John Nettles rose to fame with his starring role in ITV’s Midsomer Murders. The actor played DCI Tom Barnaby from the show’s beginning until its final episode aired in 2011. John continued acting after leaving the show, appearing in shows like Poldark, but also set his sights on an entirely different career.
After announcing his retirement in 2009, John spent more time concentrating on his work as a historian, producing The Channel Islands at War, a three-part documentary about the Nazi occupation of Jersey and Guernsey during World War II. He then published Jewels and Jackboots in 2012 on the same subject, followed by an edition of the diary of the Reverend Douglas Ord, who lived on Guernsey during the war.
In a recent interview, John revealed that he is currently working on a translation of the diary of Baron von Aufsess, Chief Administrator of the Field Command during the occupation of Jersey, which is due to be published in September.
“He has a fascinating German ethos that explains why the Germans kept fighting even though they were losing the war,” John told The Telegraph. “Their attitude was, ‘right or wrong, it’s my country’. He sympathizes with the islanders who had no choice but to cooperate with the occupying forces. Their argument was, ‘They’ve got guns, we don’t.'”
© Bob Barkley/Shutterstock“Jersey was a very small island, only about seven miles wide, and there were 30,000 Germans on it. There was no place to hide.”
John also spoke about his other passion: horses. The 80-year-old and his wife, Kathryn, own three rescued horses and two donkeys. “I sometimes think God made horses on a Monday when everything was new,” he said, adding, “Horses are the most beautiful creatures.”
Unfortunately, the actor is not likely to reprise the role anytime soon as he has retired from acting. “Older actors tend to describe themselves as semi-retired, which means no one is offering them work. I’ve given up on that idea. I’m retired,” he revealed.
©GettyWhen John stepped down as the lead on the show more than 10 years ago, he said it was a “very difficult” decision but he felt it was time to quit.
“With David Jason now out of the detective role I suddenly find myself becoming the most senior detective in the business, but it’s been a very difficult decision,” he told The Telegraph at the time.
“By the time Barnaby leaves I will have been doing Midsomer Murders for 14 years. There is a family-like bond with everyone involved in the show and it will be hard to break that. It’s always better to leave the audience wanting to see more than to bore them and have them booed off the stage.”
