The Boss: “He was taller than Burden, thick-set without being fat, fifty-two years old, the very prototype of an actor playing a top-brass policeman…”

“Michael Burden was properly of too high a rank to accompany a chief inspector on calls of inquiry. He did so because that was the way they worked, the way it worked…”

Detective Sergeant Martin is played by Ken Kitson. The Yorkshire copper always seems to end up with the unglamorous jobs like all-night surveillance or acting as a decoy to catch a crazed killer and sadly loses his life in Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter.

Detective Sergeant Barry Vine (pictured here being played by Sean Pertwee) is the young, IT-savvy sergeant who first appears as a replacement for DS Martin in Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter. Vine is played by Robin Kermode in Simisola and Road Rage: “I played him as a well read, articulate policeman … I liked him because he has an edge about him.”

Mr Mavrikiev (Robin Lermitte) replaces Dr Crocker
as the pathologist in Simisola.

Sasha Mitchell plays Detective Sergeant Karen Malahyde: “She is really quite dogged and ambitious. She is determined to have her own style and be different. It’s important to her politically - as a feminist - to remain a person in her own right. She always wants Wexford’s approval and she reads voraciously, so she’s able to make the literary connections and have a decent conversation with him. She and Burden will never hit it off as they just don’t understand each other.”

Dr Len Crocker (John Burgess) has an impressive combination of roles: Reg Wexford’s oldest friend (both born in Pomfret);a GP; police surgeon and pathologist.

Ted Willoughby - the desk sergeant - is played by
Colin Campbell. Colin is best known for his role as David Ashton in Granada’s Family at War.

Like all great British detectives, Wexford has to contend with an unsympathetic, egotistical, uniform-loving superior. Dave Hill plays Deputy Chief Constable Freeborn.

Chief Superintendent Howard Fortune (Patrick Drury) is Wexford’s nephew and head of CID in the London borough of Kenbourne Vale.