Death in Paradise star Ben Miller shares career update away from BBC show
Death in Paradise star Ben Miller has shared details about his next career move when he appeared on BBC Breakfast
Ben appeared on BBC Breakfast(Image: BBC)
A Death in Paradise favourite has revealed a dramatic career shift.
Actor Ben Miller famously portrayed London detective Richard Poole in the beloved BBC series, who unexpectedly found himself posted to the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie.
Following two series as Richard, Ben’s character met a shocking end at the beginning of the third season. Richard’s killing subsequently paved the way for DI Humphrey Goodman (played by Kris Marshall), who touched down on the island to investigate his predecessor’s murder.
Since departing Death in Paradise, Ben has appeared in numerous successful dramas, including Austin, Professor T and Bridgerton. He’s also ventured into writing with his bestselling children’s adventure book series. Now, the actor is branching into fresh territory with his forthcoming adult thriller, A Very Dangerous Pursuit.
The novel sees Ben reimagining the protagonist of John Buchan’s legendary spy classic The Thirty-Nine Steps in a “rip-roaring story of international intrigue, enchantresses and master criminals from the streets of Constantinople to the decks of the Titanic”.
Ben Miller played Richard Poole on Death in Paradise(Image: BBC/Red Planet Pictures/Denis Guyenon)
Speaking on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday (May 19), Ben told presenters Sally Nugent and Jon Kay: “I wanted to write a thriller. I love thrillers. I wanted to write a really dynamic thriller. This one’s set in 1912, so it’s the very, very beginnning of all the technology that we love in spy stories.
“The main character, he takes one of the very first airplane flights in this pursuit that he gones on. He rides on one of the very first motorbikes. He’s basically given an object in a bizarre in Constantinople that turns out to have some kind of secret in.”, reports the Express.
“The Americans are interested, the Germans are interested, the French are interested, and [there’s] this pursuit from Constantinople that ends up on the Titanic.”
Discussing how The Thirty-Nine Steps served as his inspiration, Ben elaborated: “The original version, most famously filmed by Alfred Hitchcock, and it’s an absolute classic, black-and-white classic. It’s a sort of one man against the world kind of story. I think it’s the very first kind of spy story that then becomes something a bit like James Bond.
“I kind of think of this as P.G. Wodehouse meets James Bond. This is a really, really exciting time.”
The actor has written a new book(Image: BBC/Red Planet)
The book’s official synopsis states: “When one Richard Hannay – intrepid, inquisitive, and on the hunt for intrigue – encounters an old acquaintance in Constantinople, he has an inkling that something thrilling is afoot.
“Charged with an item of great mystery and import – a washbag, no less! – he soon finds himself in a very dangerous pursuit: from the luxurious confines of the Orient Express to the decks of the Titanic herself, all with the very fate of Europe in his care.” It continues: “Can he slip the net of Count Schwabing, whose long arm stretches from Berlin to the Bosphorus? And what of Madame Zara, the cabaret enchantress – does she play at affection, deception, or something far more deadly?
“In over his head, often a step – or thirty-nine – behind, but absolutely, resolutely determined to save the day, Hannay is about to embark on an escapade that will test his wits, his courage, and his ability to keep hold of a blasted washbag.”
Death in Paradise can be streamed on BBC iPlayer, while A Very Dangerous Pursuit will be released on Thursday, May 21.
