A FORMER North Yorkshire police officer who went on to write books that inspired one of the UK’s most successful Sunday night dramas has died.

Peter Walker, 80, penned approximately 130 books, but was most well-known for his Constable series, on which the long-running Heartbeat drama was based.

Set in a 1960s police station, it was filmed in Goathland on the North York Moors not far from Egton, where Mr Walker and his wife Rhoda grew up.

The books drew on his 25 years’ experience as a rural police officer in North Yorkshire, starting out as a young beat bobby in Whitby.

He worked as a village policeman in the village of Oswaldkirk, when he first started writing.

There, the church of St Aidan’s inspired the fictional name of Aidensfield – the village where the police station was set and which for many people the village of Goathland will always be known.

One of Mr Walker’s four children, Trisha Walker, said they often recognised snippets of their own life in his writing.

“There was lots of anecdotes and incidents that were embellished and fictionalised but which were rooted in his life as a village policeman,” she said.

“He and my mother both grew up in Egton and our cousins were extras in the first series.”

In a strange twist of fate, another extra sometimes found on the set of Heartbeat was former North Yorkshire police officer and author, Mike Pannett.

Mike helped to police the set on his days off – and sometimes appeared in a walk-on part with a flat cap and a dog – before his own account of life as a North Yorkshire bobby became a series of best-selling novels.

Years later he married Peter Walker’s cousin, Ann, and Mike turned to Peter for advice on getting his first book published.

Mike said: "As a North Yorkshire lad I would watch Heartbeat when I was working in the Met. When I came back up to North Yorkshire and worked in an area covering Malton and Whitby, I discovered ITV paid us to police the set on our days off.

"I’d just come from working in Battersea and Brixton, straight to Heartbeat country.”

Mr Walker went on to become a police inspector and was put in charge of the force's press office, before taking up a fulltime career as a writer. He worked from his home in Ampleforth, where he lived with his wife of 58 years, Rhoda. 

He wrote prolifically under the pen name of Nicholas Rhea, including crime novels and stories of the legends and folklore of the North York Moors and Yorkshire Dales. He was also script consultant for Heartbeat and wrote newspaper columns for local newspapers including the Darlington & Stockton Times.

Peter Walker's legacy to North Yorkshire

Ms Walker, who now lives in Dorset, said her father was extremely disciplined in his writing, sitting down at 9.30am every day and finishing just after 5pm.

He also received the endorsement of his contemporaries, who elected him chairman of the Crime Writers' Association in 1995. The association is responsible for handing out the venerated Golden Dagger awards for crime fiction.

“He knew his strengths as a writer and he just enjoyed it very much,” said Ms Walker.

“He said towards the end of his life that he was very lucky; he lived the life he wanted to live and where he wanted to live it. We’re very proud of his legacy.”

  • Peter Walker leaves behind three other children, Janet Bradshaw and Sarah Smelik, from York, Andrew Walker, from Northumberland and eight grandchildren. His funeral will take place on Friday.