(Photo: Getty Images)
With excitement building for the new season of Death in Paradise, which begins stateside May 3 on BritBox, we're making the show's longtime star Don Warrington our British Icon of the Week. Here are 10 things we admire and find interesting about this Trinidadian-born British actor.
1. He's an integral part of Death in Paradise. 
Warrington has played Commissioner Selwyn Patterson, the island of Saint Marie's top police officer, in all eleven seasons. "I don't know why Death in Paradise works but it is a phenomenon. People seem to love it," Warrington told The Big Issue in 2019. "What keeps me going back is trying to find new facets to make the character interesting over many years. And also, Guadeloupe is very beautiful! It is a very nice place to spend the summer. It is in the Caribbean, so in a way I am going home."

2. He guest-starred in an episode of Doctor Who. 
In "The Rise of the Cybermen," a 2006 episode set on a parallel Earth, Warrington plays the fictional President of Great Britain. It's a role that really taps into his natural gravitas. 

3. He was a good sport on Strictly Come Dancing.
Warrington competed on the U.K.'s version of Dancing with the Stars in 2008, finishing in a very creditable 7th place. He and dancing partner Lilia Kopylova scored an impressive 30 points (out of a possible 40) for their Tango.

4. He starred in the popular 1970s sitcom Rising Damp.
Written by Eric Chappell, it centered on a small-minded and miserly landlord, Rigsby (Leonard Rossiter), who lets out rooms to various tenants including erudite, well-spoken Philip (Warrington), whom he is threatened by. Rigsby's ignorance and insecurities manifest in racist comments that would be completely unacceptable today, something Warrington had addressed in interviews.
"In terms of the program's handling of racism, it's important to remember the nature of this country at the time," he told The Guardian last year. "Parts of society seemed very frightened of change, and I think Eric's writing reflected that. The strength of the show was that Rigsby's xenophobia came less from prejudice, more from a crippling self-doubt. Eric caught something of each tenant that allowed them to say things that, if said by somebody else in different circumstances, would be deeply offensive."
Warrington also pointed out that the bigoted arguments made by Rigsby in the show "never prevailed," adding: "And I think that’s very important. It meant that you were immediately aware of the ignorance of the character who was making those comments, as well as the ignorance of the comments themselves."
5. He returned to the world of Rising Damp in 2013.
That year, Warrington directed (but didn't appear in) a stage adaptation of Rising Damp that toured the U.K.. Discussing aspects of the show that haven't aged well, he told the BBC at the time:  "It's a period piece. It was set in its time and in its place. It's remaining a period piece. Nobody is going to pretend it's now. These characters couldn't exist today so it's firmly set in the late '60s, early '70s. People did hold the view that Rigsby holds, but I think we do have to, from time to time, revisit the past to see how we were then."
6. He made a memorable guest appearance in the cult sci-fi sitcom Red Dwarf.
Warrington appears in a 1992 episode as Binks, a pompous spaceship commander who believes his own crew is vastly superior to the Red Dwarf posse. It's interesting to note that the role teams him with Danny John-Jules, a Red Dwarf main cast member, nearly two decades before they starred together in Death in Paradise.

7. He has spoken candidly about his experiences of racism.
Warrington was born in Trinidad, then moved to Newcastle in Northeast England with his family as a child. He later moved to north London, where he still lives now, to pursue his acting career.
"Finding work as a Black actor was hard in the 1970s because the parts just weren’t there for someone such as myself, so I felt very much on the fringes of things," Warrington told The Times. "Luckily I got a part in a new Eric Chappell play, The Banana Box, and earned about £150 a week. The play was on long enough in the West End for someone to see its potential as a sitcom. So Eric adapted it for television, it was renamed Rising Damp, and the rest is history."
8. He is an accomplished stage actor.
Warrington won particular praise for playing the title role in a 2016 production of King Lear at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre. You can enjoy a glimpse of his performance below.
"I thought it was a joke when I was asked to do King Lear," Warrington told The Big Issue modestly. "Even after all these years, I never thought it was possible. There is a trajectory to these things if you grow up in classical theater. You play all these Shakespeare roles then maybe the pinnacle is Lear. But my career has been more, 'Whoops, there we go, here is another surprise!' I stumble upon things really."

9. He has been honored by Queen Elizabeth II.
Warrington was awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2008 Queen's Birthday Honors List for his services to drama.
10. And finally, he tells it like it is.
When asked what he dislikes about his appearance, Warrington told The Guardian: "I have to tell you, not much." A great answer!
Do you have a favorite Don Warrington performance?