Cornish based detective Series based on novels By W J Burley. Wycliffe was a police drama, based on the series of novels W.J. Burley books about Detective Superintendent Charles Wycliffe. The series was set in Cornwall, and many of the crimes Wycliffe was called upon to solve related to drug smuggling operations. He was assisted by DI Doug Kersey and DS/DI Lucy Lane.
This series was broadcast on ITV between 1993 and 1998, and ended when the principal actors decided not to continue. During the filming of the final series, Jimmy Yuill (who played Wycliffe's sidekick DI Doug Kersey) fell ill, and though he made a full recovery, the producers refused to allow him to return to the programme for insurance reasons. With Yuill gone, Shepherd and Masters chose not to continue (DS/DI Lucy Lane. ). The final episode, one of the bleakest in the programme's history, saw Wycliffe framed for drug smuggling, his innocence only being proven in the last few seconds of the show.
"It broke his heart," said Shepherd, who has been approached to make a sixth series. "If the creative heart has gone out of the programme, which it has without Jimmy, then there is not much point going on with it. It is not as if I am doing it for the money or the status." "After he was taken ill, a lot of re-writing had to go on. It was a great shame. The other episodes are nowhere near as good as they should have been. Jimmy could certainly have come back to work within two or three weeks had HTV not decided to terminate his contract."
All over Cornwall including Carn Galver, Reskajeage Downs, Hemmick Beach, Cape Cornwall, Pentire, Godrevy, Rinsey, Wheal Charlotte, Truro, Perranporth, Wadebridge, Newquay, Porthtowan, Portreath, Trelissick, Church Cove
W J Burley W J Burley web site