Bittersweet birthday for DCI Banks star Stephen Tompkinson

STEPHEN TOMPKINSON has revealed that turning 50 was a bittersweet affair.

With a successful career, a gorgeous Scots girlfriend and a lovely daughter he was settled and happy.

However, he lost his dad Brian around the same time. He had battled dementia for some time.

And after seeing the awful effects on the man who brought him up, the DCI Banks star said he was happy to throw his weight behind our Alzheimer Scotland’s Memory Walks campaign.

“It was an upsetting time because my dad died in the same week,” said Stephen.

“It had been a long struggle. It was a blessed relief really towards the end.

“It’s an awful disease. Over three or four years there was less and less of him each time you’d see him.

“It was very upsetting and when he doesn’t recognise you it’s hard.

“But to be there at the end with my brother, just the three of us, was very peaceful and beautiful.

“It was nice to feel that some dignity came back. The staff that looked after him in the care home were an amazing bunch of people. It’s a real vocation for them.”

Away from the distress of his dad’s passing, Stephen splashed out to celebrate his milestone birthday with family and friends at London’s elite Groucho Club.

And he says he has no qualms over reaching his half-century.

“I’m quite happy being in my 50s. Actually, I was in my 40s as well.

“People start to listen to you a bit more when you’ve got enough miles on the clock. They don’t see you as this hungry, avaricious person that’s just out for themselves.

“You have enough experience that the decisions you make could be quite rational, sane – and even helpful at times, which is quite nice.”

Key to Stephen’s settled and happy lot is his love for diplomat girlfriend Elaine Young.

The pair met – bizarrely just as his Wild At Heart co-star Dawn Steele also met her partner – at the Blue Dog cocktail and piano bar in Glasgow city centre.

Elaine was on a night out with her girlfriends and Stephen was working in the city.

They’ve been together for almost a decade but despite not getting round to marriage, Stephen – who has a 15-year-old daughter Daisy from a previous marriage – says there’s no rush.

“We haven’t set a date yet but we’re stronger than ever,” he confides.

“We still have many visits to Scotland, to Cumbernauld, Kirkintilloch and Linlithgow where Elaine’s brother lives.”

Stephen is back in a new series of gritty cop series DCI Banks this week.

Andrea Lowe and Caroline Catz return as his fellow detectives as does Keith Barron as Banks’ father.

There are three two-part investigations but also one continuing story involving a vicious criminal never before brought to justice, played by Broadchurch and Ordinary Lies star Shaun Dooley.

“I think this is the best series we’ve done,” insists Stephen.

“It’s nice to have the one case go on and have time to let it brew and develop.

“And Banks even has a bit of romance with a new girlfriend.”

The recent series of Scott & Bailey was the final one, there will be just one more Broadchurch and Happy Valley’s return is still up in the air.

But with writer Peter Robinson still penning the novels, Stephen is convinced there’s plenty of life left in the old dog yet.

And he reckons the sheer straightforwardness of his copper is what keeps millions tuning in.

“Maybe other cops have frills or quirks that set them apart,” adds Stephen, who has also started work on a new series of Sky comedy Trollied.

“Banks doesn’t. Peter has always said that what makes him extraordinary is his ordinariness.

“I think people like that. It’s a refreshing change to have something that’s no nonsense.

“If people needed to call on the law I think they’d like to think it’d be someone as thorough and determined to get them justice as Banks.”

DCI Banks, ITV, Wednesday 9pm.

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