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.

Plot

First series

The first series dealt mainly with the experiences of a married couple, PC Nick Rowan and Doctor Kate Rowan, arriving in a small Yorkshire village after living in London. Both face initial suspicion from the villagers, but over the course of the series came to be accepted as part of the community. The stories focused almost entirely on the experiences of the two main characters. The build-up to the wedding of Sandra and Alan, two youngsters from the village, provided a running thread through the first series, however Sandra and Alan were never seen, or even mentioned, after the first series.

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Subsequent series

Once the characters had settled in, subsequent series focused more on the criminal and medical storylines, with a greater role for the other policemen at the Ashfordly station, who had appeared in the first series but only as quite minor supporting characters. Various new characters were introduced along the way, such as Gina Ward, played by Tricia Penrose. After Kate Rowan's death from leukaemia, Nick Rowan gained a new love interest, teacher Jo Weston. The two married and emigrated to Canada.

Related Topics:
Tricia Penrose - Canada

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As it reaches middle age, the show has become highly formulaic, with most episodes following a very similar structure. The main storylines are generally to do with criminal activity and related medical matters, and personal traumas. Typically one or more crimes take place, which are investigated by the local Aidenfield bobby (the central character) and the other policemen from the Ashfordly police station. The villains are almost always apprehended by the end of the episode, and usually appear for one episode only.

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In parallel, the regular "lovable rogue" character of the day dreams up some scheme or other, often involving making money on the fringes of the law. This forms the sub-plot. Sometimes these sub-plots are closely interweaved with the main storyline; other times they barely impinge and might be better termed "parallel plots".

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Other regular local characters get involved in the main plot or sub-plot in one way or another, with the Aidensfield Arms village pub and Aidensfield Garage featuring regularly.

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Storylines are usually resolved within the episode, but the development of the main characters and their personal relationships ? especially love interests ? takes place over many episodes or even series.

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