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Columnists
 
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UK NEWSI’D BE BACK IN A HEARTBEAT
Bill would love to return Sunday February 1,2009 By Brendan AbbottHEARTBEAT star Bill Maynard said last night he is not surprised the show has been axed because it has been “****” since he was last in it. Bill, who played Claude Greengrass in the gentle Sixties police drama for nine years, claims the cast are fed up with the badly written scripts.
Up to 15 million viewers used to watch the ITV series, but since Bill suffered a stroke and was written out in 2001 ratings have slumped to just over five million.
Now, after 17 years, the channel has said no more episodes will be made once the current filming schedule ends.
It is a cost-cutting move after advertising revenue slumped. The plug is also being pulled on Heartbeat’s hospital spin-off The Royal.
“I’m not surprised, I’ve stopped watching Heartbeat myself, it’s ****,” said Bill, 80.
“Derek Fowlds who plays Oscar Blaketon, and Tricia Penrose, who is Gina, keep in touch with me and they all hate it because it’s no fun now, there’s no humour.
“Geoffrey Hughes, who played Vernon Scripps, mentioned to me that the stuff he was having to do wasn’t funny enough.
“I had it in my contract that I could re-write any of my lines. That’s why they worked.”
Bill said the show could still get back to the top of the ratings, but only if bosses bring him back.
From his home near Hinckley, Leics, he added: “I’d drive up to Yorkshire tomorrow to work on Heartbeat again, I’d do it for nothing.
“There is still a market for it. I get fans turning up on my doorstep every week wanting their photo taken with Greengrass.”
“Most of time you only saw him sitting in his cottage, sitting in the pub or sitting in his truck. I could still do that.”
Heartbeat has been a huge earner for ITV, watched across the world in China, India, Australia, Israel, and even the Pacific island of Vanuatu. 
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