Heartbeat (television)

Heartbeat is a British television series which began in 1992 on Yorkshire Television. Now in its 15th series, it has clocked up over 250 episodes. The show is set in the 1960s and revolves around the work of a group of police officers in the fictional North Yorkshire town of Ashfordly, whose "patch" also includes the nearby village of Aidensfield, a fictionalised version of the real-life village of Goathland in the North York Moors, where the series is mostly filmed. Each episode is an hour long, including commercial breaks.

Characters and cast

Police

Aidensfield village bobbies

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• Nick Berry as PC Nick Rowan, later Sgt (1992-1998). Newly arrived from London to become Police Constable for Aidensfield, Nick was good natured and became very popular with the people of Aidensfield. Very happily married to Dr. Kate Rowan (who later died) and with whom he had a daughter, Katy, Nick was affected deeply by Kate's death. About two years later, Nick met school teacher, Jo Weston, and they started courting, and later married. Several months after his wedding with Jo, Sgt. Rowan accepted an offer to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and left Aidensfield, with Jo and Katy, to go to Canada.
• Jason Durr as PC Mike Bradley, later acting DC (1997-2003). Motorcycle-riding Aidensfield village bobby, sometimes transforming into square-jawed action hero, to be found grappling with armed villains, dragging survivors from collapsing quarry workings, jumping onto the roofs of trains etc. Husband of the solicitor Jackie Bradley. After he and Jackie divorced as a result of her infidelity, he started seeing Dr. Tricia Summerbee, and they were on the point of becoming engaged when she died suddenly. Dr. Summerbee's death hit him very hard.
• Jonathan Kerrigan as PC Rob Walker (2004-). Aidensfield bobby, almost identical in character to his predecessor Mike Bradley, though perhaps with a tougher background (his father is in prison for theft). Engaged in an affair with the still married Dr Helen Trent.

Ashfordly police sergeants

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• Derek Fowlds as Sgt Oscar Blaketon, now retired (1992-). After retirement from the police force, Blaketon became proprietor of Aidensfield post office and general stores, and later owner of the Aidensfield Arms (pub). Also an occasional amateur sleuth. He has a reputation for being cynical and suspicious, but he has a soft side too, and has at various times been a voice of wisdom or shoulder to cry on for younger policemen facing moral dilemmas or personal traumas.
• Philip Franks as Sgt Raymond Craddock (1998-2002). Welsh disciplinarian, rather vain and pompous. Noted for his sarcasm, he delivered some of the more amusing lines in the show to date. His favourite hobby is ballroom dancing.
• Duncan Bell as Sgt Dennis Merton (2002-2004). A straightlaced and honourable Scotsman to whom the men were loyal. He married the much younger pharmacist Jenny Latimer. Left the series to move nearer to the hospital where Jenny was being treated after her mental breakdown.
• Georgie Glen as Sgt Noakes (2003-). Occasional stand-in sergeant.
• John Duttine as Sgt George Miller (2004-).

Other Ashfordly police

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• William Simons as PC Alf Ventress (1992-). Likeable, soft-spoken Yorkshireman. Famed for his encyclopedic local knowledge, his smoking habit, and his occasional lapses (sleeping on the job) and eccentricities (penchant for boiled eggs). His wife, "Mrs Ventress", is regularly referred to by name but has never appeared in person. In his younger years Ventress had a gambling problem, but that is now under control. He is now retired from active police duty, but remains working in a civilian capacity at Ashfordly police station.
• Mark Jordon as PC Phil Bellamy (1992-). Nice enough bloke, but lacking personality. Once engaged to Gina Ward (see below), whose child he fathered.
• Ryan Early as PC Tom Nicholson (2001-2002). A rookie who met an early death.
• James Carlton as PC Steve Crane (2003-2004)
• Steven Blakely as PC Geoff Younger (2004-). Fresh-faced bumbling rookie cop.

Medical

• Frank Middlemass as Dr. Alex Ferrenby (1992-1993). Died from a heart attack while fishing.
• Niamh Cusack as Dr. Kate Rowan (1992-1995). Married to PC Nick Rowan, she moved from London to Aidensfield with him when he was made Police Constable for the area. A nice and caring person, she found it difficult to practice medicine in Aidensfield, due to a bias there against female doctors. Even Aidensfield's resident doctor, Dr. Ferrenby, was not encouraging to Kate, although he later accepted Kate as his junior partner. Kate took over the practice completely, following Dr. Ferrenby's death from a heart attact. Although Kate and Nick were delighted when Kate found that she was pregnant, Kate was horrified to discover, during the pregnancy, that she was suffering from leukemia, and she kept the information about her illness a secret from Nick and the townspeople. Kate also refused life-saving medication, which might have kept her alive, because she was worried about the medication having an adverse effect on her unborn baby. Due to her sacrifice, she died, from the leukemia, shortly after she gave birth to her and Nick's daughter Katy. (When Katy was a pre-schooler, she was taken, by her father, Sgt. Nick Rowan, and her step-mother, Jo, to Canada with them, when her father joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.)
• Kazia Pelka as Maggie Bolton (1995-2001). Caring district nurse. Married to Dr Neil Bolton, with whom she had a son, Sam, born after his death. Left the series after accepting a hospital job.
• David Michaels as Dr. Neil Bolton (1997-1999). Died trying to save a child from a house fire, leaving his pregnant wife Maggie to bring up their son.
• Clare Calbraith as Dr. Tricia Summerbee (2000-2002). A very caring and compassionate doctor who had suffered from a heart condition since childhood, her relationship with PC Mike Bradley began when she showed compassion for him over the break-up of his marriage. She and PC Bradley were about to become engaged when her accidental involvement in one of the cases that he was working on as a DC led her to attempt to assist him and the police on horseback. She fell off the horse and died from her injuries.
• Aislín McGuckin as Dr. Liz Merrick (2003-2004)
• Sarah Tansey as Jenny Latimer (later Merton) (2001-2004). Pharmacist, married to Sgt Merton. Left the series when she suffered a mental breakdown and was taken into care.
• Sophie Ward as Dr. Helen Trent (2004-). Another in the long line of caring medical characters. Helen moved to the area with her husband, but they soon separated and she embarked upon an affair with PC Rob Walker while awaiting a divorce but still in fact married. Helen is noted for her flowing golden tresses and her soft, posh voice.

"Lovable rogue" lineage

• Bill Maynard as Claude Jeremiah Greengrass (1992-2000). Curmudgeonly yet lovable old rogue, always getting into scrapes. Although he often had troubles with the police, he did come to have a (slightly grudging) respect for Nick Rowan. Left the series to join his sister in the Caribbean. This was due to Maynard's illness. The character later appeared in the spin-off, The Royal.
• Geoffrey Hughes as Vernon Scripps (2001-2005). Bernie Scripps' half brother. Small-time businessman and entrepreneur. Replaced Claude Greengrass as the author of the hare-brained schemes which drive the show's various sub-plots. He landed a windfall by discovering very valuable modern art, and seemed set for life. But he agreed to insure an oil tanker, which was lost at sea, so Vernon lost all the money he had gained.
• Gwen Taylor as Peggy Ashcroft (2004-). David Stockwell's aunt. Indomitable old battleaxe, created in the Claude Greengrass / Vernon Scripps tradition to dream up colourful wheezes and bully David Stockwell.

Other regular

• Stuart Golland as George Ward, publican (1992-1996).
• Tricia Penrose as Georgina ("Gina") Ward (1993-). Spirited Liverpudlian, landlady of the Aidensfield Arms. The tearaway niece of publican George Ward, Gina was sent to Ashfordly by her parents to straighten her life out. Much to her own surprise, Gina found the pace of life in Ashfordly to her liking, and rapidly dropped her previous rebellious ways. She became the licensee of the pub after the death of her uncle. Once engaged to PC Phil Bellamy, she fell pregnant to him and gave birth to a premature baby who died in infancy. Their engagement was then broken off, though they remain on good terms.
• Juliette Gruber as Jo Rowan (née Weston) (1995-1998). Teacher. Left the series with her husband, Sgt Nick Rowan, to go to Canada where she continued her career as a teacher.
• Anne Stallybrass as Eileen Reynolds, Kate Rowan's aunt (1995-1998). Visited Nick and Kate Rowan, in order to give Kate a legacy from her uncle (Eileen's late husband). After Kate dies from leukemia, Eileen returns to Aidensfield to assist Nick Rowan in the rearing of Katy, Nick's and Kate's daughter. Eileen then stays on after the marriage of Nick and Jo Weston to continue to assist with Katy. Eileen leaves Aidensfield after rekindling a Second World War romance with a Frenchman.
• Peter Benson as Bernard ("Bernie") Scripps (1995-). Proprietor of Aidensfield Garage, mechanic and undertaker, though he appears to be some way past retirement age. A melancholy individual, he is often roped (reluctantly) into madcap escapades by Claude Greengrass and (later) his half-brother Vernon Scripps.
• David Lonsdale as David Stockwell (first appeared as a one-off character in 1994, regular 1996-). Village buffoon. Clumsy, slow-witted, easily-led and uneducated, but with the proverbial "heart of gold". Whipping boy first to Claude Greengrass, then Vernon Scripps, then Peggy Ashcroft. Usually accompanied by his dog Alfred, a lurcher which he "inherited" from Claude Greengrass.
• Fiona Dolman as Jackie Bradley (née Lambert) (1999-2001). Smart, hard-working and successful solicitor, often acting on behalf of individuals under arrest. She met PC Mike Bradley through her work, and they married, rather in haste. Jackie always seemed slightly ambiguous about the relationship, and she felt "suffocated" in the isolated rural community. Conflicts of interest also arose from her position defending criminals arrested by her husband. She later started an affair with one of her clients, whom she had known only a matter of weeks. Following this, she and Mike Bradley divorced.
• Vanessa Hehir as Rosie Cartwright (2004-). Mechanic, works for Bernie Scripps at Aidensfield Garage. Daughter of a local farmer. Implausibly young and pretty to be getting her nails dirty in Bernie's workshop.
• Rupert Vansittart as Lord Ashfordly (1992-). Minor aristocrat. His seat is Ashfordly Hall, an old country house surrounded by a large estate. A "get off my land" character, he must have a bob or two since he employs numerous maids, housekeepers, gamekeepers, gardeners etc. His first name is Charles and he appears to be a bachelor. He has a sister called Patricia ("Patty") who has appeared a few times.

Recurring

• Richard Lintern as Ben Norton, groundsman (2004)