Another portrayal of a fine, upstanding Healey driver:
Heartbeat is a
British police drama series set in 1960s
North Riding of Yorkshire and broadcast on
ITV in 18 series between 1992 and 2010.
The show is set in the 1960s, although the specific timeframe is vague; various episodes within the series take place in a loosely defined "time-out-of-time" between 1964 and 1969. The series initially revolves around the work of a group of
police officers in the fictional town of Ashfordly in the
North Riding of Yorkshire, 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 partly filmed. Each episode is an hour long, including commercial breaks.The series was originally based on the
Constable books written by former policeman Peter Walker under the
pen-name Nicholas Rhea. The title
Heartbeat was chosen to represent "the
bobby's beat and the medical connotations of the word 'heart'"[SUP]
[6][/SUP] ("bobby" being British slang for a police officer (from
Robert Peel), and "medical connotations" referring to the medical themes that have featured regularly in the show since its inception). The show was originally a starring vehicle for ex-
EastEnders actor
Nick Berry, cast as PC Nick Rowan, the Aidensfield policeman newly arrived from
London with his wife Kate, a doctor.
The lyrics in the opening song of this clip that refer to "a friend of Sacha Distel" are somewhat coincidental to the Healey as Distel, a French singer-songwriter, has already been featured in the
Celebrity Healeys thread taking his then-girlfriend Brigitte Bardot out for a drive in a 100: