Beyond Paradise actor Jamie Bamber left BBC Breakfast hosts Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt stunned on Tuesday when he admitted he only reads his own lines from the show's scripts. The star, who plays Archie Hughes in the Death in Paradise spin-off, made the confession alongside co-star Zahra Ahmadi.
When asked if the cast try to guess the outcome of the weekly mysteries, Bamber said: 'So I've got a confession.' His co-star Zahra Ahmadi pleaded: 'Oh, no, don't say it!' Munchetty guessed correctly: 'Do you only read your bits?' Bamber replied: 'Well, but Archie doesn't get involved in the crime.'
Bamber explained that he prefers to watch the finished episodes to guess the solution, rather than 'cheating' by reading ahead. 'All I am trying to do is win her affection,' he said, gesturing to Ahmadi, who plays Detective Sergeant Esther Williams. 'I read those bits and I work out how that's going to go. And then the crime thing, I leave.'
The actor previously joked he only has a few scenes per episode, and Munchetty teased: 'Do you think if you read the whole script, you'd get more than one or two scenes every episode?' Ahmadi also discussed the show's broad appeal, saying its format allows for multi-generational viewing without awkward moments.
Bamber praised the series for its nuanced crimes, noting: 'There's not often a murder committed. There's not often a body, actually. It's actually normally crimes where people with big hearts have tried to correct wrongs and done it the wrong way.' Both Beyond Paradise and BBC Breakfast are available on BBC iPlayer.
