One actress who almost dated Death in Paradise star Ralf Little confessed his “mask slipped” and he showed his true colours while they were spending time together. Lost in Austen star Jemima Rooper first met the actor in a nightclub in 2002, revealing: “I do remember his party trick was being able to undo girls’ bras quickly.”

Part of the same group of friends, Jemima said the pair almost ended up together as they have “a lot in common”. But behind the mask, there was something deeper. She told The Independent back in 2008: “He’s very personable and loud when you first meet him, but that masks his sweet side: one on one he is incredibly sensitive.

“He’s also very ambitious and talented – and very clever. He plays the fool but we quite often have competitive conversations about how many As we got at school. He beat me – I’ve got three As at A-Level but he has four or five. In fact, he’d started doing a medical degree when he got The Royle Family.”

Around two years after they first met, friends tried to set them up on a date together, but Jemima said they were “too similar” to work long-term. She admitted that the actor “flirts with everyone”, and admitted: “I can imagine use when we’re about 80, still single, sitting in a pub, still flirting – and he'll be trying to undo my huge granny bra…”

It turns out that nearly two decades later in 2025, Ralf is single again after splitting from his fiancée Lindsey Ferrentino. The pair called it quits last year, six years after getting engaged, with Ralf signing up to celebrity dating app Raya, according to MailOnline.

The publication reported he has already “been seen getting close” to fellow actress Shelley Lankovits, who worked with him on Death in Paradise as assistant director.

A source told the publication: “They were quite tactile together, sharing the odd kiss - it looked like they were more than just mates. They were clearly very into each other and didn't care that people had spotted them. It was all very cosy.”

As for Jemima, she got engaged to her partner Ben Ockrent and they share two sons together.