Saturday People - this week with actor JOHN McARDLE

BBC 1's new Monday night crime drama Mersey Beat features a host of famous faces making a break from the characters for which they are best known.

There's Haydn Gwynne (Drop The Dead Donkey, Peak Practice) as firm-but-gentle Superintendent Susan Blake and Michelle Holmes (barmaid Tina Fowler in Coronation Street and Yvonne Sparrow in Goodnight Sweetheart) as PC Connie Harper.

And of course there's John McArdle, probably best known as Billy Corkhill in Brookside, as cash-strapped copper Inspector Jim Oulton.

John's role as the crimebuster who has to track his wife and daughter's spending habits as closely as he would tail a crook has added another dimension to the series.

And it's been fun for John too - for his on-screen missus is none other than his real-life wife, Burnley-born actress Kathy Jamieson.

John was born in Wavertree, Liverpool, but the couple did not meet until they were in London studying at the E15 Drama School more than 20 years ago. Since then they have lived in Burnley - for 17 years - and in Cliviger.

He had a nomadic but happy childhood. "My father was in the Army and we travelled all over the world and lived in the Far East, Hong Kong and Singapore, and all over England," John said.

"I went to many different schools, which in itself is a sort of education, going to different countries and learning about different cultures.

"It was a really nice childhood." John believes his interest in acting stems from his grandfather. "He was the influence as far as sparking my imagination off was concerned. He should have been an actor. He was good at telling stories, and they were very believable.

"Then we got our first television set. I was more influenced by television than theatre - I didn't go to the theatre until I was 25."

John became a scaffolder after leaving school with no qualifications. He thought about becoming a journalist but always held a secret desire to be an actor. So at the age of 24 he returned to education, and joined a drama group at a further education college in Northamptonshire in the mid-1970s.

He started off building a bridge for the set - but when one of the actors dropped out, John asked if he could step in. This literally set the stage for his place at drama school in London, his meeting with Kathy and his eventual part in the Channel 4 soap Brookside, which he left 10 years ago.

They now live in the picturesque Ribble Valley and enjoy the rural life, although like everyone else the family has been moved by the emptiness of the fields as foot and mouth silently claimed its cloven-hoofed victims.

"It is such a small community, very accepting and welcoming. There is no snobbery, we all get to know each other. I would sooner be based here than in London," John said. "When I am working I go there twice a week for interviews and auditions but this is a nice place to come back to."

John and Kathy - her family name is Pickard, but she had to change it because an actress of that name was already registered with Equity - enjoyed working together on Mersey Beat. John had already been cast as Inspector Oulton, but when he heard the director was looking for someone to play his wife he suggested - his wife.

Off-screen, the couple are not like hairdresser Dawn and stressed-out Jim. But John said: "It's nice to play forceful characters and get it out of your system. It helps that the chemistry is there, and we know one another."

The fact that they were living and working together meant they learned their lines in double-quick time, practising at 5.30am before arriving at the set. "You still get early starts, especially in the winter, as the light starts going at about 3pm," John said. The couple's nine-year-old son Joseph would sometimes stay on the set, sitting with the sound man.

Daughter Katie, 19, is studying for a degree in linguistics and is keen to follow in her parents' footsteps. "She has the talent for it, but standards are getting higher and higher, which is why we tried to persuade her to get a degree," John said.

Between Brookside and Mersey Beat John has been seen in numerous dramas, including the recent BBC drama The Cazalets, in which he played Tonbridge.

Kathy's career has featured numerous television appearances and lots of theatre work. John is hopeful there will be another series of Mersey Beat, and current viewing figures are promising. "We are waiting to hear, but we would like another series. The whole cast really enjoyed it," he said.

Now he and Kathy are taking a well-earned rest in order to decorate their home and, in John's words, "put down some roots".

You can also see John on television on Tuesday, August 21, presenting Case Unsolved, the first in a six-part series of murder mysteries for Granada. John links the re-enactments of 12 unsolved cases in the North West going back up to 50 years. The show will be screened weekly at 7.30pm.