| Being Human's Lenora Chrichlow on New Show, Death in Paradise Oct 28th 2011, 01:27 On a brilliantly sunny day in west London, the Thames shimmering nearby and even the hovering gulls looking rueful not to be wearing shades, it feels somehow wasteful to be sitting inside, having a coffee in a dark nook at the Riverside Studios theatre with Lenora Crichlow.
But the star of BBC sci-fi show Being Human and appearing, this month, in the channel's new eight-part whodunnit Death in Paradise makes no complaint. She's used to shunning good weather to spend time in remote and windowless corners of this building, having started her career here, informally, aged 11, as a member of the in-house youth theatre company, YoungBlood.
"We used to use a space upstairs," says the 26-year-old, who grew up in north-west London and still lives nearby. "Every weekend, every holiday, in a room with no windows and a whacky carpet; I loved it."
It was through the company that she got her first parts: a couple of promising early cameos (teenage lesbian in Channel 4 drama Sugar Rush, pregnant carjacker in Doctor Who), plus some jobs that went nowhere (a pilot about wisecracking single mums called Dappers), before the breakthrough gig in Being Human. As Annie, a sportswear-clad ghost, she's been in three successful series of the show centred around flat-sharing supernatural twentysomethings. A fourth series is imminent; before that Crichlow will appear in Death in Paradise as a cop trying to solve a murder on a Caribbean island.
"One of those dream phone calls: do you want to go to Guadeloupe for a month to shoot? But it wasn't actually that easy. Torrential rain, scorching sun, no continuity in the weather… we used to pin up the forecasts every day as a joke."
Crichlow's family were from Trinidad, her father moving to London in the 50s. Frank Crichlow, who died last year, became a major figure around Notting Hill, proprietor of the Mangrove restaurant cum community centre at times of great tension between the area's black population and the police. "He was a hero in the area. My brothers and sisters and I helped look after him in the last 10 years of his life, but he was only able to live on his own for so long because the whole community cared for him."
There was no tradition of acting in the family ("theatre visits at Christmas and birthday") but her father's prominence, Crichlow thinks, has lent her an ease that's helped with work. "I remember him being interviewed, live on the news, about a book he hadn't read. Just blagged it. He was very good with attention, with cameras, and growing up, yeah, I guess I took some of that in. There's a lot of my dad in me."
Death in Paradise Review: Sainte-Marie might seem like a tropical paradise, but it soon becomes a hotbed for murder this evening after BBC Worldwide and France Télévision’s joint venture Death in Paradise hits our screens. If the first episode of this sun-soaked whodunnit is anything to go by, you we’ll be still be guessing who pulled the trigger in eight weeks time.
This new drama opens with prototypical Englishman Richard Poole, played by Ben Miller, a straight-laced DI finding himself thrown into an investigation of the murder of a British cop in the Caribbean. His team consists of police officers Dwayne Myers (The Cat / Danny John-Jules) and Fidel Best (Gary Carr) whose laid-back approach to crime fighting clash with Poole’s methodical style.
Miller, who has also starred in The Armstrong and Miller Show as well as Primeval, delivers brilliantly as a fish out of water. We can only hope that as his character gets accustomed to the island surroundings (and his luggage turns up) the show does’t lose its humorous element.
John-Jules (best known for his iconic stylings in Red Dwarf) stands out as the laid-back cop Dwayne and he serves as the perfect foil for Poole. The two have a lot to learn from each other and as Poole adopts a bit of the Caribbean lifestyle, perhaps Dwayne will begin to take his job a little more seriously.
The supporting cast also includes French star Sara Martins, who plays Camille Bordey. Clearly there is more to her than meets the eye and Poole is doubtlessly going to need someone like her in the episodes to come. The two couldn’t be more different, so obviously it’s only a matter of time until they get together.
But Death in Paradise’s true star is the plot, which keeps you guessing throughout. A feat that is made even more impressive when we discover that creator Robert Thorogood had no previous television experience and was discovered in a competition seeking out new talent. In addition to the top-notch suspense, the show captures a great Caribbean feel with a brilliant soundtrack and great island views (since the island of Sainte-Marie doesn’t actually exist, it’s really filmed in Guadeloupe).
With a charming protagonist, a strong supporting cast and above all, excellent writing, this series opener has much going for it and sets itself up well to find a fresh angle on the detective genre, with a realistic setting and an original plot. The potential for growth on Poole and his colleague’s part is there and if Thorogood can keep the mystery on par with this episode, Death in Paradise can’t go wrong
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