HEARTBEAT 10th ANNIVERSARY 1992- 2002

HEARTBEAT'S ACTORS

(Alphabetically listed)

Nick Berry (PC Nick Rowan)

Nick originally played the lead in the series, the role most strongly based on the constable in the Nicholas Rhea’s novels. Nick was in Heartbeat for 7 series’ from 1992 - 1998. Nick has said he misses Heartbeat, and that he’s had some of the best times of his life whilst working on the show including getting married in 1994 to actress/model Rachel Robertson,(who appeared in Heartbeat herself in series 2 ‘Wall of Silence’). The things that he’s reportedly missed most since leaving the series are the friends he made and the lovely location where the series is filmed. His main reason for leaving the show was to spend more time with his family. He has two small children Louis and Finlay. Being reputedly known as a committed family man, when he heard that the series from now on would be 24 episodes long, instead of 16, he decided that it would mean too much time away from home. He is a major football fan and an avid West Ham supporter. Nick also loves classic cars including the MGTA that he drives in Heartbeat. He himself owns an E Type Jaguar.

Nick was from a background completely unconnected with show business, where his father worked as a lorry driver. He started as a child actor, by performing in shows that toured old peoples homes and hospitals. It was Sylvia Young of the famous stage school who launched his career. He also did adverts as a child before going on to tour in Oliver. His first big break came when he was 22 when he won the role of Simon Wicks on EastEnders, which he played for 5 years. He then spent a short time doing, theatre, radio and other parts on TV. Then Heartbeat came along, which with its huge success, increased Nick’s popularity once more, which made him allegedly, the highest paid television actor in Britain. His other main TV credits include, Paparazzo, Restless, Black Velvet Band, and Harbour Lights. Nick has recently starred in the black comedy 'The Mystery of Men' and the crime doubles series 'In Deep'. He has his own production company called Valentine productions. Although its not Nick’s favourite occupation, he has had a brief but successful music career. With 2 hit singles. Firstly a no. 1 for 3 weeks with ‘Every loser Wins’ and then a no. 2 single with the theme tune to Heartbeat.

Nick was nominated in 1995 for the most popular actor in the British Television Awards.

Niamh Cusack (Dr. Kate Rowan)

Niamh is the daughter of the famous Cyril Cusack and sister of actresses Sinead, Sorcha and Catherine. Niamh originally trained to be a flautist at the Royal College of Music She soon realised however that the life working with classical music wasn't for her, and she didn't enjoy playing the flute enough to make it her career.
One Saturday she decided to take some French classes at the City Lit in Covent Garden, but they had drama classes on the same day so she went along and ended up signing up for lessons. Niamh then won a place at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and her career took of from there.
She is a classically trained actress so Heartbeat was her first role in a long running series, her experience before that was mainly in theatre. She took the researching for her role as a doctor very seriously and spent a lot of time quizzing real life doctors of the 60’s for advice. Her relationship with Nick is great on screen and off. She says that was due to "the ``sort of bubbly relationship we have on screen" and to mutual admiration and liking. One drawback of Heartbeat for Niamh was the cold weather she had to endure up in Yorkshire. Eventually she was provided with a sheepskin duffel coat to try and make her more comfortable!

Other credits include mostly classical theatre, a part in the drama series Poirot, and more recently she starred in Catherine Cookson’s ‘Colour Blind’ then in Rhinoceros alongside Robson Green. Niamh is currently starring as a Doctor called Christine in the very sucessful medical drama for ITV called 'A & E'.

Jason Durr (PC Mike Bradley)

Jason, was born in Singapore, where his Dad was in Telecommunications, but moved to Hongkong for 15 years when his Dad was posted there. He has two elder brothers who are not involved in show business. Jason attended an English boarding school as a child and went straight from there onto drama school. He met his wife Janine who is a singer/songwriter in London when he had small parts in a couple of TV dramas. Heartbeat has been his big break, in which he is extremely popular, and is often classified as the ‘new heart throb’ after the departure of Nick Berry. He says he is very different from his screen character. He is not one to go out on the town all the time, and doesn’t drink or smoke at all. Although he doesn’t have children yet he would really like to in the future.
His hobbies include Scuba diving, Rock climbing and he loves motorbikes, including the one he gets to ride as mike Bradley.Other credits include, ‘Sharpe’s Battle’, ‘Inspector Morse’,’Bugs’ and ‘The Chief’

Peter Firth ( Dr James Radcliffe)

Peter joined Heartbeat for the 4th series only. Before this he had an impressive theatre and film record.. However a regular TV series he featured in was the children's BBC programme The Flaxton Boys . Peter was also involved in the series 'Double Deckers'. His more recent films include 'Letter to Brezhnev' and Richard Attenborough's 'Shadows' He has also appeared in' An Awfully Big Adventure'. In 1973 he worked at the National Theatre playing Alan Strang in 'Equus'. He went to Broadway with this play and was nominated for a Tony Award.

He was born in Yorkshire and his parents ran a pub in Pudbsey. He started acting when he was still at Hanson High School. He went to Saturday drama classes at Bradford Civic Drama Club and doing walk on parts for YTV.

Derek Fowlds (Sgt. Oscar Blaketon - rtd)

In the late 60's he became known as Mr. Derek, - partner of TV puppet Basil Brush which was very successful. He then went on to star in both 'Yes Minister' and 'Yes Prime minister' where he played Bernard the Principle Private Secretary to Paul Eddington. Series such as this gave him a great reputation as a comedy actor in sit coms. When Heartbeat came along he was delighted to have the opportunity to star as a regular in a TV Drama.

Derek likes to give the characters he plays a background to establish their history. This is what he thinks Blaketon's past entails: His father died in the war and he had to go and live in Leeds when his mother died 4 years later. This is when he joined the army and after he was demobbed he joined the police. He married and they had their son Graham before they split due to him spending too much time working. He thinks the feud between him and Greengrass is because Claude's sister was his wife's mother, who really didn't get on, so its due to some sort of family history. Derek likes to explore all sides of his multi dimensional character.

He left school at 15 to become an apprentice printer. Worked in a factory then joined the RAF, which is when he started acting. Afterwards he won a scholarship to RADA, did 4 years in rep and went onto Broadway with 'Chips With Everything'.

He has guested in 'Van Der Valk', 'Perfect Scoundrels' and 'The Darling Buds Of May' It has been rumoured recently that he has considered leaving Heartbeat as his role has decreased since Blaketon was forced to retire and run the post office - lets's hope this isn't true!

Stuart Golland (George Ward)

Stuart is from Yorkshire and is a plasterer by trade, and worked in the building trade for 12 years. However he got a job as a part time bar man in the isle of Wight in 1968, which led on to him becoming the manager. After this he quit building and became bar manager of Top Rank Club opposite the Crucible Theatre, which is how he became interested in acting. However it seemed out of reach so he decided he wanted to join the Merchant navy but nothing came of it, so he started taking drama at the Welsh College of Music and Drama. In 1973 he got a job at the Fringe Theatre and later spent a year at the National Theatre working with Eric Porter.

Heartbeat has been his biggest break, but unfortunately he had to retire before series 7 due to ill health. Other credits include 'Water Front Beat', 'Stay Lucky', 'Emmerdale', 'Rumpole' and 'Coronation Street'.

Juliette Gruber (Jo Weston/Rowan)

Juliette left Heartbeat at the end of series 7 because she didn't get enough time to spent with the man in her life who lives in France. She was born on Long Island to American parents, but they came to England when she was only 12 months old.Her uncle is veteran actor Walter Matthau and her father was a journalist. Her father had a strong influence on Juliette and encouraged her to have an education. She studied Classics and Philosophy at Trinity College in Dublin. After that she spent a while travelling and had only been an actress for 4 years when she left Heartbeat. But her other credits include: 'Soldier Soldier', 'Kavana QC', and 'Between The Lines'. Her main ambition is to have a family.

Mark Jordon (PC Phil Bellamy)

Mark had experience of police stations as a child, as his mum worked as a civilian secretary at Oldham Police Station, so he spent a lot of time with policemen. His first job on leaving school was at a painter and decorators shop. He became involved in acting when he joined a local youth theatre, and went on to win a place at the Oldham Theatre Workshop. To get an equity card he set up a theatre group to perform in Lancashire pubs and clubs. His other credits include, playing a policeman in 'Coronation Street', a children's TV series called 'Sea View' and a lot of theatre work. He is married to Siobhan Finneran who played Heather Hutchison in Emmerdale.and have already started a family.

Bill Maynard (Claude Greengrass)

Bill’s character was originally meant to be just a supporting role, but with Bill’s success in making his character larger than life and extremely funny, Claude Greengrass now features as a main character. Completely opposite in appearance to the ‘skinny ferret of a man’ in the original Constable novels, Bill sets out to bring out the comedy element in the show. He is also known to be just as funny off screen!
One of Claude’s main features is the twitching of his eyes when he’s lying or embarrassed. Bill got this idea from someone he once knew, and it suits Claude well!
Bill reckons that Claude has a funny kind of affinity with Rowan, because they’re both on their own, Claude because he’s the village rogue and Nick because he’s from down South. In the same way he and Kate have a soft spot for each other. Therefore he look on him differently to Blaketon, with whom he is the arch enemy! This relationship with the Aidensfield bobby has continued with Mike Bradley and it works well. Bill likes to play Claude or any character in his own way and with his vast acting experience the crew of Heartbeat accept that. He started as a band singer in Butlins in 1952, with his first television series being with Terry Scott.

Other credits include: Great Scott it's Maynard, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Semi Detached, Till Death Do Us Part film, Dennis Porter Plays, series called ‘The life of Riley’, Oh No its Selwyn Froggit, and The gaffer, plus a lot more. He has also recorded a country and western version of ‘Heartbeat’. Unfortunately Bill had to leave Heartbeat during series 10 due to health problems.

Frank Middlemass (Dr Alex Ferrenby)

Frank was 73 when his Heartbeat character was killed off, which he known to have said he regrets but understood it. His father was a director of a Liverpool shipping company and his family would have strongly disapproved of him going into the acting profession. Therefore he joined the army served in the war and did another 4 years in Egypt afterwards. He had always known that he wanted to act and eventually joined a rep company in Penzance. He was known in the 80's for the BBC radio role of Dan Archer. He is a regular in 'As Time Goes By' and in 1994 worked at the King's Head Theatre. Frank lives in Chiswick, West London but was brought up on Teeside, so inevitably he grew to love North Yorkshire where he filmed Heartbeat.

Kazia Pelka (Maggie Bolten)

Kazia has recently married Brian Jorden who is a writer/actor and they now have an Edwardian house in South East London. She says she loves plying Maggie and has a lot in common with her, in that she is very down to earth. Her dad is polish and her mum, Irish. Her dad came to England when he was 17 and fought in the polish resistance. He got a job in Saudi Arabia to earn money for his two children to go to drama school.(Her brother is also an actor who appeared in an episode of Heartbeat during series 5 'Sitting on the Dock of the Bay') Kazia was best known for playing Anna Wolshka in Brookside before joining Heartbeat in series 5. Kazia left Heartbeat during series 10 because she wanted to try new roles. Kazia has recently made a guest appearance in the ITV drama 'Peak Practice'.

Tricia Penrose (Gina Ward)

Tricia joined Heartbeat in series 2 and has grown to love some features of the 60's especially the music. Before Heartbeat she was in Brookside, Emmerdale, Medics, Boon and had a small part in Coronation Street. She is also a very talented singer. She used to sing in the pubs and clubs with her mum in her home town of Kirby they called themselves 'Second Image'.She then went on to sing in other bands and a duo named 'Impulse'. She has sang in heartbeat on a number of occasions including: 'A Talent For Deception', 'Bringing it all Back Home', 'Thanks to Alfred', ' Nice Girls Don't' , 'Toss Up' and again during series 8. Tricia released the song 'Where did your Love Go' for which the video version included some of the Heartbeat cast. Tricia sang 'Crying in the Rain' in the first episode of series 10 - which features on the 10th anniversary Heartbeat CD.

William Simons (PC Alf Ventress)

William lives in Beckhole about half a mile from Goathland. In the past William has played a number of policemen, apart from Ventress, including:Inspector Alleyns right hand man in 'Inspector Fox', and in the 80's he played DC Thackery in 'Cribb'.  He was born and educated in South Wales and his father was a solicitor. William says that he never watches himself on TV because he is too critical. He is very different from Alf Ventress - and he doesn't smoke!  His other credits include: 'Crown Court', Darling Buds of May' and 'Doctor Who'

Tramp (Alfred)

Tramp played Alfred from series 1-7, but unfortunately had to retire after this due to his age (he was 12 when he finished). He is a great audience puller and was treated with celebrity status. His present owner found him in a poor state in Manchester. She took him to the police station but when she heard that after 7 days if no one claimed him he would have to be put down, she decided she'd have to take him home. But she couldn't keep him as he was in an unhealthy state, had a poor coat and was aggressive. She took him along to a show in Cheshire to find him a new owner which is how he came across his present owner Brenda Tenton.  Sue Beale of Woofers agency was asked to find a lurcher for Heartbeat and had seen Tramp in dog training class, and thought he'd be perfect for Claude's faithful companion - and he was! A dog named Rosie took on the role in series 8, but in series 9 Alfred will be played by her brother 'Boots'.

New actors coming soon - sorry, research in progress, any help gratefully appreciated!

Acknowledgement - The Official Heartbeat Companion Book for series 1-4