Do you remember Joshua Richards from the venerable ITV series Heartbeat? He played Bear, Paddy Kirk’s (Dominic Brunt) biological father, in Emmerdale.
The well-known television programme from the 1990s followed the patrol of the neighbourhood police in Ashfordly, close to Yorkshire.
Due to declining viewership, it continued until the last episode broadcast in 2010.
Mark Jordan, Jason Durr from Casualty, and Joshua Richards, who briefly portrayed DI Haggarty, were among the actors that appeared on the programme.
Fans recently brought up his presence on social media after recognising him from an episode.
One person commented, “I’m just watching Heartbeat and I’m sure this must be Bear from Emmerdale!”
Another chuckled and said, “It must be, he was just a Cub back then!” in reference to the wrestler’s wrestling identity from his Emmerdale character, Bear Wolf.
After Paddy had discovered a letter that finally helped him to find Kenneth wasn’t Bear’s biological father, we first saw Bear in 2019.
Marlon (Mark Charnock) made the choice to go to a wrestling event that included Bear out of a desire to assist.
Paddy was first incensed by Marlon’s participation, but he ultimately decided to go ahead and see his father.
Later on in the year, Chas (Lucy Pargeter), Paddy, and their daughter, Eve, moved in with Chas, Paddy, and Bear in the village.
Bear just moved in with Paddy and Liam (Jonny McPherson) after the revelation of Chas’ affair and the start of Paddy’s recuperation from his suicide attempt. Liam most definitely had no plans to invite Paddy’s father to live with him at the time!