This programme is absolutely awful. the plot is very boring and they should just abandon making new series. the characters are dull and even though it may be trying to create a retro feeling, it is out dated and no longer pleasant to the tastes of viewers. also considering th ratings of many other soaps/dramas, for example east-enders, coronation street and more recent ones such as torch wood, heartbeat does not really compare. this time slot would be well used for a variety of other programmes, and could give a chance for new directors to test out material. the only positive point i can pull from heartbeat is that it is on a Sunday, at a time where many people are doing other things, so they can be spared the embarrassment of watching this.

Heartbeat follows the residents of a little village on the English countryside during the 60's. This has made a retro and charming piece of television for well over 10 years and is still going good.You may find Heartbeat somewhat cliché, however, give it a chance it's still not a completely waste of time. The plots are not of the most original kind, but the characters and the setting is just lovely. There are the comic elements in the Greengrass/Scrips characters and the dramatic, thrilling crime element in following the local police officers. Then there is the various everyday life characters. It's all together a nice mix. It makes something for various tastes and it gives variety in the story line. The acting is pretty good and so is the directing. The cinematography is nice and the music is the final touch. Using authentic 60's music gives you the right feel. It works really good. They manage to keep the story thrilling and keep you watching. While it may have lost quality over the years it's still a decent series. There has been a massive replacement of characters, but after more then ten years you can't expect anything else. The replacements, however, does a good job. They may seem like copies of their predecessors and as a result the series has stayed pretty much the same for more then ten years, witch may or may not be a bad thing.Now, this series offers nothing new, but it offers a nice piece of entertainment that never fails! 6 out of 10.

This TV series manages to combine all the elements that make for a pleasant and at times absorbing hour in front of the TV - good varied characters, a range of occupations, although of course the policemen dominate, creative and simultaneously plausible story lines - usually one serious criminal occurrence and one lighthearted theme per episode - and all of it set in rural English village landscape (Yorkshire) which looks very nice and a contrast from urban Britain which I find mostly quite dreary and depressing. The 1960s seem a long time ago now, before Britain joined the EEC, when it still used non-decimal currency and imperial measurements, when it was still largely "monocultural", and when there were still steam trains. There are also those dinky British 60s cars, motorbikes and trucks that everyone gets around in, miniskirts and pop hits of the time on the soundtrack. What more could you ask for? Another commentator says it screens in the UK on Sunday nights - here it has always screened early on Saturday afternoons which isn't exactly prime time, a pity.

If you were a young child living in England during any period of the 1960's, then this show is for you. If you miss the sixties, the live sounds of The Beatles, Donovan, Dusty Springfield together with many cult bands in those times of magic when we felt like as if life took you beyond your dreams, then this television series will help you reminisce and relate to such times more than any other television show ( to my knowledge) that is set in that era which contains the British atmosphere. The plot and theme enriches much of the simple life of a Beautiful English country town somewhere in Yorke, initially focusing around the interaction of a local Bobby - Nick Rowan ( played by Nick Berry) with the characters that make up the village community. Nearly all of the characters play a unique and important role, creating a new and interesting episode which leads the viewer enticed to want more. The episodes are beautifully supported by background music made popular by artists of that era and sometimes earlier (as the title tune `Heartbeat' was made famous by Buddy Holly in the late fifties) all depending on the scenes, bringing the sixties as alive as possible.Every episode can be identified by it's title as most series are and each has it's own merit. It would be next to impossible to comment on all of them here, but two particular episodes which have strongly impacted me were; firstly, when Dr Ferrenby (played by Frank Middlemass) departs the series during a fishing trip and gets swamped into the river by the waves of water. It is a very moving scene superbly supported by the background music`Windmills of your mind' (soundtrack to the original 1968 `Thomas Crown Affair') resulting in an exceptionally directed scene. The news is then conveyed to Dr, Kate Rowan (played by Niamh Cusack) who is a colleague of Dr Ferrenby where she is naturally devastated by the news. Dr. Kate Rowan (who later departs the series when she dies from Leukemia) is a beautiful and empathetic character full of charm which the community get to love, underpinning the village morale. The other impressive episode titled `Baby Blues' is again well directed and filmed with a lovely scenery of the beautiful greenery of the Yorke country landscape which is well blended with the background music `Catch the wind' made famous by Donovan back in 1965. The echoes in this background music is well blended giving me goosebumps, hence giving a perfect sixties feel. This episode is one that demonstrates the teething problems that were associated with the typical stereotypes (highly contrasted to today) in the prejudices of judging a book by it's cover, where a group of hippies are accused by snobby upper middle class people for the disappearance of a baby. Cutting a long story short, it is the Hippies that eventually lead to successfully locating the missing baby. The snobby lady then swallows her pride with gratitude and wishes to offer them a reward, which they refuse to take, hinting to her that she had misjudged them. It is a powerful statement of the times which in turn is still valid by todays standards on a different platformOther characters include the the village Sargent, Oscar Blaketon ( brilliantly performed by Derek Fowlds) who is overly obsessed with catching in the act another semi-comedy scruffy couch potato character Claude Greengrass (brilliantly performed by Bill Maynard) who is one of the village petty rogues who has never being caught for any of his scams. Greengrass is always accompanied by his shaggy dog - Alfred. It also has moments of comedy where one episode has Greengrass with his dog in the local pub and someone complains about fleas. Greengrass is immediately on the defence to claim that his dog is clean, but is soon corrected that it isn't the dog they were complaining about, but of him instead.The only unrealistic component of this series is that almost every episode that I am aware of has a crime occurring, making this Yorkeshire village one of the most unsafest villages in the world which would obviously not be the case. However, this is probably purposely plotted to avoid the series from tarnishing to boredom which is a nightmare faced by anyone responsible for maintaining successful ratings of any television series.This series have been running for some 10 years and naturally has changed so much in it's story lines with different characters coming and leaving the series, but the atmosphere and setting has remained unchanged. I have never seen anything like it as it is uniquely focused on a time and life that makes the show what it is and it is superbly cast and filmed.