Many of us remember him as the cheeky rogue Claude Greengrass on Heartbeat.

But before he shot to fame on the ITV drama Bill Maynard had a successful career as a variety performer and appeared in five films in the Carry On series.

Bill is pictured in the centre of this photo which was taken around 1953 at the opening of Ward’s shop in Weymouth.

Dorset Echo: Bill Maynard in Weymouth at the opening of Wards shop in 1953

Janette Hunt is in the front, and behind her is Jennifer Ward.

At the time it was taken Bill was appearing at the Alexandra Gardens Theatre.

As you can see, Bill was looking considerably more clean shaven than he appeared during his time on Heartbeat in which he appeared from 1992 to 2000, even reprising his role for the spin-off The Royal from 2002 to 2003.

Dorset Echo: Bill Maynard

Barry Edwards, a member of our nostalgia group We Grew Up in Weymouth and Portland, comments: "That is a very sprightly looking dapper Bill Maynard there - far different from his usual screen persona-if you had not named him I would had struggled to put a name to the face!"

Bill Maynard passed away on March 30, 2018. He died in hospital at the age of 89, following an accident.