BROTHER OF ALL PROBLEMS

The gang is back solving crimes on sunny Saint Marie, but can detective Mervin find a way to bond with his long-lost sibling?

- WORDS: JEN PHARO

Filming a hit detective show on an idyllic tropical island in the Caribbean has got to be every actor's dream. However, when Don Gilet took over from Ralf Little to head up Death In Paradise, he found being the custodian of the UK's favourite murder mystery show pretty daunting.

Now he has one successful series as DI Mervin Wilson under his belt and another about to air, but it doesn't stop him feeling nervous. "It's been very much a fish out of water for me as an actor to come in and step into something as unique as this," says Don, 58. "It's a behemoth, it's a juggernaut of a show and to step into something like that and have that responsibility, is very daunting, continuously daunting because I don't want to rest on my laurels."

Fans have taken Don's brusque alter ego Mervin to their hearts, but that didn't make him feel any more relaxed about the job in hand, which he compares to being a musician tasked with producing a followup hit record. "Coming back into this has been like making the notorious second album," says Don. "Can we come back and make the second album better?"

That doesn't mean he's not committed to the show in which Mervin fights crime on the fictional island of Saint Marie alongside DS Naomi Thomas (Shantol Jackson), Officer Sebastian Rose (Shaquille Ali-Yebuah) and Commissioner Selwyn Patterson (Don Warrington). Although four of his predecessors have quit, Don says he'll stay as long as BBC bosses wish. "It's still very much a fun thing to come back and do and I'll do it as long as they want me to do it. If I don't pass out in the heat, I'll do it!"