IT’S the British TV show known for its quirky comedic murder plotlines.
Regularly watched by more than eight million viewers, Death in Paradise has seen TV stars Kris Marshall, Ben Miller, Ralf Little and Ardal O’Hanlan play British detectives chasing clues in the sun.
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And now EastEnders actor Don Gilet is primed to take over in the new series coming out next month.
Over 108 episodes we’ve seen a woman stabbed with her own knitting needles, a celebrity chef poisoned at a cooking contest and a mystery shooting in which the sole witness was a parrot.
But a Manchester cop who worked on a real-life paradise island has revealed that the reality is “a lot weirder”.
Richard Preston, 65, told how he busted a killer who broke out of jail, discovered AK47 machine guns on a pirate ship and was ‘hexed’ by a voodoo witch doctor while working on the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean.
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In a new book, Richard also tells the mysterious tale of a shadowy local figure he is convinced was a Nazi who vanished after he asked probing questions.
Richard said: “There were times when life was totally surreal.
“My work wasn’t unlike the TV show – except my stories are real. I’ve seen the real Death in Paradise a few times but it’s definitely a case of real life being a lot weirder!”
While the TV series is based on a fictional island called Saint Marie, Richard worked and lived on the real British overseas territory of Grand Cayman.
He was one of 12 British police officers deployed there in April 1990, leaving behind cold, rainy Manchester to temperatures of over 30C.
They were brought in to help train local cops as the island faced an unprecedented threat from organised gangs specialising in shipments of cannabis and cocaine.
Within days of Richard’s arrival, he was armed with a colt .38 revolver – despite having no training in the UK – and warned about the dangers of Voodoo, or obeah as it is known locally.
“It was like being in a Western,” says Richard. “We were told to take 12 bullets each and fire at empty oil drums. It was terrifying.”
Drug raids
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A few days later he was given a Smith & Wesson revolver to help tackle a £100million drugs raid at the island’s airport.
In a dramatic take-down he and other cops stopped an executive jet carrying six suitcases full of drugs destined for America.
“It certainly beat issuing traffic tickets,” writes Lancashire-born Richard in his book, The Real Death In Paradise.
The pilots were later sentenced to 12 years each.
Voodoo curses
There was much more drama to come when the dad-of-three crossed swords with a local voodoo witch doctor nicknamed Professor Marmaduke.
Richard says: “I got a call to say there had been a fight in the bar he ran on Grand Cayman.
“When I asked him what he was a professor of and he said ‘spirits’ I thought, ‘Oh, here we go.’
“We’d been warned during our first days of training that obeah was taken very seriously on the island.
“When I tried to question Marmaduke about threatening a young lad over the cost of a ‘spirit gift’ he took a swipe at me and I arrested him.”
Richard was stunned when, back at the station, a senior officer told him to let the voodoo doctor go, but he had already sent him to court.
It was an absolutely massive toad. I’d had enough by that stage and just pulled it off and walked into court
Richard Preston
When called to give evidence a few days later, Richard found a semi-circle of locals gathered around the doors of the court, looking petrified.
Marmaduke had tied a massive cane toad, about two feet long, around the door handles – and sealed its lips with a padlock in a warning to stay quiet.
Richard says: “It was an absolutely massive toad. I’d had enough by that stage and just pulled it off and walked into court.”
Marmaduke was fined $500 dollars for using curses, a law that still exists in Grand Cayman today.
Hunting escaped crooks
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Richard was involved in a game of cat-and-mouse when a jeweller was gunned down in a bungled robbery at his shop by a local small-time drug dealer, addict and petty criminal known as Toadface.
Shockingly, Toadface was sentenced to death but managed to escape jail as his executioners built the hangman scaffolding in full view of his cell.
He was later tracked down to a house on the island and his death sentence – the last to be handed down before it was revoked forever – was overturned.
Richard even had a brush with bona fide pirates during his two-year stint in Cayman.
Death in Paradise star on role
Ex EastEnders star Don Gilet replaces Ralf Little as the main detective of the hit show Death in Paradise.
He will play DI Mervin Wilson who arrives in Saint Marie from London.
The 57-year-old is best known for playing serial killer preacher Lucas Johnson in Walford.
He was introduced to Paradise fans during the show’s Christmas special.
Don made his first TV debut on the Channel 4 dating show Streetmate, where he was interviewed as the friend of a participant.
His first breakout role was in 2001 as Johnny London in Babyfather
Don has had a taste of Hollywood success, acting alongside Jason Statham in last year’s action thriller The Beekeeper.
He adopted an American accent for the role.
Don is very private when it comes to his love life but was formerly married to actress Tracy Whitwell. They share a 17-year-old son Flynn.
He was recently romantically linked to Happy Valley star Siobhan Finneran, although they’ve not confirmed their relationship.
Don, who has also starred in Holby City, said his new role felt “like a deeply loved and incredibly precious jewel has been placed in my hands”.
Called to a knife fight on a boat called The Jolly Roger, an injured cook revealed there were weapons aboard the boat, which had docked in the capital of George Town.
Richard said: “He begged us not to force him to go back to the ship because the captain had murdered other ships’ crews out at sea and stolen their cargo before sinking the vessels.
“We went onboard and broke into a chest which contained AK-47 Kalashnikov submachine guns, Beretta automatic pistols, Smith & Wessons, a bolt action rifle and ammunition for them all.
“It was astonishing.”
Nazi fears
However, Richard’s strangest encounter came with a shifty character he suspects may have been a Nazi on the run.
Richard, who went on to become a detective before working for Counter Terrorism Policing, was fascinated by a private doctor on the island, who he calls Felix Sebastian Kampenboom.
He writes: “I felt a gut instinct that there was something very dodgy about him.
“He was mid-70s, tall, thin, darkly tanned with a totally bald head, lacking eyebrows or facial hair. The large bags under his dark, hooded, piercing eyes made him a really ugly guy.”
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When a woman called Peggy complained of coercive control by Kampenboom, Richard stepped in to help.
The successful Canadian business woman said she met the doctor through a Lonely Hearts column and was lured to the island for a holiday at his lavish house.
She was shocked when he asked her to pose naked to “help his erectile problems” before forcing her to sign paperwork for a joint bank account.
While investigating, Richard says Kampenboom produced a Puerto Rican passport but claimed to be from the Netherlands.
He said: “I was confronted by a Dutchman with a Puerto Rican passport, who studied medicine in Germany before the war, who just happened to have a loaded gun in his safe.
“It was all highly suspicious.”
Two weeks later the doctor disappeared from the island never to be seen again.
“I spoke with a contact on the island who had contacts with MI6 and asked if he had anything to do with Kampenboom’s disappearance.
“A wry smile passed across his face and he said ‘I couldn’t possibly comment’.”
The Real Death in Paradise is released on January 16, published by John Blake.
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