The boss of “Death in Paradise” reveals that the star turned down the lead role for love
Death in Paradise A famous comedian almost played the popular lead character of the first season, Detective Richard Poole.
The creator of the hit BBC drama series, Robert Thorogood, has revealed in a new interview that someone else was supposed to take on the role before Ben Miller was finally cast.
According to Thorogood, Peep show And Would I lie to you star David Mitchell was originally supposed to play DI Richard, but turned it down for a very special reason.
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Thorogood revealed why Mitchell ultimately did not travel to the Caribbean to film the show, explaining that the comedian gave up the opportunity for the sake of his love life.
“David was originally intended to be the lead actor in Death in Paradisesaid Thorogood in an interview with OK!. “When the show was greenlit, he was committed, but by that time he had already fallen in love with Victoria.
“He was, as you can imagine, very, very polite and said, ‘I’m really sorry, but I can’t go to the Caribbean for six months. I’ve just started dating Vicky Coren.'”
It seems that Mitchell made the right choice, as he married Victoria Coren Mitchell in 2012 and the couple now have two children together.
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“We were really lucky because Tony Jordan – one of the masterminds of the show – was keen to name it from the beginning Death in Paradise instead of naming the show after the detective,” Thorogood continued. “He said, ‘We have to make it so that even if the detective changes, we still have a show.'”
“When David said he couldn’t do it, it wasn’t that catastrophic. We were just looking for someone else to play an uptight, white, neurotic, middle-class, private-school-educated maniac, and we were very lucky to get Ben to do it. It worked out well.”
Death in Paradise and its spin-off, Beyond Paradiseboth broadcast on BBC One and streamed on BBC iPlayer.
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News Editor, Digital Spy
Emma is an experienced entertainment journalist with NCTJ accreditation and a first class honours degree in journalism. Having started her career as a broadcast journalist, Emma’s voice has been heard on various radio stations across the UK including Absolute, Magic, BBC Three Counties Radio, LBC London News and more.
Emma later specialised in multimedia entertainment news, coming into contact with numerous famous faces and interviewing the likes of Edward Norton, Margot Robbie, Sir Michael Palin, Rick Astley and countless soap stars. Having produced a range of exciting news content over the years for brands such as 7Digital’s Entertainment News, Yahoo and Express Online, Emma eventually joined Digital Spy as Deputy News Editor in 2022, becoming Acting News Editor in 2023 and News Editor in 2024.
While she has received much praise in celebrity interviews throughout her career, the most memorable compliment Emma ever received was when a game of Thrones Star remarked: “Your teeth are stunning!” LinkedIn
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