Archie Hughes, played by Jamie Bamber, has certainly been causing a stir ever since he first showed up in Shipton Abbott on BBC1's Beyond Paradise. His financial investment has helped Martha (Sally Bretton) to realise her dream of opening her own café, but the fact that the two of them used to be engaged has complicated things — especially after he attempted to kiss her!
Martha quickly made it clear that his advances weren't welcome, but is Archie really a cad trying to break up Martha and her new fiancé Humphrey (Kris Marshall) — or is he just a lonely man struggling to deal with his unrequited feelings?
We caught up with Jamie to ask him all about being part of the show...
Jamie Bamber interview for Beyond Paradise
Archie's been getting very close to Martha lately — but what's going on in his head?
"Archie is someone who is living with regret — she is the one that got away, and it's taken him a few years to realise that. He's a very successful guy with lots of options in life, he makes a success of everything he does, he's been privileged from birth and he's made the most of that, but I think the one thing that he feels maybe he didn't appreciate when he had it was Martha."
So when he offered to invest in her business, was that just him doing a nice thing? Or did he have an ulterior motive?
"That's really for the audience to make their own minds up about! I think a lot of times in life, we're not entirely clear what our motivations are for different things that we do, and they don't have to be entirely one thing or the other. I think he enjoys the fact that she's come back, I think he is surprised at what's awakened inside him when she's there, and he wants to be part of her new life.
"Whether he's planning to come between her and Humphrey, I don't know — it's not really that cut-and-dried, I think. He likes her, and he's attracted to her, but he likes Humphrey too — when he meets Humphrey, he's pleasantly surprised! So I think he saw a business opportunity, I don't think he examined it too closely."
Episode five sees Archie more involved in the case of the week — can you tell us a bit more about that one?
"That was really fun! Like most of these multi-arc TV formats, each episode stands alone but there are various intrigues that last the series, so the nearer you get to the end, the more there is at stake — and yeah, episode five is great because Archie is involved in the case of the week, and he is a suspect!
"I won't spoil it, but there's a bit of confusion as to his own place within the story, and he mistakes how seriously he's implicated, so there's many layers of intrigue, and some paranoia involved as well for Archie, which really adds spice to the scenes with Humphrey!
"I really enjoyed working with Kris — he's someone who has a sort of twinkle every time, where they could go three different ways with every response, and it's wonderful to play with actors like that because you really have to play with them as well and keep them on the back foot!"
Would you be interested in doing a Death In Paradise crossover and taking Archie to the Caribbean?
"Of course I would! That would be fantastic. I'll be honest, I'm not overly familiar with Death In Paradise having lived abroad for the bulk of its run, but obviously I've seen enough of it, and it's such a global success that it's become an icon of television, so it's super-fun to be part of its little baby sister here, and I couldn't be prouder to be involved, and if that involvement continued in any way, I would be delighted because it would mean that the character has been embraced. And on a 'Jamie and family' level, a trip to Guadeloupe [where Death In Paradise is filmed] would be great!"
Did you enjoy filming Beyond Paradise in Devon and Cornwall?
"Yeah, I fell in love with Looe in particular, which is the main stand-in for Shipton Abbott. I thought it was stunningly charming, just beguiling in every way. My wife [actress Kerry Norton] happened to be shooting a thing on the north coast of Cornwall, and we were both down there for a week, so she came down to Looe and were able to do some walks along the coast and go out for meals. I played quite a bit of golf as well on separate trips, because we were put up in the lovely St Merryn, which has some great golf courses, so I enjoyed those too!
"It's a part of the world that I know a bit, although I didn't know Looe or St Merryn, and it's always a treat to discover little corners of this island and be treated briefly like an honorary local, because obviously all the locals were aware of what we were doing and there was a lot of excitement about it — and it's always fun to share in that enthusiasm with them!"
We've noticed a bit of a pattern with some roles you've played recently in shows like Innocent and DI Ray, where your character seems like a good guy at first but is revealed to have a hidden dark side by the end. Do you enjoy getting to wrong-foot the audience like that — and do you think people will be more suspicious of any character you play now?
"I really enjoyed both of those shows, and yeah, I spotted the same pattern — it goes back even further, I was put in the same bracket in Marcella! So yeah, there is clearly a thing going on with me and telly, and I don't know how much of that is more systemic in terms of casting and tropes, but any time you get to play ambiguity and double motives and wrong-foot an audience? Always fun!
"I'm not going to give anything away about where Archie ends up, but clearly there is a conflict there — he's a red-blooded male with an ex who he hasn't quite let go. We'll just have to watch and see how it gets resolved, and whether he's on the right or the wrong side of the code of conduct!"
- Beyond Paradise continues on Fridays at 8pm on BBC1 in the UK, and on BritBox in the US
