The actress Lisa Kay was in Heartbeat before her time as "Carol", the district nurse. Lisa was in the episode "Wrecked" and played Phil Bellamy's girlfriend, Emma.
Tricia Penrose who played "Gina" in Heartbeat installed a bar in her home after filming finished for Heartbeat, she said she always wanted one but it was good to pull pints again because she missed it!
Mark Jordan who played "Phil Bellamy" and Tricia Penrose who played "Gina" Were often asked about when Phil and Gina would marry, but some fans even came up to them in supermarkets whilst they were shopping to ask them.
Nick Berry who played "Nick Rowan" in Heartbeat was asked to return to Heartbeat for a few episodes surrounding Phil's death as the pair were friends in the show, but he refused the offer because he had a job at another programme. Later the programme he was working on was axed and he didn't appear in it!
Niamh Cusack who played "Kate" in Heartbeat is a well known actress and her family are mostly actors and actresses too.
Over the years, many people from other programmes have been in heartbeat, but a large amount of cast from coronation street have been in the show. This included people such as the characters: "Roy Cropper"; "Maria Connor" and "Tyrone".
In the first series of Heartbeat, "Nick Rowan" and "Kate Rowan" both were nude once and very briefly.
For Heartbeat's first series the production crew used the inside of the Goathland Hotel for the "Aidensfield Arms" but they stopped because it was too difficult to keep changing the inside of the pub everyday.
On each episode, the cost for the making of the episode in usually over £500,000 because the crew have to rent suits and venues to be used during the show along with additional costs.
The garage is virtually a prop now, although someone still owns it.
Nick Berry who played "Nick Rowan" had to have his police helmet refitted because it was too tall and looked "silly". Unfortunately Nick also has a funny shaped head and the new helmet left dents in his forehead, this can be seen if you look closely on some of the early episodes.
When Nicholas Rhea first went to Aidensfield he was unaware he was there. He hadn't seen the setting for the television programme yet and drove through the village confused at why there were old cars and people in 60's fashion around.
"Alfred" has been played by 3 dogs over the years. Firstly by a dog called Tramp, then by a dog called Rosie and finally a dog called boots before the character was layed to rest and "Deefer" became the new dog character in Heartbeat.
When Tricia Penrose went for her clothes fitting before starting the show, they had to show her how to get in and out of the car and how to walk around because she was "showing too much". Usually the crew have to re-shoot scenes many times before they get the right amount of skirt on show.
When "Kate Rowan" died and the morning after Nick cried, they had to put menthol in his eyes to make him look "moved enough".
We have never met the character Mrs Ventress on Heartbeat but she is frequently mentioned as Alf's wife.
Phil Bellamy, Alf Ventress and Oscar Blaketon were the oldest members of cast. It is now just Alf and Oscar as Phil died in series 17.
Oscar Blaketon was based on a sergeant Derek Fowlds had during the war.
Derek Fowlds originally presented Basil Brush.
When Garry Barlow star guested in Heartbeat, producers broke the rules. The producers used "take that" music in the show when "take that" were not around in the 60's.
Nikki Sanderson played "Candice", a hairdresser in Coronation Street before joining Heartbeat.
If you want to go into the Goathland Hotel "Aidensfield Arms" you have to be 18 otherwise you have to sit in the family room.
Heartbeat first aired on Friday 10 April 1992 and it was later moved to Sunday evenings.
Heartbeat has proved popular since the beginning when early series consistently drew over 10 million viewers. In its first year Heartbeat averaged 14.5 million viewers and was regularly in the top five TV programmes across all british TV channels. It has even scored higher figures than Coronation Street.
In 2001 Heartbeat came sixth in the UK TV ratings list with a peak audience of 13.82 million and was sixth again in 2003 with 12.8 million viewers. In autumn 2008 typical viewing figures were around 6 million per episode.
Filming for the 18th series began at the end of May 2008 and finished on 8 May 2009. The 18th series premiered on 12 October 2008 and took a break after the 6th episode.
The last 9 episodes have been aired in 2010, although they were shown in Sweden on TV4 from 25 August 2009 to 4 September 2009 and in Denmark on TV2 Charlie from 16 December 2009 to 24 December 2009.
In the constable books by Nicholas Rhea, Kate Rowan has 4 small children and isn't a doctor.
When Gina had her baby Phil, the baby was actually her own son. Her recent new born appeared as "Philip Oscar Bellamy" and has only appeared a few times.
Heartbeat has won awards such as:
1995 – ITV Programme of the Year (TRIC Award) – Won
1998 – ITV Programme of the Year – Won
1998 – ITV Programme of the Year – National Television Award – Most Popular Newcomer (Jason Durr)
Nominated
1999 – Best Performing Peak-Time Drama (ratings higher than Coronation Street and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire) – Won
2007 – Best European Drama (voted by Norwegian viewers) – Won
2008 – Best Drama (nominated by ITV Studios along with The Royal and Emmerdale) – Won
The Heartbeat specials are:
10 Years of Heartbeat (13 April 2002): A Heartbeat documentary screened in celebration of the show's tenth anniversary. Past and present members of the cast and crew and celebrity guest artists recalled their experiences of the show and their favourite moments from the past ten years.
Heartbeat: Christmas Album (18 December 2005): A special that looked back at Heartbeat's Christmas episodes. This included a sneak preview of the Christmas special "Auld Acquaintance" (s15.e12) that was broadcast after this documentary.
Heartbeat: Farewell Phil (December 2007): A one-off special, commencing the departure of Phil Bellamy, whose final scenes (in "Touch And Go", series 17, episode 6) aired the previous night. Actor Mark Jordon relived his time on the series, along with contributions from fellow actors past and present.
In the episode "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" there is a scene where Rachel Dawson arrives to the scene of the crime in her black car. She arrives to the cottage from the train station car park, no roads. How do you work that one out Rachel?
