Character: Patrick Jamieson
Actor: Bill Paterson
Episode: Enemy Fire

Bill Paterson's inspiration for his Foyle's War character Patrick Jamieson was the pioneering RAF plastic surgeon Archibald McIndoe.

"Jamieson is fictitious but he is based strongly on McIndoe and what he did. McIndoe was a plastic surgeon who treated airmen with terrible disfigurements and burns. They were going through dreadful pain and he was equally concerned for their psychological healing.

"He discovered that the officers in isolated, more classy accommodation didn't get as well as those put in larger communal wards. He had parties with pianos going and beer on tap when the men were well enough. He was very unorthodox in that respect and in Foyle's War the figure of Jamieson is similar, a fictitious contemporary of McIndoe.

"I knew about McIndoe in the past and I had good help from a book called McIndoe's Army. It's gripping in that it has wonderful and fascinating memoirs from the patients, known as the Guinea Pig Club, who were treated at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead where McIndoe worked."

Bill also received advice from the production's medical advisor. "Tom Cochrane is a retired reconstructive surgeon who was at East Grinstead for 25 years before retiring. He was a great help, as was a friend who does major repair work for facial injuries and cancer."

In Enemy Fire, Jamieson and his team take over a large country house to create a hospital specialising in treating burns victims from the war.

"Jamieson is very unorthodox and it brings him into controversy and friction with the top brass. He comes into conflict with Group Captain Lawrence Smythe and therefore he could be a suspect when a man dies," explains Bill.

"He is pretty flamboyant and wears a three piece tweed suit and a bowtie. People like that did have a fair conceit about themselves, but in a nice way. He is confident and strong in his job, he just goes in and takes over, and that is how they get the job done. I also have a trim little beard, I wanted it to be a throwback to the James Robertson Justice look in the Doctor series!"

Bill has played surgeons before but admits he could not do the job for real.

"I am not great in the squeamish parts. I take it quite seriously and the make up in Foyle's War was really excellent and so realistic that it made me feel queasy. Even the real surgeon Tom Cochrane was very impressed.

"I'm afraid I wouldn't make a surgeon but I have the utmost respect for these kind of people. I enjoyed playing Jamieson as he is eccentric in character but is totally devoted to the job of mending these people's lives, and doesn't care who he comes up against in authority to achieve that."

Adds Bill: "I love the whole genre of war drama and Foyle's War has a great quality. It's good to have dramas that connect somewhere with historical events."

Bill's many previous credits on television include The Canterbury Tales, Danielle Cable - Eyewitness, Doctor Zhivago, Othello, The Whistle-Blower, Rebel Heart, Wives and Daughters, Heart, Hilary and Jackie, Mr White Goes to Westminster and The Crow Road.

Film work includes Bright Young Things, Complicity, Richard III, Chaplin, Truly Madly Deeply, The Witches and Comfort and Joy. He is now working on a new series of psychological TV drama Sea of Souls.