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BBC Death in Paradise star says she ‘refused to film’ for unexpected reason

Former EastEnders’ star Nina Wadia has shared why shooting a guest role in Death in Paradise wasn’t all plain sailing despite the idyllic Caribbean setting. She played Anna Masani, a love interest for former Detective Inspector Jack Mooney, played by Ardal O’Hanlon, during the ninth series.

She featured in four episodes before her character left the beautiful Saint Marie alone, despite inviting Jack to travel the globe with her. This episode is set to be replayed on Friday, 19 July on BBC One.

However, filming in the tropical paradise of Guadeloupe wasn’t all you’d expect. During a recent episode of Channel 4’s Countdown, Nina shared: “It is a dream job. You get to bathe in the sunshine and swim in the sea and the current job is beautiful.”

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She further added: “It’s fantastic and actors fight over getting this job because it means you’re looking at something you don’t usually get to look at and you’re getting paid to look at it,” reports OK!

“You do a little bit of acting in-between everything else,” she continued, before unveiling an unexpected island secret that BBC bosses didn’t inform her about. “What they don’t tell you about is Scolopendras. They are the most hidden creatures. They can grow up to almost a meter long.”

She liked them to “centipedes with scorpion front bits. They’re really Jurassic.”

Recounting her own hair-raising experience, the shaken actress admitted she refused to shoot after a pest scuttled over her foot. “I had the misfortune of one running over my foot at one point during filming and it took me a while to get back onto the set,” Nina shared.

Nina as Zainab Masood in EastEnders

The actress expressed her trepidation regarding the local wildlife in the Caribbean, warning: “They can bite. They can sting you very badly and you have to be taken to hospital. I also wasn’t expecting the occasional flying cockroach in my bedroom,” she disclosed, mentioning that crabs frequently intruded upon their meals.

In contrast, Executive Producer Tim Key has downplayed the menacing scolopendras amid the production. He remarked before: “They are unpleasant but they’re not dangerous – there’s nothing there that is really dangerous. Someone got stung by a tiny one and he said it was the most painful one he’d ever had.”

Anna Masani wished that former Detective Inspector Jack Mooney would depart from Saint Marie with her, but instead, he chose to return to London with his daughter, Siobhan (Grace Stone). Ardal’s replacement, Ralf Little, stepped into DI Neville Parker’s shoes for four seasons, leaving the role last year.

Further revelations unearthed that Don Gilet is set to step into the detective’s shoes on the island, making his debut in the program’s feature-length Christmas special slated for December 2024.