Death in Paradise’s Ralf Little recalls teen sister’s ‘devastating’ death from cliff fall

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Ralf Little, 41, has revealed how losing his sister as a child spurred him to have success in his life and career. Ralph was nine when his 14-year-old sister fell to her death.

It could have gone either way.

Ralf Little

Ralf’s sister Ceri fell 150ft to her death from a cliff during a family holiday to Cornwall.

The actor believes the tragedy was partly to blame for his parents’ divorce, with his older sister Rowena being deeply affected by the situation.

Speaking about that period in his life, he said: “It was devastating. It’s incredibly difficult to recover from something like that, particularly as parents.

“Out of everyone in the family I was the one that was affected least because I was nine-years-old. Kids are quite resilient anyway, but I just had stuff to get on with, all these activities.”

Ralf continued: “It could have gone either way. I could have gone to school and just had this massive meltdown, rebelling, and being angry. I know now I was absolutely filled with rage.

“But I channelled that rage into getting all of life and giving it a kicking.

“So, my grades went up. My achieving excellence at school just like, I was on every team; I was winning prizes.”

Ralf opened up about the period in his life when he was interviewed on Radio 4 by Reverend Richard Coles, according to the Mirror. 

He told Reverend Richard about his family tragedy due to his book on grief resonating with him.

Ralf continued: “I came out fighting. Ceri was a real tour de force of a personality. She and I didn’t really get on that well but that’s because I was a snotty younger brother.

“Rowena, my middle sister, was very much Ceri’s shadow. She used to follow her around and do what she was told because she was the older sister and she loved her. I think she was quite lost for a few years.

“She just kind of had no guidance, really. She had no one to follow. Suddenly, she’s got to be the oldest and just go, ‘Where do I fit in the world?’”

Ralf said his parents struggled for about 10 years then split up.

He said, however, he “won’t blame them for that” as “grief is such a difficult thing” that people “process differently”.

Ralf returned to our screens last Friday on Death in Paradise, having spent much of the time filming in the Caribbean.

His partner is American so he also spent a lot of time in Florida.

And upon his return, Ralf, who was born in Bury, wasn’t too impressed.

The 41-year-old, who plays DI Neville Parker in the BBC series, returned home confessing “it’s horrible”.

He added to the Mirror: “I hate to say this, but I’m over it. I’m from Manchester so I grew up in the cold, wet and drizzle. I was back two days and was like, ‘This sucks’.

“I’ve been away for 18 months and not been cold.

“As I was flying into Heathrow I looked out the window and as far as I could see, stretching out across the horizon, was a thick cloud.”

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