Don Gilet on what to expect from new Death in Paradise detective
And so the island of Saint Marie has its new lead detective. Or does it..?
In last night's Death in Paradise Christmas special, visiting British cop DI Mervin Wilson (Don Gilet) agreed to stay on and investigate its latest harrowing crime. Namely, the murder of Santa.
In fact, two Santas. But Mervin insisted he’d be leaving once he’d cracked the case. Saint Marie was not for him. From its slow pace of life to its “well dodgy” mobile reception, everything about it annoyed him.
Of course, we all know what’s coming: Mervin won’t be flying home anytime soon. We’ll play along with the pretence that he might (as last night’s credits rolled, he still hadn't agreed to stick around) but we know it’s just a matter of time.
Come the new series, Mervin will officially become DI Neville Parker’s replacement.
And are we happy with that? Is Gilet's character the man for the job? His predecessors had a scattiness that made them seem endearingly vulnerable. Our first impression of Mervin? Just plain rude. Could we ever warm to him?
Remember, those who’ve previously played Saint Marie’s lead detective — Ben Miller, Kris Marshall, Ardal O'Hanlon, Ralf Little — have comic acting backgrounds. Gilet doesn’t, unless we count EastEnders.
So when Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington) suggested a more suitable replacement was on stand-by (Alan Carr, perhaps? Michael McMcIntyre?) it did indeed sound as though this character’s stay would be brief.
But then, of course, the real Mervin started to emerge. Turned out he wasn’t just a holidaymaker. He'd come to Saint Marie to find the mother he’d never met. Too late, sadly.
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But at least we now know that he’s more than just a grouch. That bodes well. It helps, too, that he's started to adapt to the island’s ways. Most importantly, he’s met Harry the lizard, every lead detective’s closest pal.
Almost as important, he didn't just make an arrest the boring way, as he would back home.
“We tend to do things a little differently here,” Commissioner Patterson explained — a nice in-joke about the Poirot-style grand reveal that traditionally concludes each episode.
“There's no great rush for you to leave,” he then added. “I think you might make a good fit.”
I think Commissioner Patterson is right. He usually is.
