John Nettles was born on October 11th 1943 in St Austell, Cornwall, England. He was adopted as a child and went to St Austell Grammer school followed by Southampton University. Before he became an actor John was a teacher. John's early career in the theatre was at the Theatre-in-the-Round in Scarborough in 1967 in a play called A Little Stiff Built Chap by Leonard Barass. This was in rep for six weeks at a seaside temporary theatre founded by Stephen Joseph - a pioneer of theatre-in-the-round in the UK from 1958-1966. He began his television career in 1970 when he played Ian McKenzie in Family At War, and this was followed in 1972 when he played Paul in the popular comedy series The Liver Birds. In 1976 he appeared in Arnhem: The Story of an Escape and in 1980 he played Bassanio in the BBC production of The Merchant of Venice.

However, it was in 1981 that John became famous for his role as Sergeant Jim Bergerac in the popular television series based on the island of Jersey - Bergerac.  John was to play this high-profile detective for the next twelve years until in 1993 he finally decided to call it a day.  Despite no longer being made, the series itself is still extremely popular and every now and then John receives royalty cheques for the show being aired in other countries and on UK Gold.

In 1984 John appeared in an episode of Robin of Sherwood as De Leon, and in 1992 he made a guest appearance in the television series Boon as Joe Green in the episode "Queen's Gambit".

Since the finish of Bergerac John has not done very much television - he was Capulet in Romeo and Juliet in 1994 - until 1997 when he suddenly once more became a popular figure as Detective Chief Inspector Tom Barnaby in ITV's series Midsomer Murders.  John is happy to be playing a much more sensible and down-to-earth policeman who wears three-piece suits and drives a Rover, rather than the ex-alcoholic Jim Bergerac who drove a 1947 Triumph Roadster.

Apart from his adventures in Midsomer Murders, John seems to prefer to spend his time behind the camera these days and has mainly worked as a narrator - he is the voice behind the BBC docu-soap Airport (1996); The Hunt (1997); The Tourist Trap (1998); The Millennium Time Bomb (1998); and Fraud Squad (1998).  John has made one film - All Men Are Mortal (1995) in which he played the role of Sanier.

John has an extensive career history with the Royal Shakespeare Company and has played such roles as Alexei Turbin in The White Guard, Harry Thunder in Wild Oats, Ernest in Once in a Lifetime and Lucio in Measure for Measure at The Aldwyn Theatre, London in 1979.  In the same year he also played several roles at The Warehouse including Captain Thompson in The Churchill Play and Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice.  At the time he was part of an ensemble which included actors such as Patrick Stewart, Richard Griffiths, Michael Pennington, Juliet Stevenson, John Bowe, Alan Howard, Sinead Cusack, Zoë Wanamaker, Peter McEnery, David Suchet, John Shrapnel, Jane Lapotaire and Ruby Wax.  John returned to the RSC in 1992/93 to play Leontes in The Winter's Tale with Samantha Bond as Hermione and Gemma Jones as Paulina; and George Page in The Merry Wives of Windsor with Cheryl Campbell as Mistress Ford, Barbara Jefford as Mistress Quickly, Gemma Jones as Mistress Page and Anton Lesser as Frank Ford.

In 1998 John performed at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre at Stratford in a live concert/radio broadcast.  He read from Henry V and other Shakespeare works.  He has narrated an audiobook by Ken Follett - Lie Down with Lions and Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green.

John lives with his second wife Catherine in a lovely converted barn near Stratford-upon-Avon and still flies to Jersey regularly to visit his daughter Emma, who is in the civilian back-up for the Jersey Police Force.