Beyond Paradise exclusive: Zahra Ahmadi teases the finale — and why she originally thought Esther would never go for Archie

"Oh yeah, it's been great. As an actor you do all of the background work, and you know an awful lot about that character, their quirks, their vulnerabilities and their positive attributes, but it very much depends on the scripts and the storylines as to whether or not that can be shared any further than your own personal knowledge. But this series, as you said, Esther's been given the opportunity to show more sides of herself, and the fact that she is a well-rounded, three-dimensional person. She's not someone who lives for her job and doesn't know how to have fun — she's always known how to do that, but perhaps we haven't really seen it on screen."

"Well, yes and no. She definitely dates, but I think she only ever takes it to a certain point. She never allows herself to be vulnerable; she'll always keep her emotions in control and doesn't get emotionally-invested. She certainly knows how to date on a casual basis, but she doesn't engage any further than that, and I think that's where this relationship with Archie proves difficult, because it isn't as black-and-white as it is for her most of the time. There are some grey areas, and she finds herself opening up and becoming more vulnerable than she would choose to."

"I'm sure there is regret there, deep down, but I think more than that, it's just a real sadness. I think she feels a real sadness, and I don't think Esther quite trusts what that sadness is. I think she's always attributed it to grief, because of the loss of Zoe's father [who died just after Zoe was born] and knowing that family unit can never be.

"I think it's actually her barriers that make her sad; her grief is absolutely a contributing factor, and it could be one of the places that those barriers stem from, but I've got a feeling Esther's always been on that side of things anyway. She has her walls up, and she's very protective of herself and those around her.

"I think if we were to give her some time to reflect, yeah, there's maybe a regret there, but I think in that moment, more than anything she just feels a bit sad and flat, and I don't know that she understands fully why. On a very superficial level she does: she ended the relationship and most people feel sad when they do that, but I think she hasn't delved into it any more deeply than that, and to deal with it on that level suits her. But I think she needs to look inside herself a little bit if she wants happiness at any point. That's my opinion! [laughs]"

"I absolutely love working with Jamie, hand-on-heart, he is such a generous actor. There's no ego, he brings so much to the table, he wants to play, and so every scene we did, we were constantly doing different takes and versions and challenging each other, so I've really enjoyed working with him very much.

"However, when this was first pitched to me, I said 'no, absolutely not' — not as in 'no, I'm not going to do it', but I just meant that I didn't see that Esther would go for Archie. Esther's really proud of where she's from, she's a proud Devon girl, so I always imagined her dating pool is farmers, maybe fishermen — people whose jobs are really rooted in the landscape within the community. Jamie and I did another interview like this and he was like, 'hey hey hey, Archie's local, he's got a vineyard!' and I was like, 'yes, but you know what I mean!' Esther's very salt-of-the-earth, she's very what-you-see-is-what-you-get, she's got that toughness about her and I just didn't know that she would go for Archie.

"But our executive producer, Tim Key, said 'trust me, I felt the same, but you need to read Tony [Jordan]'s scripts and then tell me what you think'. So I got really early versions of episodes one and two and read them, and I thought 'yeah, I get it!' Tony is such a brilliant writer, his magic is knowing the characters and being able to work so brilliantly, and in my opinion it did work, definitely."

"Yeah, I think Esther is so massively capable, and its nice to show that. Humphrey [Esther's boss DI Humphrey Goodman, played by Kris Marshall] brings brilliance of thought in the sense that he just thinks in a different way and that enables breakthroughs that not many people would be able to have, that's his USP, but Esther's is that she's so deeply rooted in the community. She grew up there, she knows the landscape, she knows the surrounds and how it all works, and she has all those years of experience of community policing, which is very different to the Met [where Humphrey was previously based], which is also different to Saint Marie [in Death in Paradise], and in those episodes where she leads, I think we get to see those attributes put into practice and see the strengths she brings. Combined with Humphrey's, they make a pretty good team."

"Oh yeah, really much so. I'm a proud West Country girl, I really love where I'm from, it's a beautiful part of the world, and I think we get to see that on screen. I really love that people are indulging in that whether they're from the area or not. Anyone that I've encountered from the West County is a really big fan of the show, and that means a lot as well because you want people to be happy with how everything's represented on screen. We're really lucky, we have really kind, warm, generous fans who always want to come up and just have a little chat. They say thank you, and I say, 'no, thank you for watching it because it means we get to keep making it, so I'm just thrilled that you enjoy it!"