Eric Finch

Eric Finch is a prominent character and former supporting antagonist featured in the V for Vendetta comic series, as well as the V for Vendetta film.

He was portrayed by Stephen Rea.

Personality
Eric Finch is the Chief of New Scotland Yard and Minister of Investigations, which has become The Nose. Finch is a sensible pragmatist who sides with the government because he would rather serve in a world of order than one of chaos.

He is nevertheless praiseworthy, honorable, decent, and trusted by the Leader because he is reliable, nonchalant, and authoritative.

He eventually achieves his own anagnorisis and self-knowledge, expressing sorrow over his complicity with Norsefire's atrocities. He is once referred to as Edward Finch (an error on the part of Helen Heyer).

Biography
Eric Finch was a police investigator for the political party known as Norsefire. Operating from Jordan Tower, he was part of a special investigative detachment known as the Nose. In the mid-1990s, Finch had an affair with a forensic pathologist named Delia Surridge.

After Surridge died, his colleague Peter Creedy made an unsavory comment regarding their relationship - a comment that earned Creedy a punch in the jaw. Norsefire's party leader Adam Susan didn't punish Finch for the infraction, but he did force Eric to take an extended holiday.

Eric Finch also came into possession of Delia Surridge's personal journal, which revealed critical information concerning the Larkhill Resettlement Camp and the hormonal experiments that ultimately created the terrorist known as V. Adam Susan placed Finch in charge of bringing V to justice.

Finch investigated Larkhill on his own and had an encounter with V. V subjected Eric to hallucinogenic drugs, and Finch developed a greater understanding of what actually transpired within the camp.