‘I’ve been stood up!’ swipes radio host as Ralf Little ditches show amid Death in Paradise replacement rumours

DEATH in Paradise star Ralf Little ditched a scheduled radio appearance as rumours of his replacement continue to swirl.

The 44-year-old actor announced that he was leaving the show last month after he played DI Neville Parker for five years.

Speculation continues to mount about who will take up the top inspector role as Harry Potter icon Rupert Grint stands as top of the odds.

This was also after Doc Martin star Martin Clunes was also named as a frontrunner for the high-profile BBC TV role.

Now it seems that Ralf Little may not want to be part of the Death In Paradise discussion after he swerved a high-profile media appearance.

Toby Tarrant – son of legendary presenter Chris Tarrant – sat in for Chris Moyles on his breakfast show.

He was joined in the studio by regular contributor Dominic Byrne as the actor was mean to to join them for an interview.

“All morning I’ve talked about how he’s regarded as one of the nicest and loveliest men in the business, and he stood me up.”

Dominic couldn’t help but agree as he concurred: “Yes, he has. There’s been a diary issue, hasn’t there? I think.”

The main presenter responded: “I mean, there’s two options here. I reckon either we’ll get a message saying, ‘We thought it was tomorrow,’ or you’ll have Ralf Little on the show next Thursday.

“The fact that we’ve heard nothing from Ralf Little or any of Ralf’s people would suggest to me that there’s been a big miscommunication because if they were running late, I like to think we’d have got some sort of heads up.

“Now, I guess the only good news I’ve got for you is I do have a story about a man in Florida with an alligator.”

He added: “And so I’m going to throw it out there. I don’t think we’re going to have Ralf Little on the show today.”

As Dominic agreed: “I don’t think so either.”

The actor was due to appear on the breakfast programme to promote his upcoming gigs with former Strictly Come Dancing star Will Mellor.

Toby remarked: “The irony is the reason it was to plug…No, hang on, hang on, the live shows are this weekend, so he can’t be on next Thursday.

As Dom said: “So they’re doing this podcast him and Will Mellor, aren’t they? Friday 26th of April, Saturday 27th of April, and Sunday 28th of April. So tomorrow he is in Nottingham.”

This was as Toby interjected: “It’s quite important that he’s on this morning … The plot thickens.”

After the pair played out a song by Florence And the Machine, they continued to speculate on Ralf’s whereabouts.

Toby sarcastically joked: “Still no Ralf Little, I don’t think we are going to see Ralf today unfortunately.

“I mean the saddest thing is, it’s intern Bella’s birthday, so he stood up intern Bella on her birthday which is bang out of order.

“If you’re listening, there has been a bit of miscommunication we assume and that’s why Ralf Little is not here.”

The actor later took to his social media profiles to clear up the incident, as he told his followers he was simply in the gym.

He also said how he accidently put the wrong date in the diary for his radio appearance.