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Rob Heyland
Rob Heyland
Rob Heyland
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Rob Heyland (born 2 April 1954) is a British screenwriter, actor and landscape designer.

Early life and education

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Heyland was born in London to Irish parents and brought up in Kent where his father was a GP. He was educated at The King’s School, Canterbury and studied acting at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London (1976-9).

Career

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Acting

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On leaving Central, Rob and his wife Victoria were involved in the setting up of Burgh House arts and community centre in Hampstead and became the centre's first administrators (1979-1984). At the same time Rob started his acting career as a founder member of The Kick Theatre Company with Deborah Warner.

Heyland and Warner took over the running of the New End Theatre in Hampstead. They opened with Anthony Minghella’s Whale Music. They commissioned Steven Berkoff to write Decadence, with Linda Marlowe, which had its premier at the theatre. They also brought Judi Dench and her husband Michael Williams in their final performance together in Village Wooing. Heyland established a thriving late night review spot at the theatre, which hosted, amongst others, the Edinburgh Fringe award winning Cambridge Footlights team of Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie and Tony Slattery in their first London performances. They also established The Wow Show, a rolling revue involving up-and-coming comedians.

Heyland began his professional acting career playing Policeman in a 1982 episode of The Professionals entitled Cry Wolf[1] His only line of dialogue was: "Grub up Miller". He had two lines in Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983) and then went on to land the lead role of Donald Turner in the prime time BBC TV series One By One – (three series - 1984–1987) (Viewing figures reached 15 million) .[2]

One By One led to him starring in Pepperami adverts, including "Venus Fly Trap" and "Piranha". Latterly, not much liking working in front of the camera, Heyland focused on theatre.

Theatre credits include Henry VIII in A Man For All Seasons at Birmingham Rep, with Denys Hawthorne as Sir Thomas More. A season with The Royal Shakespeare Company playing The Prince in Romeo and Juliet, with Mark Rylance as Romeo, Cloten in Cymbeline and The Priest in Have. Heyland was Baron Tuzenbach in The Three Sisters at the Albery Theater in London’s West End with Francesca Annis, Susan Penhaligon, Ian Ogilvy, Hywel Bennett, and Ron Cook. It was directed by Elijah Moshinsky, with Sam Mendes as assistant. Touring credits include: Trevor Tinsley in Funny Peculiar and Mellors in Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

Script Writing

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Heyland began his writing career in 1991, as part of the team that helped Tony Garnett to create BBC’s hit series Between The Lines (1992-4), starring Neil Pearson. Heyland wrote 7 episodes over 3 seasons (BAFTA, Writers Guild, Broadcasting Press Guild.)

Heyland developed, co-produced and wrote Have Your Cake and Eat It[3] (1997) starring Sinead Cusack (Royal Television Award for Best Actress), James Bolam, Phillip Glenister, Rebecca Front, James Purefoy, and Honeysuckle Weeks.

Other shows created by Heyland include Bomber (ITV film, 2000), with Mark Strong; Promoted to Glory (ITV film. 2003) with Ken Stott, Lesley Manville and Kevin Whately;[4] Ultimate Force (ITV series, 4 seasons – 2002–2007) with Ross Kemp;[5] Whistleblower (RTE, two part film, 2008) with Charlene McKenna and Adrian Dunbar, (Best drama IFTA and Celtic Film Awards, IFTA).

Other TV writing credits include: Wycliffe, Thief Takers, Kavanagh QC, Out of Hours, Heartbeat, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Foyle's War, Robin Hood and Striking Out.

He is currently developing a French Revolution series with Sir Simon Schama.

Politics

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Heyland was a founder member of the Social Democrat Party. He was on the policy committee and stood for election in Belsize ward in the local elections in Camden. He was also a member of the 300 group, pushing for greater representation of women in parliament. He has spoken on platforms against consumerism and how it will destroy the planet. "A finite planet and a system of infinite growth are not compatible".[citation needed]

References

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Rob Heyland

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Rob Heyland is a British screenwriter and actor known for his work on acclaimed television dramas, including the BBC series Between the Lines and the Irish series Striking Out. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama and began his career as an actor, performing in theatre productions and television dramas for more than twenty years before transitioning to screenwriting. His writing credits include episodes for series such as Foyle's War, Robin Hood, and Heartbeat, as well as the TV film Promoted to Glory and the military drama Ultimate Force. Heyland also founded Wild Will Theatre Company, where he leads educational Shakespeare workshops for schools, drawing on his extensive experience in drama and performance. His work spans British and Irish television, earning recognition for its contributions to character-driven police and legal procedurals.

Early life and education

Birth and family background

Rob Heyland was born on 2 April 1954 in London, England, UK.

Education and drama training

Rob Heyland studied drama at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. His professional acting training included participation in student productions at the school's Embassy Theatre, where he performed as Gus in Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter in June 1979. He also appeared in a production at the same venue from 29 November to 2 December 1978, as well as other Central School presentations during that period. These roles formed part of his formal preparation for a career in acting during the late 1970s.

Acting career

Theatre work and early involvement

Heyland was a founder member of Kick Theatre Company, co-founded with director Deborah Warner. He subsequently took over the running of the New End Theatre in Hampstead, overseeing productions including Anthony Minghella's ''Whale Music'', Steven Berkoff's ''Decadence'', and a staging of ''Village Wooing'' featuring Judi Dench and Michael Williams. The venue also hosted a Cambridge Footlights revue that included Stephen Fry, Emma Thompson, Hugh Laurie, and Tony Slattery. During this time, he created The Wow Show revue. His later stage work included playing Henry VIII in ''A Man for All Seasons'' at Birmingham Repertory Theatre; a Royal Shakespeare Company season in which he performed as the Prince in ''Romeo and Juliet'' opposite Mark Rylance, Cloten in ''Cymbeline'', and roles in other productions; as well as Baron Tuzenbach in ''The Three Sisters'' at the Albery Theatre in the West End. He also undertook touring roles in ''Funny Peculiar'' and ''Lady Chatterley's Lover''. Heyland's early career demonstrated a strong commitment to theatre, which remained a significant part of his professional life.

Television acting roles

Rob Heyland made his television acting debut in 1982 with a minor role as a policeman in the episode "Cry Wolf" of the ITV series ''The Professionals'', delivering a single line of dialogue. The following year, he appeared in an episode of the acclaimed miniseries ''Reilly, Ace of Spies'' in the role of Georgi. Heyland achieved greater prominence as the lead actor in the BBC series ''One by One'', portraying veterinary surgeon Donald Turner across all three series from 1984 to 1987, totaling 32 episodes. The programme, loosely based on the memoirs of real-life zoo veterinarian David Taylor, followed Turner's professional journey from his early days in the 1950s through subsequent decades, and was produced by the same team responsible for ''All Creatures Great and Small''. Heyland's central performance anchored the series throughout its run. He featured in Peperami commercials in the 1990s. He later made sporadic on-screen appearances, including as an engineer in the 1997 miniseries ''Have Your Cake and Eat It'', a sailor in ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' (2000), Mr. Reed in the ITV television film ''Bomber'' (2000), and a vicar in ''Ultimate Force'' (2002). In subsequent years, Heyland largely stepped away from on-camera work, favoring roles behind the scenes in television production.

Screenwriting career

Transition to writing and early credits

Rob Heyland transitioned from acting to screenwriting in the early 1990s, beginning his writing career in 1991 as part of the team developing the BBC police drama series Between the Lines (1992–1994). He contributed scripts to 7 episodes across the series' three seasons. The show earned widespread acclaim and received major industry recognition, including the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series in 1994, the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Drama Series in 1993, and a Writers' Guild Award. In 1997, Heyland developed, co-produced, and wrote the four-part BBC romantic drama Have Your Cake and Eat It, for which he scripted 4 episodes. He also made occasional acting cameos in his early writing projects, including small roles in this series.

Major created series and lead writing roles

Rob Heyland created the military action drama series Ultimate Force for ITV, co-creating it with Chris Ryan and serving as a primary writer on the show, which aired from 2002 to 2006 across four seasons. He wrote numerous episodes of the series, including all six episodes of the first series and four of six in the second series, with the series starring Ross Kemp as the leader of a fictional British Special Forces unit and focused on high-stakes counter-terrorism missions. Heyland also wrote the two-part thriller Whistleblower for RTÉ in 2008, a drama starring Charlene McKenna and Adrian Dunbar that explored corruption in the Irish healthcare system. The series won Best Drama at both the Irish Film and Television Awards (IFTA) and the Celtic Film Awards. Among his other lead writing roles are the ITV television films Bomber (2000) and Promoted to Glory (2003), both of which he wrote. Later, Heyland contributed as a key writer on the legal drama Striking Out, penning 6 episodes for the series that aired on RTÉ from 2017 to 2018.

Contributions to established series

In addition to creating and leading his own projects, Rob Heyland has contributed scripts to numerous established British television series, often in the crime, detective, and period drama genres. His early contributions included writing an episode for the ITV detective series Wycliffe in 1994, followed by two episodes for the police procedural Thief Takers in 1997, specifically the final two of the third series. In 1998, he scripted one episode each for the legal drama Kavanagh QC and the medical series Out of Hours. He wrote one episode for the long-running Yorkshire Television series Heartbeat in 1999. In 2000, Heyland contributed one episode to the BBC adaptation The Scarlet Pimpernel. Further credits encompass the first two episodes of the second series of the crime drama Without Motive in 2001. In 2004, he wrote the Foyle's War episode "They Fought In The Fields" for Greenlit Productions. He also scripted one episode of the BBC's Robin Hood in 2007.

Television films and recent developments

Heyland has also been involved in standalone television films beyond his series work. He served as executive producer on the 2014 TV movie Standing Up. In recent years, Heyland has focused on developing new projects for television. Several original works remain in development and have not yet entered production. These include The Storm, a series in development at UFA Fiction based on Simon Schama’s book Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution. He is also working on Eamon and the Beauty Queens with Touchpaper TV, BBC Northern Ireland, and RTÉ. Other projects in development are The Velvet Mousetrap for RTÉ and Undercover, an original script for Thames. These ongoing developments reflect his continued activity in television writing as of the latest available representation details.

Other activities

Landscape design

Rob Heyland has also worked as a landscape designer in addition to his primary career in acting and screenwriting. He was described as a well-known environmentalist, actor, writer, and landscape designer while serving as chairman for a conference associated with the inaugural sky festival event. Specific projects, timelines, or further details regarding his landscape design activities are not documented in available sources.

Political involvement

Rob Heyland has demonstrated political engagement through his candidacy in local elections and public commentary on economic and environmental issues. He stood as a candidate for the Liberal-SDP Alliance in the Belsize ward during the 1982 Camden London Borough Council election, receiving 751 votes and finishing fifth behind the three elected Conservative candidates. In a 2012 opinion column published in The Journal, Heyland sharply criticized the dominant economic model of perpetual growth, describing it as "Borrowing Fuelled Growthism" reliant on debt, speculation, and unsustainable consumption. He argued that the system is ecologically destructive, asserting that "We know that you cannot have infinite growth on a finite planet." Heyland portrayed capitalism as addicted to expansion and profligacy, warning that continued reliance on growth would lead to either the end of the system or severe harm to humanity, and he advocated for alternatives such as debt abolition, taxation-based government funding, and cooperative banking.
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