THE DEATH of author and former police officer Peter Walker has highlighted the enormous legacy his writing has left the North York Moors.

Life in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield transfixed viewers up and down the country for nearly two decades.

The final episode of Heartbeat aired on Sunday 12 September 2010. But the author’s tale of life in the North Yorkshire countryside during the 1960s still draws visitors from around the world to Goathland where it was filmed from as far afield as Australia and Norway.

Brian Taylor, who runs Goathland Post Office and sweetshop, said: “I arrived here in 2001 and had another nine years of filming here. It was brilliant, absolutely brilliant. There was something new happening every day. There was never a dull moment.”

He said when filming stopped, they put together a petition of 150,000 names calling for filming to continue. But they still reap the benefits of the series, with tourists still wanting to see the setting for Aidensfield.

“Peter Walker has done an awful lot of good for people in the area because the series has created so many jobs.

“A lot of people would have moved from here if there weren’t for the jobs in tourism he created with his books and the series. He kept quite a few youngsters here – the hotels are a lot busier because of Heartbeat.

Author and former police officer Mike Pannett, who policed the set on his days off from working as a North Yorkshire Police officer in the area, said the appeal of the characters and setting still resonates with people.

“At its peak in the 1990s and early 2000s it was pulling in audiences of 18m,” he said.

“Even when I used to work on set people would turn up who had come to the UK especially to go around Goathland and the area. That was his legacy; at its peak in the 90s and early 2000s it was pulling in audiences of 14 million.

“Heartbeat sold in 23 or 24 countries in the world. Its global reach was enormous. It brought with it a huge upsurge in tourism.

“They were characters people could relate to and they were the people and characters that he came across.”