John Nettles' very different career after Midsomer Murders exit

John Nettles is a household name thanks to his starring role in ITV's Midsomer Murders. The actor played DCI Tom Barnaby from the show's inception until his final episode aired in 2011. While John continued with his acting work after leaving the drama, appearing in shows such as Poldark, he also turned his attention to a very different career.

After announcing his departure in 2009, John had more time to focus on his work as a historian and made a three-part documentary, The Channel Islands at War, about how Jersey and Guernsey, were occupied by the Nazis in the Second World War. Then in 2012, John published a book on the same subject, Jewels and Jackboots, which was followed by an edition of the diaries of Reverend Douglas Ord, who lived in Guernsey during the war.

In a recent interview, John revealed that he's currently working on a translated version of the diaries of Baron von Aufsess, the Chief of Administration during the Occupation at the Feldkommandantur in Jersey. The book will be published in September.

"He has this fascinating German mentality that explains why the Germans carried on fighting even when it was clear they were losing the war," John told The Telegraph. "The attitude was very much, 'my country, right or wrong'. He sympathises with the island inhabitants, forced to cooperate with their occupiers. Their argument was: 'They've got the gun. We haven't.'

"Jersey is a very small place, only about seven miles wide, and there were 30,000 Germans there. There was nowhere to hide."

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John also spoke of his other passion: horses. The 80-year-old and his wife Cathryn have three rescue horses and two donkeys. "I sometimes think God made horses on the Monday, when everything was fresh," he said, adding: "They are the most beautiful creatures."

Sadly, there's no chance of the actor reprising his role anytime soon as he has retired from acting. "Old actors tend to describe themselves as semi-retired. What that means is, no one is offering you any work. I've cut through that – I'm retired," he revealed.

When John stepped down as the show's lead over a decade ago, he said that while it was a "very difficult" decision, he felt it was time to go.

"I suddenly realised that I'm going to be the oldest detective in the business now that David Jason has thrown off the mantle. But it was a very difficult decision to make," he told The Telegraph at the time.

"I'll have been doing Midsomer Murders for 14 years by the time Barnaby leaves. I've formed familial ties with the people involved in the show and they will be hard to break. It's always wise to leave people wanting more, rather than be booed off the stage because you bored them."