| Vince Rickard | ||
 | ||
| Born | circa 1876 | |
| Also known as | Victor (by Hetty Feather) Wolf Boy (by Constance Calendar) | |
| Eye colour | Blue | |
| Hair colour | Blonde | |
| Family members | unnamed mother unnamed foster brother | |
| Romances | Hetty Feather | |
| Occupation | Soldier | |
| Gender | Male | |
| Fate | Left Mathias and Harriet's wedding preparations early to go back to military service | |
| Appearances | Series 1 Series 2 Series 3 Series 4 - Wolves Series 6 - The Final Chapter (Part Two) | |
| Mentioned | The Chronicles of Hetty Feather | |
| Portrayed by | Redmand Rance | |
Vince Rickard is a character in the Hetty Feather television series, played by Redmand Rance. He was a foundling and later a soldier.
About Vince[]
Vince is best friends with Judd Mortimer and enemies with Walter Brittle, Gideon Smeed, Mathias Grigg and Ned Swann. He is an arrogant, sometimes aggressive boy who enjoys bullying both fellow foundlings and staff members. However, this tough exterior hides a deeper sadness - like other children at the Hospital, he misses his birth mother and foster brother.
Series 1-3[]
In Dangerous Game, Vince briefly bonds with Hetty Feather over board games. However, she is soon frustrated that spending time with him indirectly led to Sarah Smith's dismissal. She is also angry that he has tried to blackmail Nurse Winterson over her relationship with Constable Clark. In The Chronicles of Hetty Feather, Hetty writes that touching Vince's hand changed the way she saw him.
He leaves the Foundling Hospital at the end of Farewell Service to become a soldier alongside Ned and Walter, leaving his best friend Judd behind.
Series 4[]
Vince makes a guest appearance in Wolves, having fled from the army and living in the wild. He has left because he has felt intimidated by other, better soldiers in his military drills. Constance Calendar believes him to be a wolf boy and declares she will take care of him. After Jack, Gideon and Hetty help him from being sent to prison, Vince learns the importance of supporting others rather than isolating himself from his peers. At the end of the episode, he returns to the army with no punishment after George Calendar's involvement.
Series 6[]
Vince returns in The Final Chapter (Part Two), after Mathias asks his fellow ex-foundlings to help organise the Foundling Hospital chapel for his wedding. Vince insults Mathias' fiancée Harriet Summers in front of him, leading to a small fight breaking out between them. This is stopped by Ned, who has since become a police officer. He then reunites with Judd, who has stayed on at the Hospital as a cleaner.
Vince's final moment is later on in the same episode, when Harriet confronts Mathias about his commitment to the wedding. He uses this as an excuse to leave, saying goodbye to Judd and sarcastically bidding Mathias good luck. Vince never appears at the wedding.
Appearances[]
- Series 1 (10 episodes)
- Series 2 (10 episodes)
- Series 3 (8 episodes)
- Series 4 (1 episode)
- Series 6 (1 episode)
Trivia[]
Differences from the book series[]
- Vince is an original character that Helen Blakeman created after she realised that there was next to no information about Gideon's foundling life in Hetty Feather.[1] This is because it takes place solely from Hetty's perspective, meaning we see very little of the boys' wing. The only male foundlings mentioned in the book are Hetty's foundling brothers, Gideon and Saul.
- While Vince doesn't exist in the book series, Hetty Feather does briefly find romance with both Jem Cotton, her foster brother, and Bertie, the butcher's boy.
TV show[]
- Vince is the only bullying character who does not go through some kind of redemption arc by the end of the show. While he recognises the importance of community in Series 4, he neither apologises for his behaviour nor becomes friends with Gideon and his fellow foundlings.
Behind the scenes[]
- In an interview with TresA magazine, Redmand Rance said this on playing Vince:
"I loved my time filming Hetty Feather, I featured in five of the series altogether. At the time it was a big part of my life. It was my first TV job, and after my first day on set I knew it was exactly what I wanted to keep doing. It was really cool to be a part of the final series, coming back altogether one last time was a great way to finish."[2]
- Rance, Susan McArdle (Nurse Macclesfield) and Ann Mitchell (Sarah Smith) all appear in Series 3 as well as a 2021 episode of Silent Witness.