Stuart Golland was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 actor most well known for playing George Ward in the ITV

ITV

ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

 drama series Heartbeat.

Golland worked as a plasterer and bar manager in his native Sheffield and the Isle of Man

Isle of Man

The Isle of Man , otherwise known simply as Mann , is a self-governing British Crown Dependency, located in the Irish Sea between the islands of Great Britain and Ireland, within the British Isles. The head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, who holds the title of Lord of Mann. The Lord of Mann is...

 before becoming interested in acting whilst managing a pub opposie the Crucible Theatre

Crucible Theatre

The Crucible Theatre is a theatre built in 1971 and located in the city centre of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. As well as theatrical performances, it is home to the most important event in professional snooker, the World Snooker Championship....

. He attended the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama

The Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama is a conservatoire within the University of Glamorgan Group located in Cardiff, Wales....

 in Cardiff

Cardiff

Cardiff is the capital, largest city and most populous county of Wales and the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom. The city is Wales' chief commercial centre, the base for most national cultural and sporting institutions, the Welsh national media, and the seat of the National Assembly for...

 before acting in a number of theatre compaines, including that at the Royal National Theatre

Royal National Theatre

The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

. In 1981 he also appeared in the Ken Loach

Ken Loach

Kenneth "Ken" Loach is a Palme D'Or winning English film and television director.He is known for his naturalistic, social realist directing style and for his socialist beliefs, which are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as homelessness , labour rights and child abuse at the...

 film Looks and Smiles

Looks and Smiles (film)

Looks and Smiles is a 1981 film by Ken Loach and based on the novel of the same name by Barry Hines. It was shot in black and white.In 1980s Sheffield, Mick and Alan, two school-leavers, face the reality of life in Margaret Thatcher's Britain...

.

Golland went on to become a familiar face on British television, landing parts in All Creatures Great and Small (1979), Emmerdale

Emmerdale

Emmerdale, is a long-running British soap opera set in Emmerdale , a fictional village in the Yorkshire Dales. Created by Kevin Laffan, Emmerdale was first broadcast on 16 October 1972...

(1987), The New Statesman

The New Statesman

The New Statesman is an award-winning British sitcom of the late 1980s and early 1990s satirising the Conservative government of the time...

(1989), The Darling Buds of May

The Darling Buds of May

The Darling Buds of May is a British comedy drama which was first broadcast between 1991 and 1993 produced by Yorkshire Television for the ITV Network. It is set in an idyllic rural 1950s Kent, among a large, boisterous family. The three series were based on the novels by H. E. Bates. Originally...

(1992), In Suspicious Circumstances (1992) and Rumpole of the Bailey

Rumpole of the Bailey

Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer which starred Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an ageing London barrister who defends any and all clients...

(1992) before landing the role of George Ward, the proprieter of the show's Aidensfield Arms pub in 1992. Golland was a fixture of the show until 1996 when the character left to live with his sister and the bar was taken over by Gina Ward.

Golland appeared in Stay Lucky

Stay Lucky

Stay Lucky is a 1989–1993 British television comedy-drama series. Made by Yorkshire Television and screened on the ITV network, it starred Dennis Waterman and Jan Francis.-Plot:...

in 1993 during his run on Heartbeat and after leaving the Aidensfield-set show he returned to his roots in the theatre. He torued his self-written play Scrap in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 and also regularly performed his tribute to W.C. Fields in theatres. His final television appearance came in Coronation Street

Coronation Street

Coronation Street is a British soap opera set in Weatherfield, a fictional town in Greater Manchester based on Salford. Created by Tony Warren, Coronation Street was first broadcast on 9 December 1960...

, playing the character of Ernie Wagstaff.

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