On the eve of his final appearance in Wild At Heart, Stephen Tompkinson reflects on a policeman’s lot

IT gets personal for DCI Banks in the second series of the ITV detective series based on the Yorkshire-set novels of Peter Robinson.

“The first case opens with a woman who’s been found in her car with a single bullet wound to her head, and the only other thing to identify her is the fact that she’s carrying Banks’ address with her,” says Stockton-born Stephen Tompkinson, who plays Banks.

“He gets home to find an urgent message from his brother saying that he needs his help. They’re not the closest of brothers. Roy, who’s his much younger brother, is a property developer – they don’t really see eye-to-eye.”

His professional life collides drastically with his personal life, which means we’re about to learn a lot more about Banks. “With the pilot episode and the first series, we really wanted to establish Banks as the policeman that he is – dogged and determined – and now we’ve been fortunate enough to add a bit more colour to his background in a personal way,” explains Tompkinson.

It also means we meet Banks’ parents for the first time. Played by Keith Barron and Polly Hemmingway, they’re not the only new faces joining the show. His right-hand woman DS Annie Cabbot (Andrea Lowe) is missing as Lowe is on maternity leave. Now Banks has Doc Martin’s Caroline Catz by his side, covering for Lowe.

“We had to do a bit of deviating from Peter’s books to introduce the new character to cover for Annie’s maternity leave,” says Tompkinson.

“We’ve found DI Helen Morton, who has come from a different area, from intelligence-gathering, so she’s more used to working behind a desk.

“She’s quite straight-laced. She has four boys at home, is happily married, and she’s not really used to the darker, seedier world that Banks inhabits, so he’s got quite a bit of work cut out to make her a valued team player.”

In reality, Tompkinson and Catz are hardly strangers, having worked together on All Quiet On The Preston Front .

AS for the past, filming projects in Yorkshire remains a memorable experience.

Brassed Off introduced him to the late Pete Postlethwaite, a man who remains as big an influence for the actor now as he was before his death from cancer last year.

“I always think of Pete,” says Tompkinson.

“He was so good. He had a better way of portraying the truth than any actor I’ve worked with. He had such a dedication, and also an extraordinary face that to have looked into it as an audience member, you just believed the history of whatever he was bringing to you, because he had such control over his emotions and expressions.

“I always try and think, ‘What would Pete do at this moment?’ I’m not as good as him, I never will be, but I do keep trying.”

Tompkinson’s all-encompassing career has seen him in many notable roles in series like Ballykissangel, Grafters and Drop the Dead Donkey And then there’s Wild At Heart, due to come to an end on ITV1 with a two-hour special. “What an incredible run we’ve had and, with the last series, we never had below seven million viewers, so we’re going at the peak,” he says.

That will air sometime in the New Year, but for now, a policeman’s work is never done, so Tompkinson makes his excuses and strides off to grill the next suspect in his firing line.

  • DCI Banks: Weds, ITV 1, 8pm