Death in Paradise star Don Gilet has spoken about working with his real-life partner, Benidorm and Happy Valley star Siobhan Finneran, as she makes a guest appearance in the upcoming season 15.
The two actors worked together on 2017 drama The Loch and were reported to be dating the year afterwards, although they mostly keep their relationship to themselves.
In an appearance on This Morning to promote the sun-soaked BBC One show’s return, Gilet was asked about her appearance in the show, and decided to give some cheeky responses.
“Is she?” he responded when Alison Hammond said that Finneran is in the new season. “I thought they edited her out.”
Alison joked that Gilet must have invited her on a holiday only for it to turn out to be filming on the show, and he played along, saying: “‘I’ve got a surprise for you,’ I said [to Siobhan]. She thought I was gonna propose. ‘No, some acting.'”
BBC
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“No, but she loved doing it, it was great working with her,” he said genuinely, before going back to gently taking the mick. “She’s come a long way. I mean Happy Valley, Schmappy Valley.
“Have you not seen the stillness she creates in front of the camera since being with me? You can’t bottle it.
“There’s something about the way she acts now, there’s a confidence to her. She gets more work now. She gets more work now.”
Gilet also joked that co-star Don Warrington was a “pain” to work with.
Mike Marsland//BBC
Related: Death in Paradise to deny key character something she “desperately” wants in season 15
Alison asked why Gilet doesn’t get more comedy roles as he’s clearly a funny guy, and he said that “they don’t give it to me, they want me to play villains and psychos”.
He said that he was happy doing comedy or serious roles as long as he had a complex and layered character to play, before pitching himself for a new James Bond or Star Wars film.
Death in Paradise returns to BBC One and iPlayer for its new season on Friday (30 January).
Read more Death in Paradise news on our dedicated homepage
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.