By the time I issued these comments, it had been announced that the popular series would gather dust on a shelf and so the end is nigh and I wouldn't be all that surprised. In part, the decision to axe the series was made due to its sinking popularity and much had been said about Heartbeat throughout its production run spanning 1.5 decades that I have long thought to myself "How much longer can it linger"? With the same plots, it has to be said that most viewers around the box were becoming increasingly tired and frustrated and its now simply lacking the original on what was once a more gentle-natured series. Even so, its becoming increasingly violent and depressing with lack of ideas and bad story lines. Even Lovejoy's Ian McShane once commented about Heartbeat being a soap and who would try to get him wrong nowadays with its gradual fall from grace in the TV guides and critics choice.

I've been watching Heartbeat for the past 7 years and have to say that it's a very gentle show. The show did suffer after losing the character of Greengrass but I like the way that things have picked up after a brief boring period. The character of Peggy is a bit tiresome but you can cope with her if you ignore the fact that she's supposed to be their latest replacement for Greengrass. I don't know how long this show can still continue to be set in the 60s for though when you consider the fact that soon the cast will begin to look much older than they were ten years ago. Overall it combines some great sounds of the sixties with some entertaining stories about crime.

Heartbeat began with former EastEnders star (and wooden as my front door) Nick Berry as a London police constable who relocated to the North Yorkshire Moors in the 1960s. Based on Nicholas Rhea's real experiences of police life during that era, it was a worthy and authentic series that set out to address some of the pertinent issues of the time. Nick Berry's severe limitations when it came to expressing anything were compensated by the fantastic character performances of Derek Fowlds as tyrannical Sergeant Blaketon, William Simons as lazy, ageing Constable Ventress and Bill Maynard as local rogue Greengrass. Unfortunately, the show progressively suffered from a series of departures. The excellent Niamh Cusack, who played Berry's wife, left to be succeeded by a less capable actress as his love interest. After about five years in the series, Nick Berry left. Berry's replacement, Jason Durr, was a better actor, but the writing was deteriorating and the series appeared to have run out of ideas. Two of the best characters were also replaced with very over the top and irritating substitutes; Bill Maynard left, to be replaced by Geoffrey Hughes and Derek Fowlds was replaced as Sergeant by Philip Franks. Four long years later, Franks was gone. Somehow, Ventress remained a serving officer, when he clearly looked too old by this time. Jason Durr left in 2003, to be replaced by young actor James Carlton, who has only lasted in the show for a year. These frequent changes in the cast have not helped the series. And Ventress is still there! How old does he have to get before they pension him off?Heartbeat was once a fine and relevant drama, but it is now just decorative fluff. I am told it still gets good viewing figures, but I can only assume that is due to the attractive countryside, smart police uniforms and classic cars. It can't be the scripts.

If you like Brit drama/comedy(or even if you don't, particularly) then you'll go for this ongoing prime-time soap opera set in an English country village - unlike the "Street" the accents render the dialogue comprehensible, so I cannot tell you the location.The characters are diverse, interesting, and believable. "Heartbeat"'s hero, an ordinary British bobby is neither Sherlock Holmes nor Dirty Harry...he simply gets the job, done, dealing with from poaching to blue murder through daylight robbery, as does the series,itself. The episodes are distinguished by low key writing resulting in high-key entertainment.I never discuss the acting in any given review, and sometimes wonder why other reviewers bother to. I assume that the cast in any production is performing splendidly. After all, if you're in the 4 % of the thousands of aspiring actors who actually make a living at their craft, you gotta be good!