Sweet reason David Mitchell turned down Death in Paradise lead detective part revealed

David Mitchell in Death in Paradise if he'd have been cast.

David Mitchell was originally cast for the lead detective role in the first series of Death in Paradise, its creator has revealed.

However, the Would I Lie to You? star turned down the part because he'd fallen in love with his future wife Victoria Coren.

The whole history of Death in Paradise could have been different then with David, rather than Ben Miller, playing DI Richard Poole in the opening series of the hugely popular detective hit.

Writer Robert Thorogood, who dreamt up Death in Paradise, told OK! Magazine: "David was originally penciled in to be the lead in Death in Paradise. When the show was green-lit, he was attached, but it was about then that he'd fallen in love with Victoria.

"He was very, very polite about it as you can imagine and said: 'I'm really sorry, but I can’t go to the Caribbean for six months. I've just started dating Vicky Coren."

Victoria Coren Mitchell (L) and David Mitchell (Image credit: Getty Images)

Robert added: "We were very lucky actually because Tony Jordan — who was one of the masterminds of the show — had been keen from the start to call it Death in Paradise rather than name it after the detective. He said, 'We’ve got to make it so that if a detective changes, we still have a show.

"When David said he couldn't do it, it didn't feel so catastrophic. We just went looking for another person who could play an uptight, white, middle-class, private school-educated, neurotic lunatic and we were very lucky to get Ben to do it. That's worked out well."

Ben Miller ended up playing RI Richard Poole (Image credit: BBC)

It seemed to work out well for everyone. David Mitchell married Victoria in 2012 — one year after the original series of Death in Paradise went out. The couple have two children together, Barbara and June. David has gone on to enjoy huge success with Would I Lie To You? and his game show Outsiders. Meanwhile, Ben Miller turned out to be wonderful as DI Richard Poole, in our opinion the best Death in Paradise detective, and Death in Paradise season 14 will air next year… 

Meanwhile, Robert Thorogood also penned the "Marlow Murder Club" mysteries and The Marlow Murder Club season 2 is on the way, with Samantha Bond again starring.