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Ralf Little joins us for the season finale chat for Death in Paradise 11x8! The actor talks all about the failed 'Floreville' romance between Neville and Florence, Neville's allergies, and the one thing he finds funny about the show...
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00:05in the death in paradise season 11 finale neville and his team must work out how a chess player
00:09was poisoned just by touching a piece on the board meanwhile neville decides whether he wants
00:14to start dating again while selwyn reunites with an important figure from his past now that season
00:1911 has come to a close we sat down with ralph little to talk all things samarie ralph thank
00:24you so much for joining us today it's a pleasure to have you my pleasure um obviously we're on the
00:30finale i feel like this season has gone so fast and things have gotten very queen's gambit
00:36yes they have with the chess mystery so i mean how did you find filming season 11 and what did
00:42you make of the finale i loved it absolutely loved it um i think um chantal is an amazing addition
00:47to
00:48the cast and she's wonderful of course it was sad to see josie leave um but she felt it was
00:53the right
00:53time but she's you know sadly missed we sadly missed when we were filming it sadly missed by
00:57um the audience as well and uh and me of course um but chantal is an amazing addition she's absolutely
01:03fabulous so um that's been fantastic the finale i thought it was a great one a particularly good
01:09episode you know we had a skydive this year um uh we had a you know boat last year and
01:14uh and a chess
01:15tournament you know who would think and yet it looks amazing that the the design of it was was
01:20fantastic we we ended up shooting in a hotel so we all had to decamp from what day hey where
01:25we
01:25normally stay and where the whole crew was kind of in this location and um i just think it's uh
01:30i
01:30just think it worked really well i think it's maybe one of my favorite episodes i think it's great
01:35it was a bit different as well like taj sort of we we spoke to him last week and he
01:39teased that it
01:39would be a bit different and it was because you kind of just like you all gathered to the one
01:43suspect
01:43which is weird in itself because normally it's very agatha christie vibes where you've got all the
01:47suspects gathered together but it was a bit of um change of pace yeah well the the new one you
01:53know the final scene where i i stand stand there and be like well it couldn't have been you because
01:57you had an alibi but then we found out that this and then you sort of go through them one
02:01by one
02:01um that as a as a formula as a of the genre works really really well but one of the
02:08things i think
02:08that this show does particularly well is always finds new ways to approach it and then like saying
02:12this one the formula was tweaked slightly so it was much more honed in on this one guy but i
02:17thought
02:17that the final twist of it as well was incredibly satisfying incredibly smart and one of the bits
02:21that annoys me is not annoying one of the bits always amuses me is that at the end i have
02:25to sort
02:25of nod to taj and say you know take him away arrest him and um and obviously that didn't happen
02:31this
02:31time and i thought it was really quite poignant um but it did mean that a lot of the time
02:36you know taj
02:37is is a slight fella you know he's not a big guy and sometimes he has to go taj take
02:42him away this
02:43giant suspect stands up and just see taj going come on then let's go so he was saved he was
02:48saved
02:48having to do that this time i wanted to ask as well about how you thought florence and neville's
02:53relationship ended because obviously everyone was rooting for them to get together were you a little
02:56disappointed that it didn't go down that road like what was your response to it i guess that the
03:01writers and and producers of the show they can't let him get they can't let him be too happy
03:06to be absolutely honest that's kind of i guess one of the formulas of the show i mean we're already
03:11talking about a guy who's lucky enough to go out there and live in this paradise literally called
03:15death in paradise like he has to have some hardship and you know he's managed to through with florence's
03:22help he's managed to overcome a lot of the difficulties that he that he had um uh he's not conquered
03:28them because they still exist but he's just decided he's gonna just you know roll with life and and
03:32and take it as it comes and it's a huge i think a really subtle and lovely journey that they
03:37that
03:37they that they wrote and i was lucky enough to play out once he got that sorted then you know
03:42i think
03:43for him to then find love with this extraordinarily charismatic and charming and intelligent and
03:48beautiful woman would have been a bit like oh come on now because the truth is i think once the
03:55detective and once neville in particular if he's too happy and he's too settled i i don't think
04:00as much as audiences as much as we feel that's what we want to see you know we're not going
04:05to
04:05want to enjoy watching a guy who's just having a great time every week like oh he's the luckiest
04:10man in the world he wanders around solving cases it's like uh so you know i i understand the choice
04:15i
04:15was sad for neville but um i understood it as a as a as a dramatic choice and i think
04:20it probably
04:20i think it was the right one so but yes love love being in the air i mean the you
04:25know the commissioner
04:26and all that mystery and how all that unraveled and that's that backstory that we have no idea about
04:32um it was it was it was beautiful actually and you you don't we haven't it's taken a while for
04:39us to
04:39kind of find out more about the commissioners a very enigmatic character played by a very enigmatic man
04:43and um and so to hear these little snippets of where he comes from and what is what his loves
04:51were including like romantically but also loves the island and is committed and devoted to his duty to
04:56the island and all that kind of thing um i i thought it was beautifully done and an amazing um
05:02an amazing angle and and narrative for the character and for don to listen don warrington is
05:08the most charismatic man in the world so for him to kind of show that and just be this sort
05:12of
05:12incredibly um charming and and soulful and insightful character that you don't
05:19really have often got to see from the commission that much i think i'm sure don really enjoyed
05:25playing that and sort of got to exercise his uh acting chops because he's a sensational actor
05:29and i thought it was beautifully done i honestly thought it was it was like watching my dad kiss
05:34someone on screen now i was like yeah it's like oh no yeah yeah it's my eyes commissioner can't do
05:42that he's a he's an authority figure he shouldn't have a personal life for goodness sake yeah i think
05:48he enjoyed it playing that i don't mean the kiss specifically that would be kind of creepy i think
05:53john enjoyed john enjoyed playing that role when i'm filming the show it always looks absolutely amazing
05:59obviously you're filming out in the caribbean like it looks incredible what's your favorite thing
06:03about filming swimming in the caribbean sea at lunchtime in between yeah not bad all right isn't
06:09it yeah it's a constant battle with the heat and a constant like costume department having to blow dry
06:14my shins if i've sweated through the trousers that's happened once by the way how mad is that
06:21we just need to get a hair dryer on those shins i'm like yeah that's what i want more heat
06:24there was definitely certainly one uh in that episode last year uh with jason manfred that episode
06:31it was so hot on that day on that terrace that the cameraman the cameraman would never usually say
06:38uh cut the camera operator would never usually say uh cut or can we just pause for a second
06:43but he's given a little bit of leeway on this show because he can see through the lens exactly what's
06:48going on and three or four times during the course of that long scene he'd be like sorry um we
06:54might
06:54want to get a sweat check because i was just pouring it was like i was underwater so i'm going
06:58and the reason that it couldn't have been you uh jonathan was because you stopped okay
07:04okay can we and then you'd carry on so you know it's not without its challenges but um
07:09the shack is is a a challenging place to film because you've got the heat you've got the sand
07:14you know this gets the camera lenses they have to be managed very very carefully um there's no air
07:19air conditioning in there the wind can sort of coming out off the off the sea the waves the sound
07:24of the waves is a technicality because if you're in the middle of a line and then a wave crashes
07:27over
07:27the line that's not usable for sound and etc etc etc but it's also right on on the sea on
07:34the beach so
07:35if you've got an hour for lunch which you sometimes do there's a fair few of us will bring our
07:40swimming
07:40kit and uh and we'll have lunch as quickly as we can and then you're swimming in the caravan sea
07:44going i wonder what other people are doing on that lunch break it's like pretty that's definitely a
07:49highlight i did want to ask um about neville's allergies in it because obviously when you started
07:55i think it was it was a it was a real i guess it was like we were new to
08:00the character we were getting
08:01to know him and i think it was like not pushed but you know it was a lot more present
08:05than maybe it
08:05has been in the last series do you think that's because he's sort of getting used to the island
08:09he's sort of i mean yeah like what what what was your response to that one of the things i
08:15think is
08:15a bit of a misconception about all all those allergies and stuff which i was always keen to
08:20dispel is he's not a hypochondriac sometimes people go oh he's a hypochondriac he's got this illness
08:25that but he's not uh we discussed this producers and the writer tonight right from the start the
08:31problems that he faces are very very real he does come out in rashes he does have terrible reactions
08:36to sand fly bites and get hospitalized it's not faking being in hospital yeah but the facts we we
08:44figured out that when he was younger when he was a kid and all of these things were present rather
08:49than doing what some people or a lot of people might do which is go i'll just live with it
08:53and
08:53maybe i'll grow out of them or maybe i'll you know it is what it'd take you roughly the smooth
08:59he started to live a life where it was like look um an example that we use was neville
09:03he's not a two-dimensional nerd neville might when he was young might be my level might be a decent
09:07footballer but he would never have gone out to play as a kid because he would be he would be
09:11too afraid
09:12of being allergic to the grass so that's that's that's a very that's a very neat illustration of what we
09:18were trying to do with him which is it's not that he like is incapable and it's not that he's
09:23like
09:23this pathetic loser who's always in trouble it's just like he had built a life that before he
09:28arrived in san marie where he just stopped taking any risks at all even the smallest risk he we had
09:34this idea of a character's life back in manchester is he has mates good mates um you know he's not
09:40a
09:40loner or anything but he can only meet his mates in one pub because he knows exactly what uh you
09:46know
09:46air freshener they use he knows exactly what they clean the seats with and it's not worth going to a
09:50different pub because it might just be too much hard work and so he built this life which was
09:54essentially a bubble or if like a sort of almost a prison of his own making because he got so
09:59used
09:59to going there's no there's too much hassle to try and do anything else so arriving in a caribbean
10:05island was this huge huge challenge for him genuinely physically it was a huge challenge for him but he
10:11had to break this psychology of going well i'm just not worth the risk anymore and that's where his
10:16relationship with florence was so so lovely and so born out so beautifully was that she was the one
10:22who really encouraged him to go look what's the point in living half a life you know come out and
10:27i'll help you and you try new things and he does try new things and to be honest more often
10:32not it
10:32goes horribly wrong and then he's got a you know comes out in a rash because he can't eat chili
10:35or
10:36but you know what he's trying to and he's he's now somebody who's like this island is full of
10:41challenges and a lot of hassle a lot of the time but you know what it's worth it because it's
10:46a full
10:46life that i'm living and and why do anything else thank you so much for joining us don't forget to
10:51like and subscribe and remember to head over to hellomagazine.com for more death in paradise content
10:56bye
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