“He is not a rake!” protests Beyond Paradise star Jamie Bamber in an exclusive interview with HELLO!, coming to the defence of his character Archie. Fans of the beloved Death in Paradise spin-off will remember the part Archie played in the season one love triangle as the former fiancé who comes between DI Humphrey Goodman and his partner Martha Lloyd.
© Joss BarrattBut according to Jamie, local wine merchant Archie has been hard done by. “He’s been away traveling, and he’s come back for a reason, because he wants to pick up again in a better way. He wants to do things better,” says the 51-year-old, who reprised his role after a season away from the show.
“He wants to really join the dots in his life, examine why he’s still single all these years down the track. He’s succeeded in every other quadrant of his life goals. But he has never found enduring love. And I think that paradigm really interested me.”
Viewers found themselves taken aback after episode two when Archie’s quest for “enduring love” took him in a rather unexpected direction… to that of Esther Williams, Zahra Ahmadi’s detective sergeant, never far behind Humphrey when it comes to piecing together a puzzling case.
How does Zahra feel about Esther’s romance?
Zahra admits she wasn’t expecting any kind of romantic storyline between Esther and Archie.
“I think it will be a really nice surprise for the audience,” she says. “I think when I read it, I was a little bit shocked, because I think Esther wouldn’t go for somebody like Archie. Esther’s used to dating within familiar circles, the people that are really local. Farmers, firemen, builders, quite low-key.
“She’d never admit it, but I think she thinks Jamie might be a bit out of her league, so she would admire him from a distance, without taking it any further than that.”
Zahra also felt that Esther might be resistant to Jamie at first, in order to protect her tight-knit family with Zoe as well as avoid getting romantically hurt again.
© Joss Barratt“There’s a sense of propriety too, because he’s Martha’s ex and she’s very aware of all the drama that came from him coming back in series one. I think she’s a very loyal person and she’s really loyal to Humphrey, and she wouldn’t want to upset him. And now she’s also very friendly with Martha too,” adds Zahra.
In spite of these issues, it seems that attraction between Archie and Esther may win out.
Both actors soon found that understanding more about their characters’ story arcs from producers and their natural on-screen chemistry helped them to create the romance.
“I love the scenes, loved reading the scripts and the dialogue,” Jamie tells HELLO!. “These are two people who are mature enough to be able to tease each other, challenge each other, but they’re also really challenging themselves, and I think she certainly is at a certain age where that is part of what makes a successful relationship.”
© Joss BarrattA moment to remember
Zahra shares how the first date scene between Esther and Jamie made her confident their on-screen partnership was going to work.
“You don’t always get all that much time to prep or rehearse in TV, but you start to trust your instincts and you trust the other person you’re working with, so you can allow that natural riff to happen,” she explains.
“The date scene was my absolute favourite day of filming last year. I did a happy dance at the end of that day. We had this brilliantly written scene. We had three or four hours to play with it, and it flew.
“It gave everyone the opportunity to just sit and explore and play, and we don’t often have that. We rehearsed it on set briefly beforehand, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I’ve got nothing to worry about here. This feels good.'”
How does Jamie feel about returning to the Beyond Paradise universe?
Beyond their romance this season, both Jamie and Zahra are overjoyed to be returning to the series. Jamie is especially excited to be back, and recalls the moment he returned to Looe in Cornwall, where the show is filmed, for the first time since filming season one.
“I got dropped off by a cab in the middle of Looe, and I went to get fish and chips on my own, and just sat on the harbour wall having not been there for two years,” says Jamie.
“It was so nice to be back, and I saw a sign in front of the shops advertising Beyond Paradise tours. Obviously, that wasn’t there last time I went, because we weren’t a thing yet, so that was beautiful.”
© UCGInside their families’ reactions to the show
As a West Country native, Zahra had high expectations to fulfil when her family watched Beyond Paradise.
“My whole family watches the show. My mum’s side are all from the West Country. So there they watch it, proud West Country people as well. They love it.
“I guess they would be the harshest critics, wouldn’t they, as they’re from the area that it’s set and where it’s filmed? And they absolutely love it, without fail. And trust me, they don’t tell me that they love everything I do,” she quips.
© BBC/Red Planet Pictures/Joss BarrattJamie notes a similar experience. “My family are all grown up, so we don’t actually watch a great deal together at the same time, but what I will say is I have so many friends who watch it with their kids, and I’ve never had the response that I’ve had this show.
“It seems to be a show that’s watched by groups of family members together. My kids are at university, so we don’t get to do that very often, but I love hearing that when people still watch television the old-fashioned way.”
While the jury is still out on whether Esther and Archie’s budding relationship will flourish into something more, there are plenty of exciting cases to look forward to this season, including “a perplexing chocolate box poisoning, a long-standing farming feud, and a spiking incident at sea”.
