John Nettles profile

The adopted boy
Born in Cornwall in 1943, John Nettles was adopted at birth by carpenter Eric Nettles and his wife Elsie. It was much later in his childhood that he learnt the truth about his background, and discovered that his biological mother was a Catholic Irish nurse who had been posted to England during World War Two.
After giving birth to her illegitimate son John, she was placed in a mental institution and later died of tuberculosis aged just 28. John has never tracked down his father, but has always taken his dramatic history in his stride. "It was insignificant, apart from being a romantic detail I could impress the girls with," he says. "All that was missing was the club foot and violins in the background. It was marvellous for my Byronic period."

Onto acting
As a teenager, Nettles could never have guessed his future lay in acting. In fact he was a hard-working student with a taste for academia, and secured a place at Southampton University to study history and philosophy.

But soon after arriving at uni he discovered the drama society – and the actor within him was awakened. He went onto fill his CV with small theatrical roles, and he made his screen breakthrough with the 1970 film One More Time (OK, so it wasn't exactly Citizen Kane, but it did mean he could brush shoulders with US icons Jerry Lewis and Sammy Davis Jr).

The 80s adventure
Nettles worked solidly on stage and screen throughout the 70s, patiently establishing his reputation and waiting for that big, star-making role to come. And it finally happened in 1981, when he was cast as Jersey detective Jim Bergerac.

The role didn't just boost his career – it made him into one of the hottest British stars of the 80s, complete with a nationwide legion of adoring female fans. But being a telly sensation also meant that he was a big handsome target for the tabloids to hit on. And hit on him they did – one paper even ran a completely made-up story on how Nettles, like Bergerac, had a problem with booze. "The headline was 'Bergerac Drove Me to Drink'," Nettles remembers. "It resulted from a press interview about me working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, a conversation in which drink was never even mentioned!"

The quieter life
Fans of Bergerac would have been forgiven for blinking, rubbing their eyes and looking comically confused when, six years after Bergerac's end, Nettles re-appeared on TV in 1997 with Midsomer Murders. Gone was the womanising action man of old, and in his place was cuddly detective Tom Barnaby – in Nettles's own words, a "man so normal, it almost hurts".

Nettles relished the chance to show his sweeter side after being associated with Bergerac for so long – although he has joked that Barnaby could do with a bit of spice in his placid life ("I sometimes contemplate in the early hours of the morning the horrors of Barnaby's sex life," the actor confesses). That said, Barnaby has female fans to rival those of Bergerac – since taking on the role, Nettles has been flooded with fan mail and one worshipper even took to sending him expensive jewellery (promptly returned by Nettles's wife, naturally).

Jersey royal
The heady days of Bergerac may be long behind him, but Nettles is still inextricably linked to the island of Jersey, where images of Bergerac are still used to attract tourists. Having lived there while making the show, he developed a great love of the place and has even written several books on the island's landscape and history.

He's still a frequent visitor today – in no small part due to the wonderfully ironic fact that his daughter actually works in the civilian section of the Jersey police force. Bergerac would be proud, we're sure.