Death in Paradise is finally solving its ‘white saviour’ problem

And so, the guessing game is finally over. Ever since it was announced that Ralf Little was leaving Death in Paradise after four years on the show, speculation has been rife about the likely replacement for DI Neville Parker on BBC One’s sun-kissed cosy crime drama.

Toby Jones (Detectorists, Mr Bates vs The Post Office), The Inbetweeners’ Simon Bird, Motherland’s Diane Morgan, Romesh Ranganathan (as if he wasn’t already busy enough) and even Miranda Hart have all been rumoured to be jetting out to the Caribbean as filming resumes on Guadeloupe this spring.

If these suggestions have been unsurprising, it’s because all the above-named have a proven track record as comedy actors. And that has always been the successful template for the show; Little followed Ardal O’Hanlon (Father Ted), Kris Marshall (My Family) and Ben Miller (Armstrong and Miller). It is therefore quite a big turn up for the books that Little’s replacement has been named as Don Gilet, the 57-year-old actor probably best known for playing a serial killer in EastEnders.

Read Next

No peril, no stakes, no stress: how Death in Paradise put life into cosy crime

Television

How Death in Paradise put the life back into cosy crime

Read More

Viewers identifying Gilet with Albert Square’s evil preacher Lucas Johnson will certainly have to readjust as the actor now runs around solving murders instead of committing them. His character, DI Mervin Wilson, will make his debut in a feature-length Christmas special later this year, before a brand-new series in January 2025.

The BBC press release says that the character “arrives on the idyllic island and isn’t overly pleased with his new surroundings”. No surprise there, because none of his predecessors have exactly taken an immediate shine to tropical island life. Neville Parker was of course allergic to sun, mosquitoes and sand, while Ben Miller’s Richard Poole insisted on wearing his suits despite the tropical heat.

“Being offered the new lead role in Death in Paradise feels like a deeply loved and incredibly precious jewel has been placed in my hand,” Gilet says. And he’s right to feel nervous. After all, the show not only remains hugely popular in Britain but also in 230 territories worldwide.

Ralf Little as DI Neville Parker in ‘Death in Paradise’ (Photo: BBC)

And while he will be a familiar face to many, he is arguably not such a big name as his predecessors. That may be to his advantage, as he won’t be packing any baggage when he flies to Guadeloupe. Ralf Little, after all, had to shake off viewers’ familiarity with such distinctive, high-profile roles as Antony in The Royle Family and Jonny in Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps.

Gilet is however an extremely versatile actor, and arguably a subtler performer than his predecessors. His roles have ranged from such stalwart BBC shows as Casualty, Silent Witness and a two-year stint in Holby City to social-issue dramas as Babyfather (2001) and the latest Jason Statham action movie, The Beekeeper.

And he is not without comedy chops. After all, his two earliest TV credits are for the beloved Channel 4 barber shop sitcom Desmond’s and Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis’s 90s sketch show The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show. Personally, I’m fascinated in discovering his approach to a role that usually demands a certain fish-out-of-water goofiness. After all, Death in Paradise is deeply formulaic.

But perhaps the most radical departure in casting Gilet is that the Walsall-born actor is not white. A common criticism of Death in Paradise concerns its racial dynamics and how it blindly aligns with the “white saviour” trope – that the police station in Saint Marie may be staffed by brown-skinned Caribbean locals, but it takes a white man to provide the deductive genius to actually solve the crimes.

And the black characters constantly deferring to the white detective, calling him “sir” while they are largely reduced to the grunt work, has prompted criticism that the show is subtly perpetuating unconscious racism and reasserting notions of colonial hierarchy. It’s good that BBC are finally listening.

When I asked the show’s executive producer, Tim Key, about this earlier in the year, he replied that “obviously the world has changed a lot since the show was first commissioned and the show will evolve to move with the times”. The casting of Don Gilet would seem to be exactly that.