William Simons (2) (1940–2019)

Television actor best known as PC Alf Ventress in all 18 series of the ITV police drama Heartbeat (1992-2010). As a child, Simons appeared in several children's TV serials. He played Christopher Sixpence in A Castle and Sixpence (1954), Peter in Heidi Grows Up (1954), Andrew in Benbow and the Angels (1955), Bobby in Bobby in France (1955) and Alfie Cutforth in Rex Milligan (1956). He was Abel Garland in the BBC's 13-part adaptation of The Old Curiosity Shop (1962). He played a police officer for the first time when he took the part of the new village bobby, Will Croft, in Emmerdale Farm (1976). He then became typecast as law upholders, playing Constable Thackeray in the Victorian drama Cribb (1980-1981) and detectives in Juliet Bravo (1985), Rumpole of the Bailey (1987), The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1989) and The Bill (1989), before playing Inspector Fox, Patrick Malahide's sidekick, in The Inspector Alleyn Mysteries (1990-1994), overlapping with his early days in Heartbeat.