John Nettles is an actor and writer hailing from the United Kingdom.
He is best known for his roles in series Midsomer Murders and Bergerac. They are both very long-running TV shows.
Early years
John was born on October 11th in 1943 in the town of St Austell, located in Cornwall in the United Kingdom. His full name is John Vivian Drummond Nettles.
He was born by an Irish nurse who went to Great Britain in order to nurse soldiers in World War II. He was then sent to be adopted and luckily for him he was adopted by two loving parents. It was Eric Nettles, a carpenter and his wife called Elsie.
John educated himself in St Austell’s Grammar School and after that decided to go to college. He chose the University of Southampton where he started studying philosophy and history in 1962.
He said that this period of his life was interesting because he got to meet a lot of colleagues and spend time with them as well.
When he was there he was also acting and after he finished his college education he joined the Royal Court Theatre.
Career development
In 1969 Nettles was playing the role of Laertes in Tom Courtenay’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. He did it form a Theatre company in Machester.
He said that playing in acts was very interesting and he found his love for acting really big, but he soon realized that he would enjoy playing in movies and series more, so he wanted to pursue these things.
After that, he was at the Northcott Theater located in Exeter for a year. This is when he got his first role on the screen in a movie called „One More Time“.
After that, he was in a drama titled „A Family at War” where he played the role of Dr. Ian Mackenzie. He did this role until 1972. He said that it grew with him and he enjoyed playing those likable ones.
After this few roles, he got a lot of smaller parts in TV shows like „Dickens of London”, „Robin of Sherwood”, „The Liver Birds“, etc. He was even in an episode of „Enemy at the Door“. The episode is called „Officers of the Law“ and aired in 1978.
The show was set during the World War II in Guernsey when Germans occupied it and John had a role of a police detective that had to work for Germans and was conflicted by this, due to the fact that it’s his duty but he doesn’t want to work with their enemy.
John also played the role of Giles Sutton in „Heartbeat” that aired on ITV.
Nettles finally had a breakthrough in 1981 when he got the role of „Jim Bergerac” in a crime drama called „Bergerac”.
This made him very popular because he was exposed to a bigger audience and had the main role. He became loved for this character. He did 87 episodes of this show. It stopped airing in 1991.
After this series ended John did 5 seasons in there, with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Some of the plays he appeared in are Julius Caesar, The Devil is an Ass, The Winter’s Tale and many more.
He made an appearance in an episode of a series called „Boon“.
In 1993 he was again Jim Bergerac in a police comedy called „The Detectives“.
In 1995 he got invited to have the role of detective Tom Barnaby in the crime TV show „Midsomer Murders”. This turned out to b a huge hit and his second most popular role. He said that the role of inspector Barnaby was very interesting for him and that he wanted to do more and more studying about the topic.
Back in 2003, he got to play inspector Barnaby in an episode of „Frenc & Saunders” called „the Boxing Day”. This was an intro to what he was going to do later.
In 2001 John appeared in an episode of „Heartbeat“. It was interesting to meet again with some of the stars there, he said, because he was very interested in their work and how they were doing.
Will Smith is a huge fan of John’s show „Bergerac“ so in 2007 they did a comedy series for BBC Radio 4. It was called „Will Smith Presents the Tao of Bergerac“.
At the beginning of 2009, Nettles stated that he decided to leave Midsomer Murders. After he left two more seasons aired and his last episode was the one aired in February of 2011. He said that enough episodes were made and that he didn’t want to ruin the series by it becoming boring to people.
John was in a historical drama called „Poldark” in it’s the second and third season that aired in 2016 and 2017. He played the role of Ray Penvenen in it.
John also narrated a documentary series by BBC titled „Airport“. It aired from 1996 to 2005. It was an interesting piece, but it didn’t reach far from the point of popularity amongst the British people.
He also started in the „Agatha Christie Hour“ TV series in the story titled „The Fourth Man“ where he played Raoul Letardau. It was in 1987.
John also narrated another documentary, this time titled „X Cars“. It was about a car stole from the Manchester police. He said that one of the most fun things turned out to be the one where he is least active – narration.
Nettles is a big fan of documentaries and had produced three of them himself in the 2010s. „The Channel Islands at War” was about the German invasion and occupation of the Channel Islands. This one caused a bit of controversy due to him receiving death threats because people were accusing him of saying that islanders collaborated.
Although people didn’t claim so, historians agreed along with the Channel Islands Occupation Society.
During the filming of the series „Bergerac” that was filmed on the island of Jersey, he wrote a travel guide for this island called „Bergerac’s Jersey”.
After that, he wrote „John Nettles’ Jersey: A Personal View of the People and Places” where he talked more about the history and landscape of the island.
John wrote, „Nudity in a Public Place: Confessions of a Mini Celebrity” in 1991 which had autobiographical elements in it. He talked about how he became a heartthrob after Bergerac and how the female audience viewed him. In 2004 this was again released but as a Kindle on Amazon.
Nettles wrote another piece about the German occupation of the Channel Islands in 2012. It was titled „Jewelry and Jackboots”. It immediately sold out and was a success. A year later it was republished.
Personal life
We don’t know a lot about John’s personal life. He tends to keep these things private and he wants to spend as much time as possible just with his family, out of the public eye.
What we know is that he married in 1966 to Joyce, his first wife. They have a daughter together. She is called Emma Martins and she was born in 1970. Joyce and John divorced in 1979. Interesting thing is that Joyce was a casting director of Midsomer Murder after their split.
In 1995 Nettles married Cathryn Sealey. The wedding was held in Evesham, located in Worcestershire.
One of the things John is most proud of is the fact that he was appointed as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (or shorter OBE) back in 2010.
He also got his doctorate in 2012 at the University of Plymouth. He was very proud of himself and said that his wife was also very happy and they had a huge celebration! Because of that, he was not able to work normally for days! He often jokes about his age like this.
In 2014 he also became a patron of a charity called „The Mare and Foal Sanctuary”. He said that most of the work he does there is related to some private wishes of his and that he doesn’t want the media to be all over everything he does.
John has two grandchildren, Sophie and Nathan John. He said that his kids and grandkids are the most important thing in his life and that he wants to take care of all of them, but he doesn’t have the time sometimes.
He adores animals and has many of them. Some of them are cats, a dog, a donkey, and chickens. He says that this is therapeutic for him and that they are very loveable.
He talked about an instance where his co-star in Bergerac, Liza Goddard, sued a newspaper for misleading information. The paper said that John and she were having an affair because their characters in the show were together.
He usually doesn’t get much controversy in his life, but sometimes there are people who want to „hop” on his train of fame so they start some issues.
Quick summary
Full name: John Nettles
Date of birth: October 11th, 1943
Birthplace: St Austell, Cornwall
Age: 76
Profession: actor
Height: 178 cm
Weight: NA
Net Worth: 10 million