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After 21 years as PC Carver on The Bill, Mark Wingett is probably well qualified to be working in the Missing Person's Unit but, ironically, in Missing he does not play a police officer. Mark plays former crime reporter turned DJ, Danny.

"I have to keep my mouth shut if I see that someone is not doing something quite right," he says. "Twenty-one years of being a TV policeman you learn a lot! I notice when uniforms or police procedures are not quite right. I was on The Bill for so long, I could even recognise all our props."

In this series of Missing, Danny appears to need his old friend MJ (Pauline Quirke) more than she needs him.

"Danny has a bit of a mid-life crisis. He splits up with his wife and starts hitting the town, trying to date younger women. MJ is very much a great levelling influence.

"I think MJ tolerates him because he's quite amusing, but he can also be a bit annoying. They have known each other for the best part of probably 30 years, and even though the things everyone has in common with friends changes over the years you are still friends and Danny is definitely MJ's trusted confidante.

"I think it's refreshing to see a platonic relationship on screen, and I think it is rare in TV drama, especially in modern drama. I think these types of friendships are more commonplace in everyday life and it's good to see it represented. Their relationship is one of the great strengths of the series and it offsets the seriousness of the work.

"It is wonderful that the series was recommissioned, and the great thing about the time slot is that it is family viewing in the old-fashioned sense of the word.

"I think right from the off it hits people on an emotional level because of the vulnerability of the characters who have people missing in their lives, plus the fact that it is brilliantly written."

After the hard slog of six-day weeks working on The Bill, Mark is enjoying a more relaxed pace of life.

"I miss the camaraderie of The Bill, but you are a small cog in a huge machine which rolls on and eventually wears you down. I was ready for a change. One day you just think I can't do this anymore, I really want to go and try something else. But I can now look back with many happy memories – eventually you forget the pain and the fact that you had no time for your family!"

"Working on Missing is a two-day week for me which is fantastic, it is like being semi-retired. In my spare time I fish, cycle, scuba dive – and I have even built myself a shed!"

And since leaving one of TV's longest-running series, Mark has not been short of offers to write his biography.

Laughs Mark: "I haven't written a book yet because I'm not sure I have an interesting enough story to tell. Although, like Danny, I probably have far too many skeletons in my closet!"