John Nettles Quotes

Take vicars; there are often village vicars in ‘Midsomer Murders’, but the village vicar in England was killed off long ago.

I get a lot of letters from French lady admirers – and gentlemen. ‘Midsomer’ is a huge hit in France, and it’s all down to the guy dubbing me into French – a middle-aged balding fellow.

The whole of Cornwall has become antiseptic. When I was growing up in St. Austell, the county was wonderfully rough and workish. These days it is polite and Disney-fied.

You need someone to ground you because if you start believing that your public persona is your only and real persona, then you’re looking at a very long and lonely old age.

I have a legion of friends and the best ones are my immediate family, which is very cliched but true.

I remember Tom Baker once said to me many years ago: never go back, particularly with TV shows. This is because the track record for characters returning to series they’ve left is not very good.

I have just written a book on the occupation of the Channel Islands, which is being published in Germany. Pursuing the Second World War is my passion because it’s the most extraordinary period in history.

I’ve done so much drama on television that it’s very hard to sit down and watch other actors work. I find my interest is more in the real world.

Age is full of regrets and most of them are about treating people unkindly.

My nearest and dearest have always been very careful. I’ve never had to send Christmas present back yet.

On my days off I pick up our chicken’s eggs. My wife and I have five chickens called The Spice Girls. Five lovely chicks. And no, we won’t be eating any of them for Christmas dinner.

Football is my guilty pleasure.

You do get your stalkers and obsessives though, and it’s a huge problem sometimes. When I lived in Jersey, I used to have a middle-aged lady who, when I’d wake in the middle of the night, I’d see her van parked outside.

I’m flattered to be called a sex symbol and, on occasion – if I’ve had a nice bottle of Beaujolais – I can imagine myself really being one.

I’m always impressed with the way the writers find new and creative ways of killing people. But my favourite has to be the hat pin through the ear.

Actors have become much more savvy about the nature of television celebrity these days. We were not. The kind of celebrity culture that exists now didn’t exist in the 1980s.

Midsomer Murders’ is more about character and atmosphere. It portrays a kind of idealised rural England, just as the French like to imagine it.

I don’t think anyone takes the deaths in Midsomer as seriously as in say Wire In The Blood or Silent Witness. We’re part of the old British ‘whodunnit’. We’re much more gentle and the deaths are sanitised, in a sense.

I’ve not really had a bad Christmas. Apart from serious things, like when my father died. He rather spoiled the party and I’ve never forgiven him for falling off the twig on Christmas Day.

Never underestimate the effect you can have on certain sections of the audience, though. You should see some of the letters I get.