Kris Marshall has quit sun-soaked BBC drama Death in Paradise after four years.
His alter ego, Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman, arrived on the show to replace Ben Miller’s character, Detective Inspector Richard Poole, at the beginning of the third series.
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The crime drama, set on the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie, takes six months to film each year on the island of Guadeloupe, and it’s reported being away from home became too much for Kris.
Speaking to Susanna Reid and Ben Shepherd on Good Morning Britain, Kris, who has two young children, Tom and Elsie, with his wife Hannah, revealed his family was the reason for his departure:
“This last series I did on my own, which was quite tough,” he explained.
“Skyping just leaves me bereft and then I have to go and drown my sorrows in the bar.
“In previous years I’ve been able to take my family with me but we had a daughter this time last year and so bringing her and my son, he’s about to start school, and it all became a bit of a juggling mission.
“So that was really the reason behind it.”
He did admit to the hosts he was already having second thoughts about his decision to leave, though:
“I’ve been filming in London since and there is a moment when you stand in the freezing cold in a large puffa jacket and go: ‘Why am I not in flip flops? Why am I still not in the Caribbean? What have I done?!”
Kris has been a popular addition to the show, and his arrival saw it regularly bringing in eight million viewers a week.
So the person taking over the lead has got a lot to live up to.
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Father Ted star Ardal O’Hanlon is the lucky guy who’s been announced to replace Kris, and he’s set to start filming this spring.