Little’s opening episode is a star-studded affair, with Steve Pemberton and Samantha Bond among the suspects. Chanel Cresswell plays victim Tamsin, who has been found dead in the bath, alongside a hairdryer, in a locked hotel bathroom.

The Royle Family actor Little takes over from Ardal O’Hanlon, who played DI Jack Mooney, and is the fourth actor to investigate murders on Saint Marie, following in the footsteps of Ben Miller’s Richard Poole and Kris Marshall’s Humphrey Goodman.

Little, who turns 40 on 8 February, guest-starred in a 2013 episode – playing a widowed murder suspect – and says he was thrilled to be asked back.