If Death In Paradise goes belly up blame the BBC and not me, says Ardal O’Hanlon
IT is every man’s dream job – six months on a Caribbean island, with an endless supply of rum and a beautiful French actress for company.
But Ardal O’Hanlon does not look like someone ready to kick back and relax. In fact, he looks a little stressed.
That is because he has taken on one of the highest-profile roles in telly as DI Jack Mooney in Death In Paradise.
The hit BBC crime drama — known simply as “Paradise” to fans — has become a huge success story, pulling in around nine million viewers to put it in the same league as blockbuster dramas Doctor Foster and Liar.
Comedian Ben Miller originally fronted the primetime show for three series as Brit detective Richard Poole.
But it was Love Actually and My Family favourite Kris Marshall who really put the drama on the map.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun in Guadeloupe — which doubles as the fictional Saint Marie — he said: “I have no idea if I’m the man for the job, I just enjoy it.
“That side of things has never bothered me that much. I always think if you’re honest and do your best . . .
“I think the BBC are very happy but you can never be quite sure about what the audience will feel.
“Especially when it’s a show that they treasure and the audiences are the real owners of the show.
“It’s completely up to them to decide. You just hope that they’re going to like what we’re doing.
“That we haven’t messed with the show in any radical way. Hopefully my character will fit in seamlessly.
“The BBC cast me, I don’t know why, it’s their fault if it goes horribly wrong, not my fault.” Far from being able to ease into the role, Ardal instead found himself filming amid Hurricane Irma, which ravaged the neighbouring islands of Barbuda, St Martin and Anguilla in September.
Ardal said: “Some of us have visited those islands and are very fond of those places.
“You can’t take these things lightly and when you’re actually in it, you’re indoors, you’ve got the shutters down. You can hear it all going on outside.
“It’s a surreal experience, there’s no doubt about it.
“Then there’s the slight uncertainty you’re not quite sure about what you’re going to face the next day.
“Whether you’re going to be able to work, whether the roads are going to be impassable, whether the electricity is going to be working. The whole thing was kind of bizarre.”
Like the island detectives that have gone before him, DI Mooney works alongside a trusted female sidekick.
For Ardal, it is DS Florence Cassell, played by Parisian actress and singer Josephine Jobert since series four in 2015.
Ardal says the pair clicked straight away when they met last year ahead of filming the episodes after Kris’s departure.
He said: “When I first met Josephine, way before we started doing the last series, we hit it off instantly.
“I really like her, she’s a lovely person to begin with, so it was really easy to work with her.
“She’s just so enthusiastic about the show. She’s so hard-working and really wants it to work. She made me feel very welcome.
“I instantly liked her. She can be quite shy and reserved, so it does take a bit of time to get to know her well.”
Ardal reckons it is unlikely DI Mooney will become romantically involved with his colleague, given that his character is still mourning his wife.
He said: “I don’t think he’s quite ready for it yet.
“He’s one of those characters who has probably been looked after by women all his life.
“By his wife, probably his mother before then, by his daughter and now he’s on his own and learning how to do things for himself.”
Gazing out on to the beach, Ardal confesses he has hardly had time to miss his own wife, Melanie, and their three teenage children back home since arriving in May.
Speaking from Jack’s Shack, the beachside hut where his character lives, comedian Ardal explained: “You’ve so much to get through every day, you’re working with so many different people that you don’t have time to pine or grieve.
“This job is all-consuming. When you’re here, you don’t have time to make a phone call mostly.
“You don’t have time to write an email or certainly not write a joke. I’ve neglected huge areas of my life.” Luckily, Ardal’s daughter and sons can enjoy the fruit of his epic gig with him.
He added: “They came out for two months. They love the show.
“They’re very happy that I’m in it so for them it’s a great kick, the whole thing. They get as much out of it as I do.
“For me, it’s a great opportunity to live a slightly different life for a while.
“It’s fantastic really. I live a very humdrum life in a little suburb in Dublin.
“It’s very enjoyable and I like my home and my life but I mean it’s just nice to be somewhere else and be someone different for a while.”
The actor, whose dad Rory was an MP and minister in the Irish parliament from the late-Seventies until 2011, came through the showbiz ranks as a stand-up comedian.
Starting out in Dublin in the early Nineties, he was spotted by Father Ted creator Graham Linehan in 1995 and shot to fame when he was cast as Father Dougal McGuire in the Channel 4 sitcom.
Ardal admits he “had no idea” the show would become such a success and said: “I suppose I knew it was good, although I never trust my own instincts. But I had no idea it was going to be so enduring.”
The new series of Paradise will be Ardal’s biggest mainstream show since he starred in BBC1 sitcom My Hero. The comedy ran for five series before Ardal stepped down and was replaced by The Thin Blue Line’s James Dreyfus.
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Ardal is hoping he has done enough to secure another series filming in the Caribbean but the decision will be very much in the public’s hands.
Not that he is going to check his Twitter feed to gauge how his star debut goes down.
He said: “I’ll be really anxious when it comes out.
“I’ll go and hide for those two months, January and February — you won’t see me for dust.
“I’ll be hiding away until all the fuss is over.”
Death In Paradise starts on BBC1 on Thursday, January 4 at 9pm.