Yahoo News Ex-Heartbeat star returned to TV to prove he's not dead
Former Heartbeat fans may have spotted a familiar face in BBC's The Moorside.
It was a blink-it-and-you'll-miss-it cameo, as Claude Greengrass himself showed up in episode two as a pensioner named Cecil.
Bill Maynard – who starred in Heartbeat as Greengrass – explained (via the Leicester Mercury) that he ended up on the show thanks to producer Ken Horn.
"Ken's an old mate of mine from the days of Selwyn Froggitt and The Gaffer and was director and producer of Heartbeat and The Royal, and we've always kept in touch," he said.
"Four years ago, a national radio DJ wrongly told his audience I was dead.
"When Ken contacted me and told me he was doing the drama, he said there were only two lines and did I want to do it to show people I was still alive."
Maynard continued: "I had loads of phone calls from people I knew.
"I rang my agent of 66 years to ask about the possibility of getting me on some chat show on how, after 64 years of playing leads, here I was – not only alive, but employable."
Maynard starred in ten series of Heartbeat from 1992 to 2000 before he left due to health reasons.
He would later pop up in Heartbeat spin-off The Royal in 2013, but that was the last time he was seen on TV until now.
The Moorside, which aired on BBC One earlier this month, is a two-part drama based on the 2008 kidnapping of Shannon Matthews.
Sheridan Smith, Gemma Whelan, Sian Brooke, and Siobhan Finneran all starred.
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