Thank you So much.
Hi Guys, hope you're all
Well, I'm I'm going to begin by asking what sort of stage
you learn of a potential spinoff.
And if you remember what your initial reaction was
sort of in stages, really,
I the sort of idea
about doing a potential spinoff was submitted to me
relatively soon after Sally and I left.
Death in paradise,
you know, I guess
2018, something like that.
And of course, these things take years to to
put into action.
And I was very interested in it because I loved the character and I loved
working with Sally and I love the storylines and,
you know, I love everything about the show and the characters.
So, you know, I was very keen
to sort of fly to,
you know, see what happens after the happy ever after
the reality of people's lives
when they
step outside that chocolate box that is
all wrapped up nicely at the end of show.
So so it was mooted to me
then and then sort of COVID happened.
So I kind of forgot about it.
And then I think at the end of 2021, the BBC commissioned a script
or maybe was a little earlier than that.
Annie Jordan and Tony wrote this script and I was like, Well, it's all very well,
but we don't want a Death in Paradise Endeavor,
you know, because it's that's
I'm not sure that's, you know, that's a bit lazy maybe.
And, you know, and I think the things that make Destin Paradise quintessentially
such a part of the show, I mean, one of the big things about that is the
is the Caribbean is is setting so as as beautiful as Devon is and it is
and then you know,
it's not it's not what people
necessarily want to see on a cold January night.
They want to see people drinking rum on the beach
and, you know, after they've solved a dastardly murder. So.
So but when I read the first episode,
I was like, so this is brilliant
because it's it's it holds the DNA of the original show
but is completely unique and it's completely different.
There are no murders in the whole series,
you know, but you retain the puzzle, which makes
crime shows interesting.
You retain the sort of a team,
a sort of police team who are sort of quite quirky and
each has their own distinct personality,
brings their own thing to the to the to the solving of the puzzle.
And then you have the personal relationship between,
you know, Martha and Humphrey
and now
Martha's mom.
So and it's a much more personal journey, I think
you retain the fun of the puzzle and the lightheartedness,
but it's also dealing with a lot more personal issues,
which I think is brave in a way, and I think obviously
makes the show entirely of its own, although it retains
a good link to the mothership, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because Sally, as we see in episode one,
your arc is kind of tonally quite different to the rest of the show.
It's very profound and quite moving.
So even though it's dressed up in what is quite a playful kind of show
in some regards,
do you always have to treat the character
from a real place of humanity to do her story justice?
Yeah, because I'm handling
a sensitive storyline.
So yeah.
So you can only
do as truthfully as you can.
And there is a, there is a lightness of touch like,
like Kris said, you know, in the police station.
And, and that's one of the things that's lovely about
death in paradise as well, but
it can only be played
as sensitively or truthfully as possible when you're,
when you're doing storylines like that.
I think yeah, there because I mean Barbara, with Death in Paradise
and now Beyond Paradise, the Paradise franchise, the ability of combining
kind of irreverence with severity to be really funny
but have real crimes at its core with real victims,
that needs to be resolved, which is quite a tricky tone to get right.
You as an actress
just have to give yourself to the writers and directors and editors
and just trust it.
They'll they'll sort that side of things.
I'm not sure what you mean.
You're talking
about death in paradise or I'm talking beyond paradise.
I just say, okay, the crimes will and doesn't really
come and touch it in too much detail with the crimes at all.
I'm sure she'll be very, very interested in the first episode she does.
Is she is asked her opinion, but she she does.
I mean, I'm sure she'd interfere much more if she was allowed, but
I think
yes, I mean, if
when you're given a storyline and you're given
that it's up to you to try and way find a way through it and
and the way that the writing has been presented
is, is really interesting because it don't it's not heavy handed and it presents
things that are really quite awkward and nor does it make it sugary.
I mean that could be a mother in law who absolutely adores Humphrey because
because lovely, wonderful, adored daughter loves Humphrey.
But but she she finds him she finds him difficult and or bewildering or baffling
because he is so different from the world.
So all that is so well-written and so well presented.
So that's a lovely area to explore because this is just honesty to that.
And also all these storylines that they that, as
Sally says, the difficult ones, the ones that really
aren't really dealt
with, maybe in the sister ship
will have a great appeal to everyone because it's
because the way it's presented with a light hand.
And and I think it will be it will be a great plus for the series
because Kris,
I mean the role of Humphrys, he's sort of like Colombo meets Harpo Marx.
I just wondering because why is it quite that tough role to play?
Because you have to and yesterday you did it successfully.
You have to give the impression of someone who knows more than the viewer
and yet always appears like he's winging it.
I mean, there's a moment in the trip when Steve Coogan and Rob Bryden are talking
how the very best actors are the ones who know something that
the audience doesn't.
But then they say sometimes actors feel like they don't know something
that the audience does know, and you have to do both.
Is it quite tricky, too, in some ways
to play this role as if to say, step on a great question
and I'll do my best to answer it
the the answer.
So it is difficult in some ways
to walk that tightrope of
you know, of, you know, what is ostensibly,
you know, oh well his name is a great
indicated to me as always has been,
because his name is Goodman So he's a good man.
But but this is also thing that he has I mean, I've always struggled.
Well, not maybe struggle is the right word toit
is a better word and toyed with the idea of
how much of it is an affectation, how much of it is.
I mean, because sometimes I think sometimes if I want to, I can go.
He knows more than he's letting on.
So how much of it is an act like Columbo in the way?
Columbowas a bit of an act, you know, and
it is a disarming mechanism
to then draw in the perpetrator
and then, you know, pounce like a sort of the cat
as a detective cat. So.
So but then on the other hand, I sort of struggle the idea of like, well,
if he if he's doing it, it's not dictation that's quite as quite considered.
It's quite I don't know. It is, it is.
It's a bit too easy but is a bit too manufactured,
you know, it
does it sort of change his dynamic somewhat
or is it that he
he just sort of slowly I sort of a process of
retains all this,
you know, crazy figures of facts
through through little pieces of paper
and then slowly
they all come together in his mind
eventually until a sort of pictures of the events.
And I think it's that.
So it is an act I mean, I guess.
Well, I think the thing I found
I think because he has a sentimental pathos,
so I think is not that hard to make the jumps between,
you know, the lighthearted stuff,
as long as it's not too broad, I think.
And what I really love about Beyond Paradise especially, is even
the sort of klutzy stuff is quite subtle.
So it's not particularly broad.
And well, I think when you first see him and he's hanging out of tree,
you go, okay, right. It's going to be a bit rough.
But but then it actually becomes quite gentle, quite subtle.
And so and so I think he retains a bit of pathos.
And so
so when you have to do those scenes
with when he has to do the scenes with Sally, with Martha
and Anne, and then it becomes
because the the truthfulness to everything it becomes is okay,
you know, you know, you know, having to sort of backpedal so much.
So I think it's fine.
Yeah, well, it all works.
Thank you so much for your time today, guys.
And best of luck with the release of the show.