John Duttine

"By the mid-1970s, he had shifted mainly to television and film.

Then in 1979-80 came the opportunity to play the hero of To Serve Them All My Days (1980), arguably one of the more demanding roles in his filmography. His main fear about playing David Powlett-Jones was the Welsh accent: "I was rather worried that I wouldn't hit the right note. I would be angry as hell if I heard a Yorkshire accent that was wrong. " Clearly, John got the accent and just about everything else about this performance exactly right.

Like the character he played in the BBC series To Serve Them All My Days (1980), John Duttine hails from a mining town, but in Yorkshire rather than Wales. He was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, but raised in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, along with his 4 brothers, and his nephew Joe Duttine. He attended Buttershaw High School in Buttershaw, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. When he realised in his teens that "acting was the only thing I did well," he switched to drama, training at the Drama Centre in London. His first job after drama school was playing three characters in "Hamlet" for the Citizens Theatre Company in Glasgow, Scotland. On joining the Glasgow Repertory Company, he did most of the familiar repertory stints including Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra," Danton in "Danton's Death," and Danforth in "The Crucible.

"Following that triumph, for which he won the TV Times magazine's Best Actor award, John appeared in numerous programmes and series for British television throughout the 1980s, drawing particular acclaim for The Day of the Triffids (1981), a sci-fi BBC series which has become a cult sci-fi favourite, and The Outsider (1983), a 6-part ITV series about a newspaper editor set in John's native Yorkshire.

His relationship with long-time girlfriend Carolyn Hutchinson broke up (they had a son, Oscar, in 1981).

As the New York Times noted upon the series' first American broadcast in 1982, "Mr. Duttine is, even in this talented company, exceptional.

His appearance at WETA's televised fund drive on Aug. 26, 1984 (PBS station in Washington, D.C.) helped attract 701 new membership pledges totaling $33,749 the highest one-night total in the 14-day pledge drive.

He also returned to the stage occasionally, and in 1989 was reunited with Charles Kay, his nemesis (Alcock) of To Serve Them All My Days (1980), for the original cast of "The Woman in Black.

"In the early 1990s, John's life appeared to hit a rough patch.

John began a relationship with Mel Martin, with whom he had co-starred in the ITV film Ruth Rendell Mysteries: Talking to Strange Men (1992), and starred in the comedic BBC series Ain't Misbehavin (1994).

In 1992 he played guest character Paul Melthorn in the long running, ITV drama series Heartbeat (1992), before playing the permanent character sergeant George Miller between 2005 to 2009.

Some other regular roles include playing DI Eric Temple in the BBC series Out of the Blue (1995), Michael Hawkins in the ITV series Touching Evil (1997), Mark Waters in the ITV series The Jury (2002), Gavin Street in the Channel 4 series The Courtroom (2004), Douglas Taylor in the BBC series WPC 56 (2013), and Eric Benton in the ITV series Paranoid (2016). Today John continues to appear regularly in guest-starring roles on British television, as well as on stage.

After a critic for the Post and Courier (Charleston, SC) savaged the production of "The Woman in Black" in which he had co-starred at the Spoleto Festival, spring 1996, John wrote a 600-word rebuttal letter, which the newspaper published on June 7. Excerpt: "There is an unspoken pact between the audience and the actors - one of suspension of disbelief for a few hours. Let us take you into our world and, if we are able, we will provide you with some harmless entertainment. ... It would seem that Ms. Furtwangler is incapable of this leap of imagination or is too jaded by her job. I've never been quite sure what that job is, but there seems to be an ever-growing school of reviewers who seem only to want to carp."

In 1997, he and Mel bought an 18th century farmhouse with eight acres on land in Cornwall, England.

A very handy fellow, John rewired and replumbed his 17th century Cornwall farmhouse, made all the cupboards, and created a well-laid-out vegetable garden. (Source: Mail on Sunday (London), Jan. 23, 2005)