Death in Paradise’s Neville Parker ‘wants to give up’ as Ralf Little addresses romance | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV

Death in Paradise star Ralf Little has addressed the love life of his character Neville Parker as the hit show gears up to air its Christmas special. Last series, viewers saw DI Neville left devastated after finding out his girlfriend Sophie Chambers [played by Chelsea Edge] was actually a murderous con woman looking to frame him for sending her sister to prison.

Ahead of the festive special, actor Ralf, 43, spoke about how Neville is dealing with moving on from Sophie. He says: “He’s obviously extremely hurt and bruised by it and mistrustful of people and the concept of romance and love. He’s extremely jaded.

“He feels like maybe it’s just not for him and that for some people, it just doesn’t work for them. We join him this series very much feeling like he’s one of those people and this is all just something he should give up on or he’ll just get hurt again, over and over.

“We join him broken by the whole experience and ready to give up on the idea of loving it at all,” the actor expresses. However, it won’t be all doom and gloom for Neville as his mum arrives and helps him get through his love life troubles.

“She just lives life to enjoy herself and she’s the first person that gives Neville a bit of a pep talk and says, ‘Look, don’t give up on something just because it’s hard’, the BBC star explains.

“It’s not that he just snaps out of it and that solves everything, but it’s the first time we see him told and that’s sort of the start of his road to emotional recovery.”

Several stars have been confirmed to be starring in the Christmas special, including Patsy Kensit, Doon Mackichan, Youseff Kerkour and Bronagh Waugh.

Neville was charged with David Cartwright’s murder and taken to prison to await trial, but he realised he was being set up by someone a lot closer to home.

It turned out that it was his other half Sophie who committed the murder as an act of revenge for sending her sister to prison, where she took her own life.

After Sophie was revealed as the killer, Neville was released from prison but was hurt and confused about being deceived by someone he loved.

Death in Paradise Christmas special airs on Boxing Day at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.