‘I starred in Death on Paradise and here’s a huge rehearsal secret you don’t know’
An iconic actor who starred in Death In Paradise has revealed they have a very unusual rehearsal process on the show. Robert Daws, 66, who played Dr. Gordon Omerod on The Royal from 2003 until 2011, intimated the show’s rehearsal’s are unconventional. Due to the humidity and heat on the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe where the show is filmed, the stars of the BBC show are forced to rehearse scenes in their underwear! The star appeared in the show in 2016 and confessed it was far removed from his previous work experience.
Speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, he laughed: “It’s the only time I’ve ever been forced to rehearse in my underwear. Because it is so hot that the costumes go on at the very last minute. Otherwise they get drenched with sweat. So it’s funny, walking around with Kris Marshall in his underwear, I’m in my underwear, and at the last minute costume coming and put on a tropical shirt.” The legendary actor also revealed he almost turned down the role because his character got killed off immediately – although that proved to be advantageous for him.
“They came through with the offer and my agent said, ‘Look, it’s a small role and you die at the beginning, but you’re in flashback all the way through’.
“And my agent said, ‘I don’t think you should do it.’ So I said, ‘Okay, maybe they’ll come back and offer me something else’,” he laughs.
He continued: “This was a rare moment of being grand for me. They came back and said, ‘Wouldn’t Robert reconsider?’ Because the way it turned out, schedule wise, I needed to be here for two days filming at the beginning of the month, but then they couldn’t do the end of the episode until the end of the shooting schedule. So they said I’d have to spend a month in Guadeloupe, plus they’d fly me and my family and put us up in a hotel for the entire month.
“I thought, ‘That’ll do very nicely. Thank you very much.’ So we had a wonderful time. Went over there, worked on the episode I was in. Two of my friends turned up in it. I didn’t even know they had cast Wendy Craig and Keith Allen.”
He added: “So we just had a month in the sun, and occasionally had the inconvenience of having to do some work, but it was one of those happy, lucky jobs. So I’ve got nothing but fond memories of it.”
