Death in Paradise star details 'problem' with iconic detective's heartbreaking exit

Death in Paradise creator Tony Jordan has opened up about why Ben Miller's exit from the BBC series was a "problem". Ben played the show's first-ever detective DI Richard Poole and at the beginning of the third series, he was killed off.

DI Poole was murdered with an ice pick by one of his old university friends, and he even managed to solve his own murder with the help of his replacement, Humphrey Goodman (played by Kris Marshall).

In a short BBC documentary about Death in Paradise, creator Tony spoke with Don Warrington, who plays the Commissioner about the drama's success and the detectives so far.

When speaking about the format of the long-running series, Tony began: "There was a lot of humour within the format, and the problem with that sometimes is that you don't want that to be forced, you want it to be natural, you don't want them to come out of character and you don't want it to be slapstick.

"And so by using actors that had comedy bones, they could do it almost effortlessly.

"They could do it within character because they understood how that humour worked, and I think that if we had chosen the wrong actor originally and they overplayed, 'the sand is too hot', it wouldn't have worked.

"And the real challenge, of course, was changing the detectives. That was the original concept with Ben, was that there's so much humour here we needed somebody who can handle it and Ben Miller could."

After playing a clip of Ben's character with the Commissioner in the show, Tony discussed the character's heartbreaking exit.

He continued: "And then of course the problem came when Ben wanted to leave and we had to find a replacement because we couldn't just do the zipped-up suit, shirt, tie, and briefcase anymore, but we knew we needed somebody with funny bones, which was obviously Kris."

Kris Marshall played Humphrey until 2017 and was replaced by Ardal O'Hanlon, who played loveable Jack Mooney.

After DI Mooney left Saint Marie, he was replaced by the show's latest detective Ralf Little, who bowed out of the series after playing the longest-standing DI, Neville Parker.

Filming for the upcoming series is well underway and will see Ralf's predecessor Don Gilet replacing him as the lead detective.

Chatting to Radio Times back in 2014 about the reason he decided to leave the show, Ben explained: "I arrived out here for the first series and within a few weeks my wife Jessica discovered she was pregnant.

"That threw everything because it meant she couldn't come and visit me for the six months I was out here. During the second series, my son Sonny was starting school – your first year of school is so important – and I did think about him coming over here but I'm divorced from his mum, and it wasn't very practical.

"Then when I came back, I picked up my baby son Harrison and he started crying because he didn't know who I was. My personal circumstances just made it too complicated, but I will miss it like a lung. I love it here."

Death in Paradise is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.