Nettles Interview

'Tec-ing it in his Stride'

Regular work and some nappy family news has laid back TV detective John Nettles, feeling like the cat who's got the cream - Jersey variety, of course...

Some men in their 50s might have trouble with adjusting to the idea of becoming a Grandad, but not John Nettles. Emma, his daughter from his first marriage, is about to give birth to her first child. 'She and her husband live on Jersey, which naturally is very special to me,' smiles John. Who first shot to fame in the Jersey based eighties detective series 'Bergerac' 'Emma's not married to an actor, he's a nice normal guy and we get on great. I can't wait to be a Grandad.'

Its nearly 10 years since Bergerac was axed and John wasn't too sorry to see it go. 'It started out great, but by the end there wasn't enough care being put into the show at the top,' he explains, 'It was allowed to degenerate.'
This week he is back on screen as DCI Tom Barnaby in ITVs popular detective series Midsomer Murders. 'Barnaby's very strait-laced and conservative, in his three piece suits,' he says. 'I'm a jeans and silly shirt man myself!' 'He's a good man, if a bit unrealistic. He wants to belong to a simple, civilised world but, unfortunately, criminals in the real world are nasty.'
'But thats the appeal of the show. Its set in a world where people don't really get hurt. Even when they are bumped off, its done nicely!'
As well as Midsomer Murders, John's just finished narrating the new series of Airport, BBC1s successful docu-soap, which begins on 18 Sepember. 'I had to do it on my day off,' says John, who wed his second wife, Cathryn, four years ago.
'I love Airports. There's so much drma around you - all those tearful farewells and emotional greetings.'
And John's favourite place when he wants to escape ?
'Jersey,' he beams. 'I sit there, gazing out to sea, with a bottle of Chablis and a lobster. Total bliss!'

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