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Colin Buchanan - Biography

Famous for playing the sensitive and intellectual half of crime-fighting duo Dalziel And Pascoe

Colin Buchanan - Biography
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Before he set his sights on an acting career Colin Buchanan worked as a builder, a delivery man and a rock group vocalist. Luckily for fans of long-running BBC crime series Dalziel And Pascoe - in which he appeared since it launched in 1996, the chisel jawed Scot decided his talents lay elsewhere and enrolled at the London Drama Centre. 

What has Colin Buchanan starred in?

Since graduating from the centre in 1991 he has been a fixture on British TV, featuring in 17th-century drama The Fortunes And Misfortunes Of Moll Flanders, comedy All Quiet On The Preston Front, and police-themed dramas Heartbeat, A Touch Of Frost and The Bill

In 1996 he was cast as DI Peter Pascoe in Dalziel and Pascoe, alongside Warren Clarke. The BBC drama was based on mystery novels of the same name, written by Reginald Hill. It "follows the work of two detectives who are thrown together as partners. Complete opposites. Different backgrounds, different beliefs, different styles. They get on each other's nerves. They are continually embarrassed by each other. But their differences make them a stunningly brilliant crime-solving team."

Colin has also narrated several Reginald Hill audio books.

Who is Colin Buchanan married to?

The actor, who grew up in Dundee, now lives in Birmingham - where Dalziel and Pascoe was filmed - raising his two daughters Kira and Maya whom he shares with ex wife Kim. 

What has Colin Buchanan been in lately?

He is quite the ghost, hardly appearing on TV since 2007 except for an episode of Casualty. He also he made a stage appearance in JB Priestley’s Dangerous Corner in 2014.

“When Dalziel and Pascoe finished, I was offered a few things straight away but I turned them down because I was exhausted, frankly,” the Scot said Business Live.

"In the later years we were expected to do more and more with less and less money and time. In the end it became impossible to keep up the quality. We felt we were just filling screen time rather than doing something worthwhile. I took time off to recharge the batteries and went on a lot of holidays."

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