Death In Paradise season 13 kicks off with the show's 100th episode, and long-term fans might spot a familiar face among the guest cast.
Once Upon A Time's Sean Maguire plays yacht club manager Marlon Collins in the landmark edition, reprising the role that he played in the show's very first episode back in 2011. Back then, Marlon was arrested and thrown in the cells at Honoré police station for stealing yachts, but 13 years later, he seems to have cleaned up his act.
"He was a bit of a wayward young man in the pilot," says ex EastEnders actor Sean. "But it appears he's got his act together now, and is sort of on the straight and narrow. He's a bit of a reformed character."
The call to return to the show came out of the blue for LA-based Sean, but he was delighted to have the chance to go back to the show for such a momentous occasion — particularly because he has very fond memories of his original visit to Guadeloupe, where the series is filmed.
"A producer that I'd worked with previously said, 'Hey look, I'm starting a new show — I've got this small part, I know you wouldn't want to do it, but it shoots in the Caribbean. Any chance you might come out and do three or four scenes sitting in a jail cell?'" recalls Sean. "I was like, 'in the Caribbean, you say?'! I'd just started dating this girl that I was falling madly in love with, and I said, 'Can I bring my girlfriend?'. He said yes, and I was like, 'done!'."
"I ended up meeting Rupert Graves [who played James Lavender in the episode] and Hugo Speer [the ill-fated DI Charlie Hulme, whose murder kicks off the whole series] and all these other people," Sean continues. "I was out there for two or three weeks while falling madly in love with my girlfriend, who's now my wife. So when we came back to do the 100th episode, we brought our three children — coming back 13 years, 100 episodes and three kids later felt nicely full-circle!"
Death In Paradise returns to BBC One on Sunday, February 4 at 9 pm.
