John Nettles

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John Nettles (born October 11, 1943) is a British actor. John's birth mother was an Irish nurse who came to work in England during the Second World War, but John was adopted by Eric and Elsie Nettles as a baby, and grew up as an only child. After having spent his early childhood years in Worsley, Manchester, he moved to St Austell, Cornwall with his parents. Here he attended St Blazey Primary School and St Austell Grammar School. In 1962 he started studying history and philosophy at the University of Southampton with the aim of becoming a teacher, and it was there that he participated in plays for the first time.

After university he started out as an actor at the Royal Court Theatre where he mainly played spear-holders and other small parts, then went on to play most theatres in the country, before becoming a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon. It was when he was there that he, after several interviews at the BBC, was phoned up one morning and offered the part of Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac. This was to change John Nettles's life as Bergerac (1981-1991) became a huge success. He had worked in television previously as he got his TV break during the early 1970s in the BBC sitcom The Liver Birds as Paul, and as Dr. Ian McKenzie in the popular series A Family At War, but Bergerac became something completely different for John. John Nettles and Jim Bergerac were two names that for ten years seemed interchangeable, with a public perception that he always wore a bomber jacket, and spent his waking hours driving around the roads of Jersey, Channel Islands, in his red Triumph 1800 Roadster. This was of course not quite true.

After Bergerac finished, he re-joined the Royal Shakespeare Company for five seasons. Then in 1995 he was approached by Brian True-May who was thinking of dramatizing the Inspector Barnaby novels, and thought John would be suitable for the role. A year later John had a call from True-May saying it was going to happen, the making of Midsomer Murders started.

John is also a much used narrator, and has contributed his voice in several documentaries, such as BBC's documentary series Airport, Disaster and Violent Planet, as well as a number of audiobooks. He has himself written three books: John Nettles' Jersey, Nudity in a public place and Bergerac's Jersey, which is part history of the island and part film journal of the series. Although he is a well known and acclaimed interpreter of Shakespeare, he also appears in panto. The filming of Midsomer Murders now takes up 10 months of the year (May to March), and consequently does not give room for very much else. Recently, he was in the BBC production The Hound of the Baskervilles. Other appearances include Black Beauty and The Merchant of Venice.

John is currently living in Evesham with his wife Cathryn, whom he married in 1995. He was married to his first wife, Joyce, for 13 years, and together they have a daughter, Emma (born 1970). He keeps and breeds a variety of bee species.