‘I'm a simple DONCASTER!'

Midsomer Murders actor Neil Dudgeon tells Woman’s Weekly his secret to feeling good at 60 boy from

- KATHERINE HASSELL

Neil Dudgeon is one of our biggest television exports. As DCI John Barnaby in Midsomer Murders, he’s seen on screens in 231 territories around the world. And now he’s celebrating a decade since he made his first arrest as the countryside copper. ‘Four or five months is a really long job for an actor,’ he tells us. ‘So to have one that goes on for 10 years is extraordinary.’

Such success could have gone to his head, but that’s not the case. Down-to-earth Neil – who lives in London with his wife, radio producer/director Mary Peate, and children Joe, 17, and Greta, 15 – enjoys simple pleasures. There were no outrageous demands for his 60th birthday in January. ‘I asked Mary to cook me her lovely spag bol because I’m a man of very humble tastes,’ he grins. ‘I had that and a little glass of something, and welcomed in my seventh decade.’