BBC Death in Paradise favourite shares ‘exciting’ news in major career update
Former Death in Paradise actor Ben Miller shared an exciting update on BBC Breakfast
Ben Miller played Richard Poole on Death in Paradise(Image: BBC)
A Death in Paradise favourite has revealed a career move that’s a far cry from their time on Saint Marie
Actor Ben Miller memorably portrayed London detective Richard Poole in the beloved BBC drama, a character who found himself posted to the fictional Caribbean island.
After portraying Richard across two series, Ben’s character met a dramatic end at the beginning of season three. Richard’s murder subsequently paved the way for the arrival of DI Humphrey Goodman (played by Kris Marshall), who came to the island to investigate his predecessor’s killing.
Since departing Death in Paradise, Ben has appeared in numerous acclaimed dramas, including Austin, Professor T and Bridgerton. He has also ventured into the literary world with his bestselling series of children’s adventure novels.
Now, the actor is branching out into a fresh genre with his forthcoming adult thriller, A Very Dangerous Pursuit, reports the Express.
The actor has written a new book(Image: BBC/Red Planet Pictures/Denis Guyenon)
In the book, Ben reimagines the hero of John Buchan’s seminal 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”.
During an appearance on BBC Breakfast on Tuesday (May 19), Ben told hosts 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.
“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.”
Speaking about drawing inspiration from The Thirty-Nine Steps, Ben continued: “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.
Ben appeared on BBC Breakfast(Image: BBC)
“I kind of think of this as P.G. Wodehouse meets James Bond. This is a really, really exciting time.”
The official synopsis for the book 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 is available to stream on BBC iPlayer, while A Very Dangerous Pursuit will be published on Thursday, May 21
