The Worst Episodes of Heartbeat
Every episode of Heartbeat ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Heartbeat!
Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield, this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines.
Lowest Rated Episodes Summary
The worst episode of "Heartbeat" is "The Medium Is the Message", rated 6.6/10 from 25 user votes. It was directed by Adrian Bean and written by Mark Holloway. "The Medium Is the Message" aired on 7/8/2007 and is rated 0.1 point(s) lower than the second lowest rated, "Desperate Measures".
6.6/10 25 votes#1 - The Medium Is the Message
Season 16 Episode 20 - Aired 7/8/2007
No description available
Director: Adrian Bean
Writer: Mark Holloway
6.7/10 28 votes#2 - Desperate Measures
Season 9 Episode 21 - Aired 2/13/2000
Roy Brooks gets a suspended prison sentence for horse theft, but later in the evening a racing horse is stolen from Lord Ashfordly and his estate manager is seriously knocked down. Bernie Scripps happens to tell Greengrass that he once was psychic.
Director: Roger Bamford
Writer: Neil McKay
6.8/10 25 votes#3 - Deadlier Than the Male
Season 18 Episode 19 - Aired 8/8/2010
No description available
Director: Dominic Leclerc
Writer: Peter Gibbs
6.9/10 26 votes#4 - Blind Justice
Season 10 Episode 13 - Aired 1/21/2001
Craddock dates his dance teacher at the 'North Riding Police Dance' but her son is a ruthless fast speed driver. Bernie is off to Northallerton to comfort a widow, so Vernon and David takes the job to repair Lord Ashfordly's Bentley.
Director: Paul Walker
Writer: Neil McKay
6.9/10 24 votes#5 - Unchained Melody
Season 10 Episode 20 - Aired 3/11/2001
Jackie gets a visit from her old friend Caroline. She is surprised to learn that Caroline has a baby. Caroline needs a day off from motherhood and leaves the baby with Jackie and Mike while she goes to York to see some friends. Mike leaves the baby in a pram outside the police house, but when Jackie comes home from an errand the baby is gone. Jackie is not the only one who has a visitor. Lady Patricia visits her brother at Ashfordly Hall together with an old family friend Lord Hal Tadcaster. Well "together" may not be the proper word, because she would rather see him leave than stay. And with good reason since the CID suspects Tadcaster of being a drug dealer and asks the police in Ashfordly to keep an eye on him. The post office in Whitby goes on strike. Vernon Scripps gets the idea to start a courier service. And for once he does the dirty work himself.
Director: Gerry Mill
Writer: Susan Wilkins
6.9/10 35 votes#6 - Home to Roost
Season 11 Episode 8 - Aired 12/16/2001
Mr. Lawson, the owner of some disused houses, is furious when a commune arrives and takes them over. Lawson is suspected of breaking into the houses. One of the girls in the commune is pregnant, but Oscar persuades Lawson to allow her to stay there with the baby. An undercover journalist was responsible for the break in.
Director: Diana Patrick
Writer: Jayne Hollinson
6.9/10 24 votes#7 - Where There's Smoke
Season 16 Episode 23 - Aired 7/29/2007
No description available
Director: Adrian Bean
Writer: Peter Gibbs
6.9/10 32 votes#8 - The Middle of Somewhere
Season 18 Episode 12 - Aired 5/24/2009
No description available
Director: Roger Bamford
Writer: Michael Eaton
7.0/10 27 votes#9 - Second Chances
Season 11 Episode 16 - Aired 2/10/2002
Helen Jones returns home walking her dog and surprises a young intruder who strikingly resembles her run-away husband decades ago. Later David finds him in Vernon's barn, and soon Vernon is involved in the wine processing business.
Director: Diana Patrick
Writer: Douglas Watkinson
7.0/10 25 votes#10 - Bin Man
Season 14 Episode 26 - Aired 6/5/2005
Gina discovers a severed hand in her dustbin.
Director: Judith Dine
Writer: Jane Hollowood
7.0/10 25 votes#11 - Pretty Woman
Season 16 Episode 6 - Aired 12/3/2006
No description available
Director: Jonas Grimås
Writer: Mark Holloway
7.0/10 21 votes#12 - No Laughing Matter
Season 16 Episode 16 - Aired 5/27/2007
No description available
Director: Adrian Bean
Writer: John Flanagan, Andrew McCulloch
- 7.1/10 44 votes
#13 - A Chilly Reception
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 10/31/1993
A local woman is getting prepared for her wedding, but someone it seems is trying to sabotage the event. An old boyfriend of the woman's then turns up still expressing feelings for her. The church is then sabotaged and Nick and Kate find that the culprit for the recent acts of sabotage is the bride to be's old boyfriend. A old friend of Greengrass' turns up and passes on to him a load of stolen sea food, which Claude then sells to the bride's family for the reception, which gives the her father food poisoning. Meanwhile, Kate's aunt Eileen pays her a visit telling her that she has some money that her Uncle Henry had left to her in his will. Kate initially refuses it, which puzzles Nick. Kate later explains that when she was young she found her uncle in bed with another woman, and he then tried to bribe Kate into not telling her auntie. However Eileen tells Kate that she was aware of her husbands affairs and lived to accept it. Kate then accepts the money and donates it to charity in me
Director: Catherine Morshead
Writer: Eric Wendell
- 7.1/10 35 votes
#14 - Red Herring
Season 4 Episode 9 - Aired 10/30/1994
A Russian defector is on the run. A Russian ship docks in Whitby and a fight amongst the crew breaks out in a local pub. One sailor thinks he's killed his skipper and asks Nick for Political asylum. When Nick and Alf take him to the immigration office he makes a run for it and they lose him. Blaketon is not impressed but when the sailor finds out that he didn't kill the Skipper he says he needs to get back on the ship. Nick and Claude arrange a plan to sneak the sailor back onto the ship and it works. During all of this Greengrass has been trout poaching with a priest! Dr Radcliff's daughter goes missing on a cliff side and a search is mounted for her - she is found unharmed.
Director: Ken Horn
Writer: Michael Russell
7.1/10 29 votes#15 - The Angry Brigade
Season 8 Episode 18 - Aired 1/17/1999
Barry Dixon is released from prison but is followed closely by an insurance detective. Lord Ashfordly has closed a pathway to a waterfall, but that decision meets strong opposition when a couple of tourists, Mr and Mrs Tidy, is stopped somewhat brutally. Bradley and Jackie Lambert, an attractive lawyer, develop common ground.
Director: Gerry Poulson
Writer: Peter Gibbs
7.1/10 31 votes#16 - Kindness of Strangers
Season 9 Episode 9 - Aired 11/21/1999
An old man is very obsessed with his son who fell in World War II near the German border, a real war hero. A young couple is caught shoplifting but she simulates yjat the borth of her baby has started. Greengrass seizes a sudden opportunity to be the arranger of a local rally.
Director: Gerry Poulson
Writer: James Stevenson
7.1/10 23 votes#17 - Rustlers and Hustlers
Season 14 Episode 21 - Aired 5/1/2005
A young girl is injured in a horse riding accident, leading the police to stumble upon a sinister series of animal thefts. Helen tries to tell Rob she doesn't want a relationship with him, but worries about hurting his feelings. Meanwhile, Oscar catches Peggy and David hosting a poker tournament in the Aidensfield Arms and bars them from the pub.
Director: Anne Rose
Writer: Brian Finch
7.1/10 25 votes#18 - Shadows from the Past
Season 14 Episode 23 - Aired 5/15/2005
Peggy sets aside her pitchfork for glamour in the hope of charming a wealthy widower. The local community is up in arms when a famous homicide case is reopened for investigation - but Sergeant Miller ends up with more murder than he bargained for.
Director: Gerry Mill
Writer: Peter Gibbs
- 7.2/10 37 votes
#19 - Witch Hunt
Season 4 Episode 2 - Aired 9/11/1994
Insp. Crossley suspects an old woman of being responsible for an attack of food poisoning, but Kate soon discovers it was due to something entirely different - arsenic poisoning from old wall paper. Nick points out to Blaketon that the Insp. hasn't been keeping CID fully informed which soon puts an end to his presence in Ashfordly. The police are also surprised to discover that their new Inspector is a woman - Insp. Merchison!
Director: Catherine Morshead
Writer: Brian Finch
7.2/10 27 votes#20 - Always a Copper
Season 9 Episode 7 - Aired 11/7/1999
The Chief Constable makes Blaketon organize a crime prevention committee. A burglar spills some blood when leaving a site of his crime, and Greengrass is a tourist 'guide' for Norwegians looking for Viking items.
Director: Paul Walker
Writer: Michael Jenner
7.2/10 27 votes#21 - The Great Ming Mystery
Season 11 Episode 15 - Aired 2/3/2002
The owner of a large house has recently acquired a ming varse. While he is on holiday, David looks after the house, however he leaves after he learns some other people have moved in. It turns out they are responsible for the missing vase.
Director: Paul Walker
Writer: Jane Hollowood
7.2/10 25 votes#22 - The Dear Departed
Season 13 Episode 12 - Aired 3/7/2004
A recently widowed woman arrives in Aidensfield wanting to bury her late husband in the family grave, but the dead man's brother refuses to co-operate because of an old feud. Vernon and David pay a visit, hoping to persuade him otherwise - only to find themselves held at gunpoint - and when it emerges the coffin is full of money and the deceased is alive and well, a shocking case of fraud is uncovered. Meanwhile, Oscar is among the locals under suspicion when a widely disliked, hardened criminal returns to the village - and soon ends up murdered.
Director: Andrew Morgan
Writer: Brian Finch
7.2/10 26 votes#23 - Off the Rails
Season 14 Episode 20 - Aired 4/24/2005
A crime wave hits Ashfordly train station as a number of freight wagons mysteriously vanish, giving the police a tricky case to crack, but a sandwich could provide a vital clue. Peggy has plans to make some fast money when she decides to play dirty in the local bowls tournament, while a night out in Whitby proves eventful for Walker and Helen.
Director: Roger Bamford
Writer: Richard Monks
7.2/10 25 votes#24 - Duty of Care
Season 14 Episode 22 - Aired 5/8/2005
A young boy is shot at the Hall and Lord Ashfordly comes under investigation for employing child labour - but Bellamy discovers that the truth is rather more complicated. Peggy turns her hand to the tourist industry.
Director: Ian Bevitt
Writer: Ming Ho
7.2/10 25 votes#25 - Every Dog His Day
Season 14 Episode 24 - Aired 5/22/2005
A group of young offenders come to stay at Ashfordly Hall, but soon find themselves under suspicion after a spate of disturbances in the village. Meanwhile, Blaketon and Ventress go on the hunt for a spinster's missing dog, and a £50 reward gives Peggy an idea.
Director: Andrew Morgan
Writer: Susan Wilkins