Which actor do you think should play Inspector Andy Horton in a television adaptation of the marine mystery crime novels?

I’m often asked which actor I would like to see playing Inspector Andy Horton in a television adaptation of my marine mysteries and I'm not sure really because my view of the right actor in terms of looks and build might not fit with other readers. It's difficult, isn't it, because each of us builds a picture in our minds of the characters in a novel as we are reading it and when the casting fits with that image, then bingo it works.  But when it doesn't the television adaptation of the crime novel can fail and sometimes dramatically.

I think they got it right with Inspector Morse, in fact everything was right about that series.  OK, so I know Morse doesn't drive a Jag in the novels but I'll let the TV people off that small point. And, of course, things do have to be changed when adapting for the small screen or big one come to that.

I often have lively debates with readers at my talks over the successes and failures of putting favourite novels on screen. David Jason as DI Frost to me is another good fit, at least in the early series, now he's a little too old to play the character. But Nat Parker as Inspector Lynley is so wrong and everyone I have spoken to agrees with me.  I like Nathaniel Parker and think he's a brilliant actor but he is not Lynley.

So who would play Andy Horton? I don't know. But here's his profile for anyone reading this blog who has not read the novels.

Andy Horton has had a tough upbringing. Illegitimate and brought up on the streets of Portsmouth, his mother abandoned him as a child. He has no idea where she is or even if she is alive. Horton has been raised in children’s homes and with a succession of foster parents which makes him a loner, but with a desperate desire to belong. He finds this sense of belonging through joining the police service. He’s fearless where others are concerned, strong, an action man rather than a thinker with a strong sense of justice. He’s fairly tall, muscular and fit with short cropped fair hair. He rides a Harley and lives on boat. The rest I leave to you.

He first appears in Tide of Death, then in the following: Deadly Waters, The Suffocating Sea, Dead Man’s Wharf and Blood on the Sand.

How do you see Andy Horton? Let me know if you have any thoughts on this.