Ian Cullen

Actor who was a TV heart-throb as a surgeon on ‘Emergency-Ward 10’ and played a doomed copper in ‘Z-Cars’

IAN Cullen, who has died aged 80, was an actor whose most dramatic role was in the BBC police series Z-Cars as the dour, laid-back Geordie officer Joe Skinner, whose fatal shooting shocked the nation.

He joined the programme in 1969, seven years after it had brought its warts-and-all portrayal of the police to television, and Skinner rose from police constable to detective.

Skinner had a tendency to keep his superiors in the dark about investigations, but, as he insisted: “I do get results.”

In 1975 this trait contributed to his grisly end when Skinner was killed by a gunman in pursuit of an informant played by Ralph Bates (of Poldark renown).

Cullen had previously attained heart-throb status in the hospital soap Emergency–Ward 10 as the surgeon Warren Kent during its final year (1966-7). Cullen’s fame led to his being stopped on a London Tube train in an emergency when someone recognised him as a “doctor”.

Later he played Geordie Watson in When the Boat Comes In, James Mitchell’s tale of inter-war poverty in the actor’s native North East. He joined its second series in 1977 as a local councillor, and appeared on-and-off until the final run in 1981.

Returning to soap opera in 1997 for the new Channel 5 serial Family Affairs, Cullen portrayed Angus Hart, a widower beset by tragedy: he saw his wife die in a car accident minutes after the wedding, then he and most of his family were killed in a boat explosion in 1999 when a new producer was brought in to revamp the show.

George Ian Cullen was born in Sunderland on October 20, 1939 to John, a wine merchant, and Elizabeth (nee Riches), a nurse who also performed in amateur dramatics. He made his first steps on a stage at the age of four, in a village pantomime.

On leaving Washington Grammar School, he trained at Rada then worked in repertory. The newly formed Royal Shakespeare Company was quick to recognise his talents.

He performed with the RSC at both the Aldwych in London and the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, from 1961 to 1963, making his debut as a French baron in Becket, directed by Peter Hall.

In the West End he was Detective Sergeant Trotter in The Mousetrap (St Martin’s, 1968-69) and played St Paul in Man of Two Worlds (Westminster Theatre, 1985).

His breakthrough television role was as David Balfour in the 1963 BBC serialisation of Kidnapped. A year later, he appeared in the first series of Doctor Who as Ixta, a warrior challenging the Time Lord William Hartnell’s assistant Ian Chesterton (William Russell) in mortal combat, in the

TV ROLE: Ian Cullen as Joe Skinner in ‘Z-Cars’ four-part story “The Aztecs”.

After leaving Z-Cars, Cullen divided his time between acting and writing. He contributed scripts to children’s series of the late 1970s, as well as writing, with John Norton, Katie: The Year of a Child ,a 1979 Play for Today about a 14-year-old finding herself in charge of an Irish Travellers’ family when her father leaves for England.

In 1982 he formed Surrey Heath Young Actors’ Company.

He was head of drama at Elmhurst Ballet School (1988-96), where his students included Helen Baxendale, and directed Farnham Shakespeare Company productions from 2006 to 2015.

He also served as a Conservative on Surrey Heath Borough Council for 12 years from 2007.

Cullen married, in 1970, the dancer-turned-actress Yvonne Quenet, who survives him with their three daughters.

Ian Cullen died on November 12. © Telegraph