Death in Paradise legend Don Warrington talks "outcry" to Selwyn's departure – and whether he'll leave the show

This article first appeared in Radio Times magazine.

Having starred in 14 seasons of the BBC One peak-time drama Death in Paradise, Don Warrington is often recognised in streets or shops by fans of his character, Commissioner Selwyn Patterson. But since March last year – when the latest series ended with Patterson moving to London for “family reasons” – viewers have had one question: had Warrington left the series?

“What I’d say to them was, ‘Wait and see’,” says Warrington, who is 74. “That was all I was allowed to say because ‘Has he?/Hasn’t he?’ was part of the story.”

Having waited, viewers were rewarded with Patterson making cameos in last month’s Christmas specials of both Death in Paradise and its spin-off Beyond Paradise. And now, any concerns are laid to rest with the opening episode of the 15th series starting with Selwyn flying into the fictional Caribbean island of Saint Marie to resume his duties.

Was that story arc always planned or does it reflect frantic background negotiations between actor and producers? Had Warrington ever at any point actually left the series? “No, I hadn’t,” he insists. “They came to me and told me the plan for the character and it seemed to me a good way to expand the series. Because Commissioner Patterson comes back with a different energy. But I love speculation. It’s such fun. Rumour is wonderful.”

The reaction to his possible departure must have been flattering – especially from a series that has been written to accommodate cast rotation with Ben Miller, Kris Marshall, Ardal O’Hanlon, Ralf Little and Don Gilet having now played the lead role of a British cop seconded from London.

“Well, it came as a shock to me, I have to say,” admits Warrington. “I thought it would just pass by under the radar and we’d carry on. But, apparently, there has been an outcry. It’s flattering and I would be dishonest if I said it wasn’t. But it came as a surprise to realise how deeply the characters had got into the consciousness of the public.”

Anyone who could have predicted in 2011 that there would be a 15th season of Death in Paradise in 2026, with or without Warrington, would long ago have retired after winning the lottery several weeks running. In fact, when I told a media journalist I was interviewing Warrington about the show, they expressed surprise it was still going. Did he ever have a sense of how long he might stay in it? “No. I thought we might get three seasons out of it if we were lucky.

“It’s a funny thing, isn’t it? The intelligentsia, if you like, tend to look down their nose at this kind of thing. Popularity has never been a quality the English admire, unlike the Americans. There’s a kind of innate feeling: if it gets more than 20 people it can’t be any good. But there we are.”

Some shows may now almost literally be getting 20 viewers as terrestrial TV audiences decline, but the last series of Death in Paradise drew in an average of 5.79 million viewers. Warrington’s explanation is that this committed core audience is due to the show’s concept: “It had a great premise in that it was a show about a man who gets a job in the perfect place but hates being there. It’s a brilliant dramatic concept – putting someone in paradise but to them it’s hell.”

When the show started, however, some critics complained that it was a colonial or empire fantasy of a white cop from London bringing justice to the Caribbean. Did that ever worry Warrington? “I thought about it, yes. I understand why people talk about the show in that way. But, I think one has to go back to where the series came from.”

Series creator Robert Thorogood was inspired by the real-life example of a white Englishman, Mark Shields, a British cop recruited to become Deputy Police Commissioner of Jamaica. His tenure included a murder investigation into the sudden death of former England cricketer Bob Woolmer, who was the Pakistan cricket coach during an international tournament in 2007 (an inquest returned an open verdict), and the bizarre overnight theft of 500 truckloads of white sand from a beach.

So although detractors object that Death in Paradise lacks reality, it’s important, Warrington says, to acknowledge the series’ loose roots in Shields’ CV. “He fell in love with Jamaica and stayed, but some people argued he became like a Jamaican so they sent out another cop from London and that’s the idea it comes from. But that concept has evolved, so now you have a black British policeman [Don Gilet’s DI Mervin Wilson] who has family on the island but is still in a sense a fish out of water who has to adapt.”

It would have been hard if not impossible for the franchise to go on sending white actor-comedians to Saint Marie, so is the current situation – with two lead actors of colour in Warrington and Gilet – a crucial evolution for the show? “Yes, of course. Everyone realised the world had changed so we had to change with it. And it has given the series a richness culturally.

“I think there’s a fear that, unless you represent the mainstream audience as they see themselves, they won’t respond in a positive way. But I think people are interested in other people and if we make those people interesting, be they black or white, the audience will respond. What we are trying to do here is present people of colour in a way that is unclichéd – they are simply people getting on with the job and in that sense their colour is irrelevant.

“Television is behind the times; all media is behind the times,” Warrington adds. “What people are living on the streets is quite different from what they see on television. And I think this programme has taken giant steps in giving a different picture of the world.”

Warrington’s long career has been bracketed by two huge popular hits. Before Death in Paradise, there was ITV’s Rising Damp (1974–1978), in which a twenty-something Warrington played Philip Smith, a young man of African heritage lodging with Rigsby (Leonard Rossiter), an instinctively racist landlord. “What amazes me,” remarks Warrington, “is that people still recognise me from Rising Damp. I think of myself as a completely different person when I look at that very slim young man.”

As is much discussed now, there are series from the 1970s that can never be repeated – Love Thy Neighbour, The Black and White Minstrel Show, Mind Your Language – due to racist stereotypes, with it almost seeming remarkable that they were ever made. Rising Damp is a rare series from that period with a black character that does not appal audiences or embarrass the actor due to Warrington’s character being far cleverer and more likeable than the bigot from whom he rents. The show – co-starring Rossiter, Frances de la Tour and Richard Beckinsale – can still be enjoyed in reruns.

“Again, as with Death in Paradise,” says Warrington, “I think it’s important how things begin. The writer Eric Chappell had worked at the gas board with a guy who was incredibly racist. And he fantasised about that man being challenged. And so he created – in the stage play The Banana Box, which he then adapted as Rising Damp – a black character who always won. So, Eric’s intention was to expose the ludicrousness of racism and I think that’s why it survives.”

Some black actors now look back in anger at scenes they were given to play or lines to say, but Warrington feels no desire to edit his television CV. “I’ve never said anything in a performance that I’ve regretted saying because I wouldn’t have done it. I’m a black man and I’m proud of that and I avoided any of the stereotypical nonsense that went on.”

Finally, going back to where we began, might Warrington surprise us by not being in Death in Paradise if it comes back for another series in 2027? “It’s a year at a time. That’s how it has always been and how it will continue.”

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