Kris Marshall stepped into big, sand-filled boots when he replaced Ben Miller in the lead role in the BBC’s ratings juggernaut tropical crime caper ‘Death in Paradise’.
However, it seems Kris Marshall is in for the long haul, telling HuffPostUK he could himself in the role of DI Humphrey Goodman “see myself doing this for ten years”.
He explains: “The show is bigger than me. It’s one of those shows that has and can survive cast changes. If it does, then – could I see myself doing this for ten years? Yes.
“But other constraints come into play. It’s a long time away from family, real life gets in the way sometimes. The show’s bigger than me, obviously. We’ll see. How long is a piece of string?”
The show, a perennial hit for the BBC when its blue skies, palm trees and rum are aired to the British public in the winter months, is now in its sixth series, and Kris says this is his favourite year yet.
“It would be easy to rest on its laurels and we are constrained to a certain template, however, within that template, there are illustrious producers try to extrapolate as much as they can to move around within that.
“There are more stunts, romance for Humphrey - it’s easily my favourite of the four series I’ve done.”
The team even makes a chilly excursion back to London this year, with Humphrey getting the chance to operate on his home turf for once. The London storyline will be given a special two-hour episode, something the actor’s happy about.
“It’s great to have a double episode - to have time to pad out the story.Double episode – it helps to have more time to pad out the storyline.
“It’s harder than it looks squeezing everything into the hour.
“To have the murder, meet all the suspects, get them all through the mill, have our own bits and have a 13-minute denouement at the end, it’s really hard to squeeze it all in 59 minutes. ‘Midsomer Murders’ gets two hours. People think writing the show is a breeze but it’s really difficult.
Something that won’t change this year is Humphrey’s idyllic beachfront homestead, a place Kris reveals isn’t quite as peaceful as it appears on screen.
“It’s full of salamanders, armour-plated centipedes.
“There’s no water, no electricity, and there’s a nice hotel down the road, so at least I can have a shower at the end of the day.
“But the shack is stunning, it would be nice to spend a few days there.”
‘Death in Paradise’ continues on Thursday nights on BBC One at 9pm.