Whilst on the Binge podcast the creator of Death in Paradise share exclusive details of how he came up with the idea behind the show. The weekly podcast hosted by Alex Jones and Harry Judd, featured an interview with the writer of the series as he where he divulged new information about the series He said that the series was actually inspired by true events, in particular a crime that happened during the 2007 cricket world cup in St Lucia. A former British cricketer and at the time Pakistani cricket coach was found mysteriously dead. The writer explained: “It came about because there was this chap called Bob Woolmer, who was the Pakistani cricket coach, who died of mysterious circumstances in a locked room in his bathroom and they had to break through the door." For the latest TV and showbiz gossip sign up to our newsletter. He continued: “It was front page news all around the world, that this important cricketer had died, and I read the next day that the British police were sending out a copper to solve this crime in the Caribbean because they didn’t think that the local bill would be able to solve it. I just went ‘oh my god, that’s a TV show isn’t it, that’s absolutely a TV show’. If Bob Woolmer hadn’t died, I wouldn’t have had the idea.” He added that he felt guilty that this event had inspired him especially after having met some of the former cricketer’s family. He said: “It’s an awful feeling. I met two of his nieces recently at a book event I was doing and I felt so chastened, because I’ve always felt quite guilty that there’s this real life tragedy, that like a vampire I just immediately jumped on and said ‘what can I do with that’.” Alex replied: “I mean Bob would probably be chuffed wouldn’t he. At least something came out of it.” Harry replied: “I’m absolutely shook. That is crazy, because I remember that, when Bob Woolmer died.” He also recalls an article he read at the time about St Lucia, and how that had partially inspired him too. He said: “There was a Conde Nast survey that they did that week that said St Lucia, where he died, was the fourth most beautiful island in the world according to their ruling, but it had the highest murder rate in the world per capita. So, again you’re going, ‘hang on, there’s a show in this’. Although, at first he struggled to get the series commissioned, once it was then taken up he had another challenge on his hands, coming up with the storylines and characters. Once again, Robert sought his love of cricket for inspiration. He explained: “I thought I’ve got to come up with who are the characters, so I got on Wikipedia and put all the West Indian cricketers and I picked Selwyn, we’ve got Dwayne Bravo in there somewhere, we have all of these different names Fidel, Best. I’m nicking first names and second names.” However, he wasn’t just inspired by West Indian cricketers when it came to naming characters on the show. When asked his desert island box set the writer said his answer would either be considered “charming” or "ghastly" as he picked his own series, Death in Paradise, although not for the reason you’d think. To which Alex Jones joked, “that’s like a busman’s holiday.” He explained: “I was so unsuccessful for so long that when the TV show came along it changed my life and the kids had just been born. Talking about making quick decisions, I named the guy who is killed in the first episode Charlie, because my first born is named Charlie and the one male suspect in that story is named James as our other son was named James who had just been born. “I did that because I thought they’d never know because they were tiny children, they don’t know they’ve just been put in a TV show. Little did I know that many years later they’d watch it and say to me ‘hang on, why are the two people in that called Charlie and James?’” He explained that despite never really re-watching the series, that he has fond memories of when he wrote certain episodes. He said: ”The show is the story of my children’s lives and I can remember where I was when I wrote an episode, when we were still living in Greenwich, when we moved out to Marlow. So, it’s the story of my life and I can remember so much, so it’s like a diary to me.”