ATV Icon: Mark McManus

ATV Icons continues to celebrate 70 years of the launch of ITV with another personality associated with the broadcaster, Mark McManus…

Mark McManus, the Scottish actor, became best known for his portrayal of tough Detective Chief Inspector Jim Taggart in the long-running ITV crime drama Taggart from Scottish Television.

Over a career spanning nearly three decades, McManus appeared in numerous television series – including roles in Sam, The Brothers, Strangers, and Bulman – as well as in films such as Ned Kelly (1970) and the Australian cult drama 2000 Weeks.

Mark McManus was born on 21 February 1935 in Hamilton, Lanarkshire, Scotland. His father was a coal miner, and after leaving school McManus initially followed in his father’s footsteps, working in the mines and taking factory jobs in his youth. When Mark was a child, his family moved to Uxbridge in London, but as a teenager he sought new opportunities overseas and emigrated to Australia in the 1950s.

In Australia he worked as a manual labourer – notably as a dockworker in Sydney – and pursued amateur boxing, a sport that left him with a few scars around his eyes. It was also in Australia that he discovered acting and joined a local amateur theatre group as a hobby, which sparked a passion that soon led him to become a professional actor by the mid-1960s.

Mark in ‘Sam’, Granada Television

Mark McManus with Cherith Mellor in ‘Sam’, Granada Television

Mark turned professional in 1964 and began landing roles on Aussie telly including appearances in the popular children’s series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo and the long-running police drama Homicide. He also took part in touring theatrical productions across Australia including in a production of the musical Half a Sixpence. In 1969, McManus had a leading role in 2000 Weeks, which was notable as the first full-length Australian-produced feature film made in Australia since the 1950s.

Around this time he also appeared in the American-backed period drama Adam’s Woman and co-starred with rock star Mick Jagger in Ned Kelly, a film about the legendary Australian outlaw. These roles on TV, theatre and screen set the stage for the next phase of his career back in the United Kingdom.

In 1971, Mark returned to Britain, where he soon gained a string of television roles. One of his early UK roles was Harry Carter in the BBC drama The Brothers a serial about a family-owned road haulage firm. He also took on the title role of Sam Wilson – a coal miner navigating social changes – in the Granada Television series Sam (1973–1975), a performance that resonated given his own mining-town upbringing.

McManus continued to be a familiar face on British TV throughout the 1970s. He portrayed the dour Scottish detective Jack Lambie in the ITV crime series Strangers (1978–1982, Granada), a role he later reprised in its spin-off Bulman (Granada Television). These characters, often rugged and working-class, suited McManus’s gritty style.

Mark joins STV for ‘Taggart’

Grit, Mark as Detective Chief Inspector Jim Taggart, Scottish Television

Aside from his television work, he also proved his versatility on the stage. He performed with prestigious companies like London’s Royal Court Theatre and the National Theatre, notably, he received rave reviews for his portrayal of John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, though true fame would arrive with one particular telly role in the early 1980s.

McManus’s defining role came in 1983, when he was cast as Detective Chief Inspector Jim Taggart in a new Scottish Television crime drama. The pilot ITV film, titled Killer, introduced audiences to the gruff Glasgow detective, and the show soon transitioned into the full series Taggart with McManus as its star from 1983 until his death in 1994.

He approached the character with an insistence on authenticity – he famously refused to water down Taggart’s thick Glaswegian accent, believing it essential to the character’s realism. This commitment paid off: Taggart was lauded for its gritty, no-nonsense atmosphere and sharply suspenseful plots, which stood out among police dramas of the time. The production depicted the darker side of Glasgow, and McManus’s performance anchored it with a sense of hard-earned truth.

As Jim Taggart, McManus created one of ITV’s most iconic detectives. He portrayed the crime solver as a hard-boiled, world-weary cop with a sharp tongue and a steadfast moral compass, yet also allowed glimpses of vulnerability and dry humour that made the character human. Under McManus’s lead, Taggart became a huge success, attracting millions of viewers for ITV and running as a regular series from 1985 onward. It was a groundbreaking show for Scottish broadcasting, showcasing Glasgow’s streets and character to international audiences.

First sidekick: Mark with Alastair Duncan as Peter Livingstone in ‘Taggart’, Scottish Television

James MacPherson later joined Mark in ‘Taggart’ as Michael Jardine, Scottish Television

Off-screen, Mark McManus’s life had its share of personal triumphs and difficulties. In his younger years during Australia, McManus married actress Naomi Stirling in 1961. However, that first union was short-lived – Stirling reportedly ended the relationship after realising McManus was unfaithful – and the couple had no children. Mark eventually found love again in the mid-1980s with his second wife, Marion Donald.

Marion worked as a wardrobe mistress at Scottish Television, tragically, the happiness was short-lived. She was diagnosed with cancer in the early 1990s and during her illness Mark devoted himself to caring for her. Her death in October 1993 was a devastating blow to Mark and this personal tragedy compounded his long-standing struggle with alcohol; friends noted that he drank heavily, and the loss of Marion worsened his decline in health.

Despite his fame, McManus remained a humble he never adopted a flashy celebrity lifestyle – in fact, he preferred the camaraderie of local pubs and working men’s clubs in Glasgow to the spotlight of London’s West End nightlife.

Mark often spoke about how grateful he was for his acting success given his hard beginnings. “I’ve worked in some dreadful places in my life, so I’m really lucky to have this job,” he once reflected, noting that he never passed a factory without remembering the tough manual work he had done in his youth. Interestingly, McManus also had a gentle pastime that contrasted with his macho screen image: according to an obituary, one of his hobbies was breeding butterflies in his spare time.

Guest stars, the series drew in famous faces; Top left Jill Gascoine of The Gentle Touch fame, top right Diane Keen of The Cuckoo Waltz, bottom left Annette Crosbie best known for One Foot In The Grave and Eileen McCallum from STV soap Take The High Road

The A-Team of crime drama: James MacPherson, Blythe Duff and Mark McManus, Scottish Television

Family connections also brought an unusual footnote to McManus’s life story. As a child, his family had adopted a boy who would later become famous in his own right – Brian Connolly, who went on to become the lead singer of the 1970s glam-rock band The Sweet. The brothers noticed a physical resemblance and believed they possibly shared the same father; this link between a TV detective and a rock star remained a little-known but fascinating aspect of Mark’s personal life.

In May 1994, he was hospitalised with severe jaundice, a sign of his liver’s deterioration. A few weeks later, on 6 June 1994, Mark McManus died in Glasgow at the age of 59. The cause of death was pneumonia brought on by liver failure – an alcohol-related illness that had been building over time. His death came while Taggart was in a mid-series production.

The producers of Taggart at STV decided to write his character out of the show with an on-screen funeral; the final episode McManus had worked on Hellfire aired in late 1994, and the finale of the series, Black Orchid featured DCI Taggart’s funeral, giving both the character and the actor a respectful farewell.

In 1990 Blythe Duff joined the regular cast as Jackie Reid, Scottish Television

Mark as Jim Taggart, Scottish Television

In the wake of his death, Mark was honoured for his contributions to the performing arts.

He was the first-ever posthumous recipient of the Lord Provost of Glasgow’s Award for Performing Arts, one of the city’s highest honours. This award recognised the impact he had made in entertainment and especially his achievement in bringing a Glasgow character to life so vividly on television.

Reruns of Taggart – in the UK currently on U&Drama – still attract many viewers, and new generations discover his work via streaming services including the STV Player and various DVD collections.

Mark’s portrayal of Jim Taggart left an indelible mark on British TV with a performance of a tough detective with a hidden heart that remains as compelling now as when it first aired.