Death in Paradise fans hope Ralf Little isn't leaving show after shock twist

Death in Paradise's latest episode ended on a shocking cliffhanger as Ralf Little's Neville Parker was seen getting on a plane to leave Saint Marie for good.

Fans of the BBC crime drama shared their hopes that the character would change his mind about leaving the police force, and would come back for Florence Cassell (Joséphine Jobert). The character made a welcome return to the series in episode 6 and helped investigate the death of a British tourist in episode 7, which required the team in Saint Marie to pair up with the team at Saint Auguste.

Read more: Death in Paradise fans bid emotional farewell to Marlon star Tahj Miles

But viewers were most distracted by the turn of events between Neville and Florence, who he previously had romantic feelings for. Earlier in the season Neville revealed his intentions to leave Saint Marie so that he could find love again, and it seems he was intent on following through with this in episode 7 when he was seen boarding a plane in its closing moments.

It was then that the words "to be continued" flashed up on the screen, suggesting it wasn't the last time fans would see Neville.

Ahead of the show's finale, fans shared their hopes and theories over what could take place with many in agreement as they took to social media to speculate.

One fan was shocked by the turn of events as they wrote: "TO BE CONTINUED???". But most viewers were intent on believing that Neville changed his mind about leaving Saint Marie, with one person writing: "Neville better not have boarded that plane !!!"

Another person added: "Ok, I’m going to go go for Neville didn’t get on the plane. Am I right?", while one viewer said: "Ah, Death in Paradise - did Neville get off that plane? We can but hope!!".

Several fans of the show shared a classic moment from American sitcom Friends where Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) chose not to get on a plane in favour of rekindling his romance with Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston). With one viewer saying it would be "Neville next week", and another concurred by saying: "I want this to be Neville".

There were also fans who shared their thoughts on Florence being back in Neville's life, sharing their hope that the characters could become a couple in future. Referencing a comment Florence makes, one person shared: "Florence missed Neville…….more than she thought she would…."

While another similarly wrote: "Florence is back & it seems from last week's preview for tonight that she may have realised her feelings for Neville are deeper than she believed. They can only be together if he's not her boss so I wonder how #DeathInParadise will play things out."

Speaking with Yahoo and other publications ahead of the show's return, Little teased how his character had to mend his broken heart by saying: "His confidence and belief in finding love and all of those things has been really knocked.

"So it's about him, a lot of it's [him] trying to recover from that and to learn to believe again, learn to be open to new experiences again, which is an ongoing theme with Neville from when he arrived on the island. There's a few twists and turns as well, a few surprises for him, a few surprises for the rest of the characters.

"I think this series is about Neville trying to repair his damaged heart and soul this series and, in many ways, that's the trickiest journey he's ever had to embark on yet."

Death in Paradise series 13 ends on Sunday, 24 March.

Watch the trailer for Death in Paradise series 13: