Kris Marshall might now be best known for starring as Detective Inspector Humphrey Goodman in Beyond Paradise, but he used to be a familiar face on the small screen fronting adverts for BT.
The 51 year old appeared in 40 of BT’s TV adverts for an incredible six years, playing Adam opposite former Spooks actress Esther Hall, who starred as his on-off partner, Jane.
The public followed the ups and downs of the couple’s life, as well as Jane’s children from a previous relationship, including moving house, breaking up, getting pregnant and preparing for a wedding.
But in 2011, BT announced Kris would be written out of the series to make way for a new campaign. At the time, marketing director at BT Retail, David James, said: “We can confirm that Kris Marshall will not appear in the new ads. Kris has been an integral part of the much loved and extremely successful BT Family adverts which have run over the last decade.”
Yet Kris, who at the time was famous for appearing in the TV sitcom My Family, has confessed that he didn’t even have a pleasant experience as a BT customer during his stint. In the ads, viewers loved the on-screen relationship between Kris’s clumsy character Adam and Jane.
Kris disappointedly revealed: “I was supposed to get complimentary broadband, but it never happened.”
He laughingly added: “It was all, ‘Oh yes, don’t worry, that’ll all be taken care of’, and then suddenly I got a big bill.”
The unfazed actor explained, “I didn’t want to be seen as churlish so I just paid it. I did get fined for not paying my phone bill”, reported the Mirror.
He also admitted, “I didn’t want to be seen as churlish so I just paid it. I did get fined for not paying my phone bill.”
The actor’s amusing admission didn’t stop there. He mischievously shared with Radio Times: “It’s OK though. I’m with Sky now.”
Kris was forced to address a backlash against Beyond Paradise when he returned to the show last month.
Beyond Paradise, set in Shipton Abbott, follows his character, Humphrey, as he tackles various intriguing cases.
In an interview with Radio Times he shared the challenges of creating a show like Death in Paradise or its spin-off Beyond Paradise, which cater to a broad demographic and aim to unite families in shared viewing experiences.
Kris commented: “To make a show like ‘Death in Paradise’…that bonds all family members in the room, is incredibly hard to do. And to have people scorn it… I’m fine with it now but it bothered me a bit in the past. These shows are hard to make and they bring people together – that’s got to be lauded a little bit, right?”
Kris reflected on the success of the spin-off, stating: “It’s a show that harks back to a world that we still wish Britain was, a place where the world doesn’t take itself quite so seriously.
“The world has got too binary. It’s less nuanced. The world today takes itself so f***ing seriously.”
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