- Born
- Birth nameJohn Vivian Drummond Nettles
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- John Nettles has been a familiar face on British and International television screens for over 30 years.
From his early beginnings in the UK hit comedy The Liver Birds (1969), he became a household name overnight playing the Jersey detective Jim Bergerac. The series, Bergerac (1981), was a huge hit in Britain and was exported to many countries across the world including France, Spain, and Greece, gaining him thousands of fans.
His newfound fame as Bergerac gave him almost film-star-like fame and fortune, not to mention thousands of female admirers!
Despite Bergerac (1981) being mothballed in the early 1990s, the series still has a considerable fan base and lingering popularity abroad, especially in Jersey, where images of John Nettles are still used for advertising tourist attractions and other services on the island.
Nettles' polished Shakesperean performances have won him critical acclaim and many consider him to rival fellow British stalwarts of theatre such as Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen.
Oddly enough, however, he has never really ventured onto the big screen and has seemed happy to stick to stage and television throughout his successful career.
Most recently he has enjoyed continued success playing the straightforward DCI Tom Barnaby in ITV's Midsomer Murders (1997). He is on record as wanting to create a TV detective without any of the usual tics, and consequently Tom Barnaby is a happy family man who just happens to live in the most murderous part of an otherwise stereotypical idyllic English countryside.
- IMDb mini biography by: A J Lewis
- SpousesCathryn Sealey(July 1995 - present)Joyce Nettles(1966 - 1979) (divorced, 1 child)
- ChildrenEmma Nettles
- RelativesNathan John(Grandchild)Sophie(Grandchild)
- An animal lover, his household contains cats, chickens, a dog, and a donkey.
- He was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) in the 2010 Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to drama.
- John is also the patron of a well-known Devon horse rescue and rehoming charity, the Mare & Foal Sanctuary, where he regularly attends events and helps to raise funds.
- Two grandchildren; grandson Nathan John and granddaughter Sophie.
- One daughter, Emma.
- [talking about a national newspaper story which wrongly alleged that he and Liza Goddard were having an affair, because their characters Jim Bergerac and Philippa Vale in Bergerac (1981) were romantically linked] She sued a newspaper for the allegation, which wasn't true, and got a lot of money for it. And I thought "She's getting paid money for *not* having an affair with me" - I felt a little demeaned!
- 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. You must live as far away as you can from your public image, you really must.
- I have enormously fond memories of working on Bergerac. It was a very happy time in my life and one that I would not forgo for the world. Put it this way, if you're working in a place where you get up for a shoot day at 6.30am, stroll down to the beach, have a swim followed by a nice breakfast and then roll up on the set to film - you can't get better than that. We used the same plot over and over again but that didn't seem to matter!
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