14 stars you did not know appeared on Taggart as show marks 40 years

The hit show, which was first broadcast 40 years ago on September 6, 1983, also gave a few well-known names their big break.

Here is a round-up of some of the Hollywood A-listers and big-name British telly stars who cut their teeth as villains or heroes on the classic STV series.

Ashley Jensen (Image: PA)

Ashley Jensen

Recently announced as the new lead on Shetland reboot, taking over from fellow Taggart alumnus Douglas Henshall, the Ugly Betty and Extras star appeared in a 2005 episode of Taggart called A Taste of Money.

Douglas Henshall

Shetland and Primeval star Douglas popped up in Taggart in 1990, playing a motorcyclist in an episode called Love Knot (which also starred Trainspotting’s Ewen Bremner AND John Michie, who went on to become regular DI Robbie Ross.)

Dougray Scott

Hollywood superstar Dougray, most recently seen on our small screens in Irvine Welsh’s Crime, guest starred in the terrifying Taggart episode Nest of Vipers in 1992.

James Cosmo

The Old Bear (Jeor Mormont) himself from Game of Thrones, James starred in the episode Dead Giveaway in 1988, a delightful tale about a murderer putting rat poison in food products.

Balamory and Scot Squad star Julie Wilson Nimmo in a scene from Taggart (Image: STV)

Julie Wilson Nimmo

Most famous for her roles in Scot Squad and Balamory, Julie was also part of the Taggart cast back in 2008 for an episode called Point of Light.

Robert Carlyle

Acting heavyweight Robert (Trainspotting, The Fully Monty, Hamish Macbeth, Bond villain….) played an ambitious politician who wanted to bring back capital punishment, in the 1990 story Hostile Witness.

Gavin Mitchell (Image: STV)

Gavin Mitchell

Long before he became the legendary Boaby the barman in Still Game, Gavin Mitchell appeared in a 2002 episode called Fire, Burn.

Joe McFadden

The Heartbeat and Holby City star, who won Strictly Come Dancing, appeared in a 1994 episode called Secrets, in which the Glasgow literary scene is thrown into chaos when a university lecturer is murdered.

Ewen Bremner

Ewen would go on to become one of the huge stars of Trainspotting, but in Taggart episode Love Knot in 1990, he was playing a young rock climber.

Clare Grogan

Clare, of Gregory’s Girl and Altered Images fame, played Mary Catto in the 1992 story The Hit Man.

John Hannah and Jill Gascoine

He went on to play another famous cop in a long-running series (Rebus), but in 1990, John Hannah starred in Evil Eye, alongside well-kent face, Jill Gascoine. Readers of a certain vintage will remember her as DI Maggie Forbes in 80s detective show The Gentle Touch.

Jill Gascoigne (Image: Newsquest)

Sheila Grier

Scottish actor and Brookside star Sheila, who played Sandra Maghie in the long-running Channel 4 soap, appeared in the 1987 episode The Killing Philosophy.

Diane Keen

English actor Diane is most famous for The Cuckoo Waltz, and appearing as Julia Parsons on the BBC soap opera Doctors, although for a generation she will always be the woman from the Nescafe adverts which ran throughout the 1980s.

Diane Keen with Mark McManus (Image: Newsquest)

She appeared in the Taggart story Cold Blood in 1987.