Heartbeat (UK TV Series) - Premise

Premise

The show is set in the 1960s and revolves around the work of a group of police officers in the fictional town of Ashfordly in the North Riding of Yorkshire, whose "patch" also includes the nearby village of Aidensfield, a fictionalised version of the real-life village of Goathland in the North York Moors, where the series is partly filmed. Each episode is an hour long, including commercial breaks.

The series was originally based on the Constable books written by former policeman Peter Walker under the pen-name Nicholas Rhea. The title Heartbeat was chosen to represent "the bobby's beat and the medical connotations of the word 'heart'" ("bobby" being British slang for a police officer (from Robert Peel), and "medical connotations" referring to the medical themes that have featured regularly in the show since its inception). The show was originally a starring vehicle for ex-EastEnders actor Nick Berry, cast as PC Nick Rowan, the Aidensfield policeman newly arrived from London with his wife Kate, a doctor. Berry also sings Heartbeat's theme song—the Buddy Holly song of the same name. Berry's recording reached number 2 on the UK singles chart in 1992.

Over time the show evolved into an ensemble drama. The motorbike-riding Aidensfield village bobby, the role originally played by Berry, continued to be central to the storylines, but in later series the main cast was listed in alphabetical order on the opening credits, reflecting its standing as an ensemble piece with no clear "star". In the 2005 series no fewer than twelve regular actors had their names and faces included in the opening credits—at the time a record for any British series. In series 18 (2008–10) this had increased to thirteen. The record has since been broken by Holby City, which during the later stages of its 2009–10 series had sixteen regular actors appearing and listed in the opening credits.

Although Heartbeat is often criticised for seeing the 1960s through rose-tinted spectacles, in reality it has tended to avoid the usual "swinging sixties" clichés. If there is a cultural revolution going on, then it's not going on in Aidensfield and Ashfordly. Some episodes do, however, make reference to swinging sixties culture, as well as to hippies and psychedelia, usually imposed on the community by outsiders. Sixties pop music is prominent, forming the soundtrack to the show. Songs of the 1950s have also been heard and occasionally records from the 1970s appear, anachronistically, on the soundtrack (The Hollies' 1974 hit "The Air That I Breathe" being an example). In an extreme example (and perhaps a deliberate effort to confound expectations), the closing scene of the series 17 episode "You Never Can Tell" is accompanied by The Flying Pickets' 1983 hit, "Only You".

Although its storylines regularly involve serious crimes and human tragedy, later series of Heartbeat deal with these themes in a relatively cosy and comfortable manner compared to many modern TV police dramas, and much of the grittiness and social realism of the early series disappeared. Episode 16.14 ("Another Little Piece Of My Heart") was given a warning before airing on ITV1 due to its "containing scenes of domestic violence".