HEARTS may beat just a little faster among female viewers this Sunday night.
Scots actor Joe McFadden makes quite an impact in his opening scenes as Heartbeat’s new Pc Joe Mason.
There’s a touch of Z Cars meets The Sweeney near Bettys Tea Rooms as our Joe chases a gang of armed robbers in York.
He ends up on temporary secondment to Aidensfield.
“Seems a confident sort, dun’t he,” observes Pc Geoff Younger, played by Steven Blakeley, an actor who will surely never go short of work.
Will Pc Joe forget all about his impending transfer to London and stay in this rural backwater?
Well, what do you think?

Joe shone as dishy Dallas McCabe, baby-faced lead singer in the Ice Cubes in Debbie Horsfield’s Eccles-set BBC1 drama series Sex, Chips & Rock ‘n’ Roll, screened in 1999.
He went on to star in The Glass – with John Thaw and Sarah Lancashire – and in Sparkhouse.
It’s good to see him back on TV in a role which will certainly increase his fan base.
Heartbeat also returns on top form, along with its ensemble cast of characters.
That includes Alf Ventress (William Simons), still smoking for Yorkshire and staying out of the way of the never seen Mrs Ventress.
There’s an interview with Joe McFadden in tomorrow’s MEN.
(Thu Nov 8 update: The TV feature on Hearbeat / Joe McFadden is here)
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