Paul Barber had to feed parrots for his guest role in ‘Death In Paradise’ and admits he got quite attached to his feathered co-stars.
The 62-year-old actor – who is famous for playing Denzil in ‘Only Fools and Horses’ – portrays bird guide Captain Jack in the next episode of the crime comedy/drama and although he was wary of his scenes with the parrots at first he soon grew to like them.
He said: "I play a guy called Captain Jack who is a twitcher guide, you know, a bird watcher. So I’m a local guide in Saint-Marie and I’ve got a load of twitchers and I’m about to show them where this very rare parrot is – the Saint-Marie Parrot. One of our twitchers gets killed, and then everybody is under suspicion, including Captain Jack.
"I shot a scene with a parrot in my office for Parrot Tours on the island. I’ve got a couple of parrots in my office and I had to feed them. Funnily enough the parrots were great, I even looked away when I was feeding them. They just gently take the nuts out of your hands, you think, ‘It’s going to bite my fingers off!’ But they gently take the nuts out from between your fingers. I had no problem with my animals and my parrots. I got quite fond of them."
Paul spent two weeks on location in Guadeloupe and he admits shooting the show – which stars Kris Marshall in the lead role as Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman – felt like a holiday at times because of the stunning Caribbean weather.
He told BANG Showbiz: "It wasn’t the hardest job! it was brilliant out there … I got to spend about two weeks in Guadeloupe, it was like a holiday. I got a couple of days off during filming and it was great to go round the island and go on a little tour. The crew, drivers, the runners everyone was brilliant. With it being an island on your day off, some of the drivers and runners would take you on a trip around the island. It was brilliant."
‘Death In Paradise’ continues on Tuesday 18 February at 9pm on BBC One.
Paul Barber made parrot pals on Death In Paradise
