By Simon Murphy for The Mail on Sunday

Death In Paradise star reveals he was infected with Zika while filming in the Caribbean and claims ‘quite a lot’ of the infected Britons may have come from the cast of the BBC show

• Tony Gardner said he was bitten by an infected mosquito while filming
• Claims that ‘quite a lot’ of 265 Britons infected worked on the show
• He conceded that he should have taken more precautions when abroad

A star of the hit BBC series Death In Paradise has revealed he contracted the Zika virus while filming the show in the Caribbean.

Tony Gardner said he was bitten by an infected mosquito while shooting scenes for the crime comedy in the islands of Guadeloupe this summer.

He has also made the extraordinary claim that ‘quite a lot’ of the 265 Britons officially identified as having been infected since the outbreak may have come from the cast and crew of the popular show.

Last night Red Planet Pictures, which makes the drama for the BBC, confirmed that ‘a small number [of cast and crew] were unwell after having been bitten’ but did not provide further details.

Mr Gardner caught the virus during a two-week stint filming a guest role on the sixth series of the show, due to be released in the New Year, which chronicles the murder investigations of detectives on the fictional island of Saint Marie and is watched by more than eight million people.

The 52-year-old actor, who is a trained doctor and has starred in comedies The Thick Of It and Fresh Meat, discovered he had the virus after developing a rash shortly before flying home in September.

He said: ‘There are now about 200 Brits who have had Zika, but quite a lot of them, possibly, come from the group of people that go out to Guadeloupe for six months a year to film.’

Mr Gardner added: ‘About a couple of hours before I flew out I got a rash. And then for a week I wasn’t particularly well with joint pain and swelling… I just felt pretty rough actually. It’s not a problem for me because I’ve finished my family. It’s quite dangerous for people getting pregnant or men starting families.’

According to Public Health England, 265 British travellers have been identified as being infected by the virus.

Of those, 190 cases are associated with travel to the Caribbean. Mr Gardner, speaking on comedian Sean Hughes’s latest podcast, conceded that he should have taken more precautions against catching the virus, adding: ‘In retrospect, I probably should have been a bit more fierce with the anti-mosquito repellent.’

The Zika virus has been linked to a birth defect called microce-phaly, which causes children to be born with brain damage and abnormally small heads.

Last month officials revealed that a woman in the UK was thought to have been infected with the virus through sexual transmission.

A spokesman for Red Planet Pictures said: ‘We take the safety of all of our cast and crew seriously and made all actors aware of the potential medical issues that may arise when filming in the Caribbean, including the risk of the Zika virus.’

IMAGES:

Mr Gardner, a star of the hit BBC series Death In Paradise, revealed he contracted the Zika virus while filming the show in the Caribbean

Real-life drama: Tony Gardner was bitten by a mosquito while filming Death In Paradise in the Caribbean

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