Heartbeat (British TV series)
English television series
Heartbeat is a British police procedural period drama series, based upon the Constable series of novels written by Nicholas Rhea, and produced by Yorkshire Television until it was merged with ITV, then by ITV Studios, from 1992 until 2010. The series is set in the North Riding of Yorkshire during the 1960s, with plots centred on the fictional locations of Aidensfield and Ashfordly.
The programme initially starred Nick Berry, Niamh Cusack, Derek Fowlds, William Simons, Mark Jordon and Bill Maynard, but as more main characters were added to the series, additional actors included David Lonsdale, Jason Durr, Jonathan Kerrigan, Philip Franks, Duncan Bell, Clare Wille, Lisa Kay, Tricia Penrose, Geoffrey Hughes, Peter Benson and Gwen Taylor. Fowlds as Oscar Blaketon and Simons as Alf Ventress were the only actors to be in the programme for its entire 18 series run. Production of episodes involved filming of outdoor and exterior scenes around the North Riding, including in and around Whitby and Goathland, with interior scenes filmed at The Leeds Studios.
Heartbeat proved popular from the beginning, when early series consistently drew over 10 million viewers, achieving a peak audience of 13.82 million in 2001, and 12.8 million viewers in 2003. Its success eventually led to a spin-off series, titled The Royal, as well as a special episode, and three documentaries. In June 2010, ITV announced the cancellation of Heartbeat after its eighteenth series, following discussions on its future.
Premise
Heartbeat is a period drama set within the North Riding of Yorkshire during the 1960s. Plots for each episode are centred around the fictional locations of Aidensfield and Ashfordly, occasionally including the real town of Whitby.
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This entry incorporates text from “Heartbeat (British TV series)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.