John Thaw

John Thaw – muusikalembeline roosikasvataja
Briti draamasarjade veteran John Thaw oli väidetavasti üks saareriigi paremini tasustatud näitlejaid.
Ometi näeb seda hallipäist härrasmeest haruharva seltskondlikel koosviibimistel. Märksa meelsamini sisustab ta oma vaba aega koduaias askeldamise, tõsise muusika nautimise või lugemisega.
Ehkki John Thaw on viimase 36 aasta jooksul teinud kaasa ligi neljakümnes telesarjas või kinofilmis, on ta oma eraelu ja tööalased kolleegidevahelised suhted püüdnud rangelt lahus hoida. Näitleja on isegi tunnistanud, et pole triviaalses vestluskunstis kuigi tugev. Samas on tal juba paarkümmend aastat olnud kindel abivägi (autojuht ja paar kostümeerijat), kes saadavad teda kõikjal ning kellega John Thaw vahel ka üldisemat juttu armastab ajada.
John Thaw on sündinud 2. jaanuaril 1942 Manchesteris. Kui poiss oli seitsmeaastane, hülgas ema perekonna ning John jäi koos noorema venna Raymondiga pidevalt sõidus viibiva koormaautojuhist isa Jacki hoole alla. Seega õppis ta juba varakult enese eest hoolt kandma. Kord 15aastaselt koolibussile kiirustades murtud jalaluu sunnib näitlejat veel nüüdki kergelt lonkama.
Ducie Technical High Schoolis õppides ja oma toonaselt draamaõpetajalt julgustust saades otsustas John Thaw näitlejaks õppida. 16aastaselt õnnestus noorukil pääseda Londoni Kuninglikku teatriakadeemiasse RADA. Õpinguaega langes ka tema esimene filmiroll: Bosworthi kõrvalosa rezhissöör Tony Richardsoni draamas "Pikamaajooksja üksildus" (1962). Paar aastat hiljem, olles äsja RADA lõpetanud, äratas John Thaw esmakordselt kriitikute tähelepanu seersant John Mannina politseisarjas "Redcap" (1964-66), kus tema partneriks oli sellal veel suhteliselt tundmatu Diana Rigg.
1969. a, olles just lahutanud oma esimese abielu Sally Alexanderiga, pakuti John Thaw’le võimalust mängida üht peaosa komöödianäidendis "So What About Love". Samasse aega langes tutvumine näitlejanna Sheila Hancockiga. Neli aastat hiljem, kui Sheila oli jõudnud juba mõnda aega lesepõlve pidada, nad abiellusid. Praeguseni Lõuna-Inglismaal elaval näitlejapaaril on kolm tütart, kellest vähemalt üks (Melanie) on vanemate ameti jätkaja.
1970. aastate keskpaigast alates on John Thaw vähehaaval kujunenud tõsiseltvõetavaks telenäitlejaks. Kõigepealt oli ta endine varas Stanley kaheksajaolises situatsioonikomöödias "Thick as Thieves" (LWT 1974), kelle vana kamraad (Bob Hoskins) avastab vabadusse pääsedes, et semu elab kokku tema naisega. Samal aastal järgnes populaarne politseisari "Regan". Detektiivinspektor Jack Reganit kehastas John Thaw ka seriaalis "The Sweeney" (Thames TV 1975-76).
Järgnes viie-kuueaastane periood, kus näitlejat võidi lisaks telele näha võrdlemisi tihti ka teatrilavadel. John Thaw’ tõenäoliselt tuntumaiks teatritöödeks on West Endis etendunud Tom Stoppardi "Öö ja päev" (koos Diana Riggiga) ning nimiosa Royal National Theatre’i etenduses "Seersant Musgrave’'i tants". Filmirollidest vääriks eraldi märkimist sadistlik ülekuulaja Richard Attenborough' apartheiditeemalises draamas "Hüüd vabadusele" (1987).
Kindlasti seostub John Thaw eeskätt nimiosaga Colin Dexteri bestsellerite järgi vändatud kriminaalsarjas "Inspector Morse" (Central TV 1987-92), kus intelligentne ja mõnevõrra küüniline peainspektor Endeavour Morse suutis koos oma abilise seersant Lewisega (Kevin Whately) lahendada kuitahes keerulise, peamiselt Oxfordi lähemas ümbruses aset leidnud mõrvajuhtumi. Peaaegu sama tuntud on ka tema kehastatud sõnaosav vandeadvokaat James Kavanagh kohtusarjas "Kavanagh QC" (ITV 1994-99).
Ka John Thaw’ lähiminevik on olnud võrdlemisi töine: lisaks kirjanik Peter Mayle’ile neljaosalises lühisarjas "Aasta Provence’is" (1994) ja Tom Oakleyle draamas "Head ööd, mr Tom" (1998) on tema filmograafiasse kahe viimase aastaga lisandunud veel kolm tähelepanuväärset saavutust.
Lühisarjas "Plastiline mees" (The Plastic Man, 1999) kehastab ta plastilistele näooperatsioonidele spetsialiseerunud dr Joe MacConnelli, kellel on olemas nii naine (Sorcha Cusack) kui armuke (Frances Barber). Jõulises kaheosalises spioonidraamas "Ootamise aeg" (The Waiting Time, 1999) seikleb ta (koos Zara Turneriga) Ida-Saksa julgeolekupolitsei Stasi mängumaal.
Tänavu märtsi lõpus aga jõudis teleekraanidele neljaosaline draama "Monsignor Renard". John Thaw kehastab rooma-katoliku preestrit Augustin Renard'i, esimese ilmasõja sangarit, kes naaseb pärast 20aastast eemalolekut sünnilinna – umbkaudu samal ajal, kui algas Saksa okupatsioon.
(11. august 2000)

JOHN THAW

The world was saddened to learn of the passing on February 21st, 2002, of John Thaw, one of the most popular and beloved actors on British television. His image will be permanently linked with that of one of the most famous roles in British history, Inspector Morse, whose films have been watched and enjoyed by millions in more than 80 countries worldwide. A consummate actor of unlimited range and ability, his talent spanned roles ranging from action to drama to romance, while displaying a deft touch for light comedy. His untimely passing at the age of 60 has left a huge void than can never be filled, with the promise of his company in the years to come unrealized. We are forever fortunate that he shared his unique gifts and talents with the world, and in so doing, he left us a body of work spanning four decades for his fans to treasure and remember him by. In this way, he will never really leave us.

THE EARLY YEARS

"I've heard he's meant to be a very clever man." - from The Dead Of Jericho

John Edward Thaw was born into a working class family in West Gorton, Manchester, England on January 3rd, 1942. His formative years were difficult and trying to say the least; his mother having abandoned John when he was seven, he did not see her again for another 12 years. His father, a long-distance lorry driver, did his best to raise both John and his younger brother Raymond, but spent most of the time on the road and away from home, often leaving the brothers to fend for themselves or in the care of relatives. For awhile John stacked potatoes in Manchester's Smithfield Market to help bring in an income for his family. As a teen he held a number of menial jobs, including that of laborer and for a short time, baker.
His only stage experience came as a stand-up comic entertaining old folks and hospital patients. John's school years were unexceptional. At one point he was slightly injured in a automobile accident that permanently damaged a nerve in his leg and left him with a slight limp; he was concious of this fact during his early years as an actor and would refuse to be filmed in such a way that would serve to highlight this disability. While attending Ducie Technical High School a drama teacher encouraged him to take part in a number of school plays and productions as a way of helping the youngster overcome his shyness. He must have spotted something in John even at that young age for with his teacher's encouragement, John decided upon an acting career and was accepted by London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts at the age of 16, his uncle driving John to the audition in a used van, with John lying about his age to gain admission. But once in, his life's path was set.
While at the Royal Academy John became friends with future British stars such as Tom Courtney, and later graduated with honors. Here was something at which the youngster could excel, even though he consistently felt as though he were an outsider because of his working-class roots. He admitted to having an "inferiority complex" that no amount of success later in his life would ever completely dispel. Thus classically trained, John appeared on stage in many successful productions where he was heralded as a new talent to be watched and befriended by Laurence Olivier. But unlike others of his peers who longed for a motion picture career, the large fees and huge audiences of small-screen television soon lured him in that direction. He made his professional stage debut at the Liverpool Playhouse in 1960 in "A Shred Of Evidence", and his television debut the following year as a member of "The Younger Generation", in which a stock company of raw actors (John being 19), performed in original plays by equally young and raw writers, chief among these was the one-act play "Fire Raisers". He also was cast - for the first but certainly not last time in his career - as a police officer in a guest appearance on the highly popular police show "Z Cars" in 1961, and also landed a guest appearance that year on the hit TV-series "The Avengers".
His first feature film came in 1962, "The Lonliness Of The Long Distance Runner". Other plays followed, "Women Beware Women" (1962) and "Semi-Detatched" (1962), "Nil Carborundum" (1962), and "Five To One" (1963). However, it was in 1964, at the age of 22, when he first caught the critic's attention as Sgt. John Mann in the television series "Redcap", in which he starred with Diana Rigg. "Redcap" told the story of the Special Investigation Branch of The Royal Military Police. Several more films and short-lived TV series followed which, while mostly forgettable, allowed John to sharpen his ability while also paying the bills. These included "Dead Man's Chest" (1965), "Bat Out Of Hell" (1966 TV-movie), "The Bofors Gun" (1968), "Praise Marx And Pass The Ammunition" (1970), "MacBeth" (TV version, 1970), "The Last Grenade" (1970); "Random Happenings In The Hebrides" (1970), "Lady From The Sea" (1971), the camp horror classic "Dr. Phibes Rises Again" (1972), "The Collaborators" (1973), and a 1974 series "Thick As Thieves", where John played a crook who settles down rather comfortably with the wife of an accomplice still in prison (Bob Hoskins), who is subsequently released on parole. This show was a critical success, and offered for John a welcome chance to do light comedy, but while the network was considering whether or not to renew it for a second season an offer came along for a TV-movie then in development called Regan, and the rest, as they say, is history. He continued to hone his skills on stage before a live audience and developed a second love for live performances that would continue throught his life. He would admit that stage acting was much more demanding than either film or television, perhaps this is why he enjoyed the challenge of it so much, splitting his career at this point in his life equally between the two.
In 1967, at the Liverpool Playhouse, John takes part in a stage production of "Around The World In 80 Days". John also guest stars alongside Michael Caine in "The Other Man" , a two-and-a-half-hour television play by Giles Cooper which imagined that Britain had made peace with Hitler and was now a Nazi satellite. John continued to show his versatility in 1968 when he appeared in a TV serial called "The Inheritance", in which he played an entire series of characters, both fathers and sons, from the mid-1800s up through the days of Churchill. In 1968 John was divorced from his first wife, historian Sally Alexander, and the following year was offered a part in the stage comedy "So What About Love", in which he met actress Sheila Hancock, whom he married in 1973. It was to be a lifelong, happy marriage. He further honed his craft by guest-starring in such series as "Strange Report" (1969) in which he played, oddly enough, a police inspector investigating strange paranormal happenings in 1960s London, "Budgie" (1971), and "The Onedin Line" (1971). It was at this point that ABC television, then the dominant partner in Thames Television, came up with a one-time TV movie "Regan", that cast John as a tough, no-nonsense, break-all-the-rules, streetwise cop. Little did he know that this movie, and the series that followed, would catapult him from obscure supporting actor to national attention, and would make John Thaw a household name for the first but certainly not the last time in his budding career.

The Sweeney

"Get your trousers on, you sod, you're nicked."
"We're the Sweeney, son, and we've haven't had any dinner yet, so unless you want a kickin'...."
"I am utterly and abjectly pissed off."
"I'll drink down to the label with you if you like"
"If you weren't who you are I'd kick your arse up to you shoulderblades."
"Look slag, I don't give a toss who you have in your bed."
"The word is you're a right evil bastard."
"Shut it!"
- from The Sweeney

On Tuesday, June 4th, 1974, the 90-minute police action drama "Regan" first aired and was an immediate ratings success, watched by more than 7 million viewers, a huge number in England in those days. Eager to capitalize on its success, Thames television quickly signed John to a TV-series based around the Regan character, "The Sweeney" (a name derived from cockney rhyming slang "Flying Squad/Sweeney Todd"). The first season premiered on February 1st, 1975, and featured Denis Waterman as Thaw's partner and Garfield Morgan as his superior, and was unlike anything ever to hit the British airwaves.
"The Sweeney" was more action oriented than the Brits had been used to before, much more similar in style to "Kojak" or "The Streets Of San Francisco" which were airing in the US during that time. In each show Regan almost always went over the line or bent the rules in his efforts to put the criminal element behind bars, and each episode almost invariably ended in car chases or random gunplay. Continuing a decades-long love affair with the police force, the Brits ate it up. During the show's tenure it brought a whole new vocabulary of cockney/police slang into everyday use, and the styles set either by racy cars or Thaw's rumped raincoat and private flat that looked as if it had been decorated from a second-hand thrift shop. A number of familiar faces from British stage & screen guest starred at different times, among them Brian Blessed, John Clive, Denholm Elliott, Brian Glover, John Hurt and Roy Kinnear. In its first season the show did reasonably well in its Thursday night time slot, then dominated the airwaves for 2 more seaons on Monday nights, before returing to its Thursday slot for its fourth and final year. In all, the series ran for 53 hour-long episodes.
The series' final episode on December 28, 1978, garnered its highest ratings of 19 million viewers. But British fans could not get enough of their newly-found heroes on the small screen, as the Sweeney made the jump to the big screen in two feature films: "Sweeney!" (1977) which won John the Evening Standard Best Film Actor of the Year Award, and "Sweeney II" in 1978. It also spawned a series of cheap pulp paperback novels based on the show, and all sorts of licensed tie-ins. Following this hectic shooting schedule of sqealing tires and shootouts, John returned to the stage and appeared in a series of plays both in London and Toronto, Canada. He appeared opposite Diana Rigg in "Night And Day" (1976) and drew rave reviews for "Absurd Person Singular" (1976). Other appearances included "The Sensible Action Of Mr.Horst" (1976), "The Two Of Us" (1977) opposite wife Sheila Hancock, "Sgt. Musgrave's Dance" (1978), "Pygmalion" (1984), Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" in the part of Joe Keller (1985), "Stainheads" (1986), and as "Kieran Flynn" opposite Glenda Jackson in "Business As Usual" (1988). Not forgetting his classical training, he also gained favorable reviews for his performance in Shakespeare's "Henry VII" (1989) and "Twelfth Night" (1990). John seems at home on both the stage and in front of the television cameras, and easily switches from one medium to another in an effort to balance out his projects with a satisfying degree of variety. It is a talent few actors seem able to master. Though John enjoys the immediate response of performing in front of a live audience, "keeping you sharp at your craft" as he puts it, it is television which is his first love and where he is the most comfortable.
An uneasy John is surprised, however, in 1981 with an unexpected episode of "This Is Your Life" featuring him at home. Always intensely private about his personal life, John warms up when, among the parade of friends and relatives that are brought out, his father and brother appear. This particular episode becomes the most popular of the show for that year. John next appears in "The Grass is Singing" (1981, also released as "Killing Heat") opposite Karen Black, a searing saga in which Black plays an unstable white South African woman who marries a well-meaning but failing farmer (Thaw) whose marriage and life disintegrates into poverty while losing her sanity in the process. 
During this period of his life John also performed in what he later described as the "most gratifying role of his career," as a father trying to find out how his son has died in Northern Ireland in a remarkable one-man play by Douglas Livingstone, called "We'll Support You Evermore" (1985). According to Livingstone, "Though the quest for truth was the mainspring of the plot, it was never going to be settled; what mattered, in the end, was an uncomplicated man's grief and puzzlement, both conveyed so subtlty by the formidable Mr. Thaw." John also makes one of his rare overseas ventures in 1985, appearing in Toronto, Canada, in the Ray Cooney farce "Two Into One" with fellow actor Daniel Massey.
John also excelled on the small screen in such features as the comedy "Dinner At The Sporting Club" (1978), the historical miniseries "Drakes Venture" (1980) in which he played the famed English explorer Sir Francis Drake, as a hard-drinking London newspaper reporter in "Mitch", another historical miniseries "The Life And Death Of King John" (1984), and as Henry Willows in a weekly sitcom "Home To Roost" which lasted for 29 episodes and for which John won the Pye TV Award. John also teamed up with his Sweeney co-star Denis Waterman for a 1976 appearance on the "Morcane & Wise Christmas Show," and guest-starred (1972) on a episode of the children's series "Black Beauty". John's favorite cause was the fight against child abuse; in 1981 he hosted a 10-part series on the problem of child abuse called "When The Bough Breaks", a subject which would crop up again in "Goodnight Mr. Tom" 16 years later. For a change of pace John appeared in Killer Waiting (1984), a suspenseful thriller right out of The Twilight Zone type of story in which John plays an ex-IRA assassin who himself is being hunted by an unknown killer. This TV-production, one of a trilogy of Killer films, ends in one of the most unusual plot twists of all time.
After "The Sweeney" ended its run, John began casting about for new projects to conquer. About this time an unknown first-time writer by the name of Colin Dexter was putting the finishing touches to his first novel about a grumpy, sometimes morose, but always brilliant detective that was to catch the public's imagination in a way no other mystery series has done since the days of Agatha Christie, making this literary character the most poular detective in British history, second only to Sherlock Holmes. In bringing this character to life, John Thaw would unknowingly take on the part he was born to play, one that would transform him from a popular British TV actor to an international star.

Inspector Morse

"It's a very funny thing, but as soon as someone doesn't want to discuss something, I do"
- from Service Of All The Dead
"I don't know why they let Morse stay on this case, it's a murder a minute."
- from Service Of All The Dead
"Morse's Law is that there is always time for one more drink."
- from The Silent World Of Nicholas Quinn
"I don't think Lewis I deduce, I only ever deduce."
- from The Wolvercote Tongue
"Try not to antagonize the rich and famous, Morse, just for the sake of it."
- from Greeks Bearing Gifts
"Here we are again, Lewis, putting together the last moments of a complete stranger's life."
- from Who Killed Harry Field?

In 1985 longtime friend Ted Childs, director of drama programming from Central TV, approached John with a novel he had just read about a new detective character named Morse, an Inspector with the Thames Valley CID, with the idea about turning the character into an on-going series of 2-hour mystery films. John read through the book, met with author Colin Dexter, and immediately liked what he saw. Between Central TV's committment to quality and Colin Dexter's writing, John was convinced it would be a worthwhile project and immediately signed on. In the summer of 1986 they began shooting the first program in and around Oxford. Though Dexter had written his character's background and history with all the requisite quirks and eccentricities, it would be John who would ultimately impress upon the figure his own interpretation and personality traits and bring the character to life, leaping from the pages of a novel and imbuing it with a breathing, flesh-and-blood quality. In the process, he would make the role his own.
On January 6, 1987, "The Dead Of Jericho", the first Inspector Morse mystery, debuted on British television and introduced the world to a new phenomenon. Morse was unlike anything John had played before, in fact the complete opposite of the rough-and-tumble Regan he had played in The Sweeney. Gone were the car chases and shoot-outs; instead was a more thoughtful, cerebral story that relied more on characterization and deduction than violent gunplay. It quickly gained a reputation as being perhaps "the most intelligent show on television today." Morse was a character with many human flaws: morose, brooding, melancholy, a devoted bachelor with a poor track record of successful relationships with women. Here was a detective who often ignored forensic science, and couldn't stand the sight of blood. He had a passion for opera and classical music, a love of classic cars (his 1959 red Jaguar Mark II became a Morse trademark), a talent for crossword puzzles, and a thirst for beer. Indeed, it became a common feature in each mystery for Morse to visit the local area pub to mull over the case he was currently working on over a pint (or two) of ale.
Never one to try and grab the spolight, Thaw shared the show's success with a wonderful cast of supporting characters, chief among these his partner Detective Sergeant Robert Lewis, brilliantly played by Kevin Whateley, and his long-suffering boss, Chief Superintendant Strange, played by the talented James Grout, and produced initially by another longtime colleague, Kenny McBain. Inspector Morse also broke new ground in that a regular series of any kind had never been tried before in a 2-hour format. Viewers were quickly drawn to the ever-changing and growing relationship between Morse and Lewis, evolving from that of superior to mentor to an almost father-son relationship. Indeed, Morse came to regard Lewis in many respects as the family he never had, and they came to rely on each other's strength and weaknesses to complement each other perfectly. No better duo had been seen since the days of Holmes & Watson.
As the series grew over the years, a number of interesting aspects were soon noticed. To begin with, for almost the series' entire run Colin Dexter never revealed his character's first name, and it was a preference for Inspector Morse simply to be known by his last name. It was rumored that the "morse code" heard in the background during the closing credit's haunting theme music revealed that name to sharp-minded viewers, but this was not the case as author Colin Dexter himself did not even make up his own mind what that name would be until the next-to-last episode: "Endeavour" (Morse's father, apparently, being a fan of Captain Cook's voyages of exploration). Dexter himself, the son of a taxi-driver father and mother who worked in a butcher shop in Stamford, Lincolnshire, took to making Hitchcock-like appearances in each and every episode, and it soon became a game among Morse fans to see if they could spot him. The original series music by composer Barrington Pheloung became highly popular and ultimately spawned four different soundtrack albums. The town of Oxford, known chiefly as a quiet, rural community mostly based around the famed university, with only one verified killing in 50 years, quickly became dubbed as "the murder capital of the world" as more and more victims piled up in each new mystery Dexter wrote for Morse to solve. Indeed, the series racked up an impressive body count of 94 victims during its long run.
Chiefly known for exporting comedies, Inspector Morse became the most popular and widely-watched British drama series in the world, eventually being broadcast in more than 80 countries. Accolades poured in from across the globe, from millions of fans who saw the show as the perfect antidote to the violence seen in many American dramas. "Morse tours" sprang up as fan clubs and armchair detectives alike toured the Oxford streets and surrounding countryside, eager to see the sites and locations made famous in the television shows and books.
Thaw was delighted with the response, and his portrayal of the now world-famous figure earned him two seperate British Academy Awards for best actor (BAFTA) in 1990 and 1993. John also won the ITV Personality Of The Year Award for 1990, and was named ITV/Time's favorite actor of 1991. After a run of 6 years and 28 episodes, "Twilight Of The Gods", guest starring Sir John Gielgud, was shown on January 20th, 1993, and was widely regarded as the final Morse mystery. During those six seasons John kept to a grueling schedule, each two-hour film being a miniature motion picture in itself, to the exclusion of all else. He soon began looking forward to new roles and projects to undertake, as a refreshing change of pace. But like Basil Rathbone before him, John Thaw would soon discover than his best-known character had other plans in mind and was not quite done with him. Morse would be heard from again. In the meantime, John's next project would take him to the sunny countryside of southern France.

A Year In Provence

" I love it, I have no idea what's normal anymore... What color are their yellow pages?"
"The hills were green, the trees were green, even the swimming pool was green."
"France was the truffle in our egg box."
"If you're looking for a real bargain, they tell me Bulgaria's the place."
"We should never have told people about France."
"Welcome to the south of France, they said. Well the south is beginning to get up my nose."
- from "A Year In Provence"

During his initial 6 years as Inspector Morse, John Thaw had little time for other projects. He did a guest appearance in 1987 on the Granada-TV series of Sherlock Holmes, opposite Jeremey Brett, in "The Sign Of Four", portrayed Sir Arthur Harris of Bomber Command in the World War 2 TV biography of "How I Won The War" (1989), returned to the stage in one of his rare overseas ventures, appearing in Toronto, Canada, in the Ray Cooney farce "Two Into One" (1986) with fellow actor Daniel Massey and back home in England in a theatrical production of "Charlie" in 1992. Near the end of Morse's run John signed on (1991) to play the role of Stanley Duke in "Stanley And The Women", a 4-part adaptation of the Kingsley Amis work which provided him with his most challenging and dramatic role yet. In it, the idyllic lifestyle of John's character is suddenly shattered when his son develops a terrible mental illness, and as Stanley struggles to help his son regain his sanity he finds himself locked in a horrible battle with the medical profession in general and a monstrous lady psychiatrist in particular. Stanley's beautiful, cultured second wife and her more strident predecessor turn out to be no help at all in this traumatic and heart-rending human drama. John's demanding performance won him the accolades of fans and critics alike.
About this time a book by author Peter Mayle was making waves on all the major bestseller lists. Called "A Year In Provence", it was an autobiographical work telling the story of Mayle and his wife's (an advertising executive and tax inspector, respectively) attempt to leave the London big city rat race behind and settle into an idyllic tranquil new lifestyle in the south of France. Their attempts to renovate a centuries-old farmhouse and adapt to the local color and customs provided a humourous look at the inevitable culture clash between two completely different lifestyles. John had read the book and was as entranced with it as millions of others had become, quickly signing on play the part of Peter Mayle in an ITV television production of the book, which, together with two successful sequels by Peter Mayle detailing the further misadventures in blending into French society, were culled to form the basis for the miniseries version of "A Year In Provence".
But the project almost didn't happen. Seeing a runaway bestseller up for grabs, Hollywood immediately pounced on the material and started a bidding war for rights to the book. An American network had even gone so far as to write up a two hour made-for-TV treatment with a preliminary cast of Richard Chamberlain and Meryl Streep in the leads. But a crafty executive from ITV television approached Mayle and, while being able to offer less in the way of money but promised a more faithful adaptation of his work, stole the project out from right under the noses of Hollywood studios. The result was a 6 hour masterpiece told in twelve 30-minute segments. Hearing of the coup, John looked forward to shooting his first major project outside of England, and sharing a working vacation with his wife on the sunny Mediterranean shores of southern France. John also welcomed the chance to do a bit of light comedy as a refreshing change of pace, something he hadn't done since his own short-lived sitcom "Home To Roost" eight years earlier.
The story follows the attempt by the Mayles to renovate their newly-acquired farmhouse, despite an unending procession of univited house guests, a language barrier, unreliable workmen, eccentric neighbors, and a never-ending series of crises. Shooting took place for 15 weeks during the spring and summer of 1992 and required the producers to rent an already occupied farmhouse similar in style to that of the real Mayles', moving all its furniture into storage, weathering and altering the building to give it the appearance of being dilapidated, then having it restored during the filming as part of the story whereupon it was returned to a very grateful owner. John worked at a demanding pace, as his character appeared in almost every shot of the series, and commonly worked along with a 50-man crew 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, for nearly four months straight. But what came out of the effort was almost magical. Peter and Annie, as portrayed by John Thaw and Lindsay Duncan, marvelously capture all of the glories that make up Provence and their stories made the books literally come to life. The series is visually stunning, the characters that we cared about so much in the books are vividly captured and in some cases even fleshed out better than in Mr. Mayle's novels.
John appreciated the fact that here was something the whole family could watch, that it was a relief to produce something where "no one was getting shot or maimed or having sex every ten minutes." Along with co-star Lindsay Duncan, they created a number of memorable scenes, among these the annual goat races, the great bread caper, or the truffle underworld of the Luberon, as well as sentimental moments such as the Mayle's efforts to help save the town's only school from closing, or mediating a dispute on finding a new Father Christmas for the village holidays.
Like his televison counterpart, John Thaw and his wife fell in love with the Provence region and purchased their own piece of paradise in a 3-bedroom home in the small village of Les Gavots, overlooking the staggering beauty of vibrant green hills and lush vineyards. Not having many shops or tourist attactions, the area is known for its privacy and tranquility and the Thaw family would often use it as a vacation spot or summer home, as often as his demanding schedule allowed.
A Year In Provence debuted on February 20, 1993, and ran for 12 consecutive weeks. While not a ratings blockbuster, it did attain a measure of cult status and provided an alternative to the usual tired sitcom fare. However, among those who watched was none other than the Queen herself, who was known to be a big Inspector Morse and Provence fan. It was while the series was ending its run on TV that the Queen invited John Thaw to Buckingham Palace in the spring of 1993 to receive the CBE (Commander Of The Order Of The British Empire). During their meeting the Queen commented on how different Thaw was from what she expected, "Seeing him play a genial Englishman in France was quite a contrast from the grumpy Inspector Morse." Being awarded the CBE was a highpoint in his life, and put John Thaw at the peak of his professional career. The lorry-driver's son had finally made good. Most actors would give their right arm to be associated with a hit television series. At this stage in his life, John had acheived two: The Sweeney in the 1970s, and Inspector Morse in the 1980s. Little could this talented actor know that yet a third hit series awaited him in the 1990s.

Kavanagh Q.C.

It seems that John Thaw was always destined to play a role of some kind in the legal profession; indeed, his three most famous series even followed a natural progression: in The Sweeney he first became known as a streetwise rough-edged cop, in Inspector Morse he played an Inspector Detective, and in his final regular series Kavanagh Q.C., he took on the role of a full-fledged barrister, arguing cases in a British courtroom while dealing with personal crisis in his home life. Surprisingly, John almost never took the role because he did not like the idea of wearing a legal wig. "I know it sounds stupid," he explained, "But I hate wearing hats, and the last thing I wanted to do was have this grey horse-hair thing stuck on my head for a whole series."
Devised as a vehicle especially for John by producer Ted Childs, the character of James Kavanagh was envisioned as a crumpled yet charismatic northern barrister with an affinity for the underdog. Like John, the character was written as coming from Manchester, recently tested by his wife's waywardness at home while maintaing a razor-sharp mind in the courtroom. A lot of Kavanagh's domestic home life would be featured, giving John a chance to film some scenes in a more relxed jeans-and-sweatshirt atmosphere, a far cry from the way audiences were used to seeing him as the impeccibly-dressed Inspector Morse. To research the role, John visited London's Inn of Court to attend an actual murder trial at the Old Bailey. "Although the script is there for you, I like to observe human behavior and ask a lot of questions," he commented.
The series premiered on John's 53rd birthday, January 3rd, 1995, and was an instant ratings hit as more than 12 million people tuned in. "The British love crime and anything to do with it," he observed. "Maybe its because we were lawless at one time and still are in our hearts. There's also an element of 'there but for the grace of God go I.' You think, thank God that didn't happen to me." John carried over a part of the crusty Morse image into his interpretation of the new role, and people instantly took John's new character to heart. John realized that the world-weary, gruff exterior was an important part of Kavanagh's personna, as viewers watched him deal with the trails and tribulations of the world around him. When told by one person that Kavanagh seemed to be getting happier in later episdoes, Thaw responded, "Does he? I'll have to put a stop to that."
Having the series take place in and around Manchester afforded John an opportunity for a sentimental and nostalgic trip back to his hometown as the show moved there periodically for location shooting. In one episode, Tom Courtney guest-starred as a mild-mannered doctor accused of killing his wife. John was delighted with the chance to be able to work with his old friend from the Royal Academy days, and with whom John had starred in his very first motion picture "The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Runner" some 30 years before.
In the show's fourth year the producers killed off Kavanagh's wife, played by Lisa Harrow, to enable the show to focus more on the courtroom trials and showing John's character adapting to widowed life and learning to take care of himself more. Unlike the 2-hour Morse mysteries, Kavanagh Q.C. consisted of 90-minute episodes, allowing for a somewhat less demanding shooting schedule. John took advantage of this flexibility by returning to the stage at the National Theater in the 1994/1995 season by appearing as the strongly principled by weak-willed Labour party leader Gary Jones in "The Absence Of War." Critics called John's portrayal as nothing less than "spellbinding."
After a successful run of 5 seasons, the last regular episode entitled "End Games" aired on the 29th of March, 1999, and a special finale "The End Of Law" was broadcast on April 25, 2001. Altogether Kavanagh Q.C. ran for 29 episodes, and in the final one the writers hinted at the possibility of James Kavanagh being made a judge, thereby keeping the door open for possible further development of the series. But midway through Kavanagh's run, Thaw had made an announcement that millions of his fans around the world had been looking forward to with anticipation. Having put some time and distance behind him since the last time he donned the famous raincoat, John announced that he was ready to return to the one role that had made him an international star: Inspector Morse would be returning.

Inspector Morse Returns

"You know what they say about funerals, Lewis, there's always someone who catches his death."
- from Promised Land
"I can't carry my own bags, Lewis, can I? I'm a Chief Inspector."
- from Promised Land
"He does crosswords, madam, knows all sorts of words nobody ever uses." - from Ghost In The Machine
"They put me on to these things when they can smell a corpse." - from Last Seen Wearing
"Coffee may be instant, death may not." - from The Way Through The Woods
"Allowing the pages of the Sun to pass before your eyes does not amount to reading, Lewis." - from Twilight Of The Gods

On the evening of November 29, 1995, millions of viewers sat transfixed before their TV screens as the familiar credits began to roll and "The Way Through The Woods" flickered across the screens. After a 3-year absence John Thaw was returning to the role of Inspector Morse, and the build-up in the weeks leading up to the show's airing had been tremendous. Thaw had originally expressed concern that audiences might eventually tire of the character or that the writing might grow stale, but such was not the case as this 29th Morse mystery became one of the BBC's highest-rated programs of the season. Thanks to Colin Dexter's excellant storytelling and the return of all the principal cast members, the show was vintage Morse at its best.
John had agreed to reprise the role of Morse only if the quality of the scripts remained high, and if it allowed him time to pursue other projects on the side. Therefore, Morse would not be returning as part of a regular, on-going series but as a set of one-off films that would appear at roughy one-year intervals. By this time in the show, Morse had been promoted to Chief Inspector and Sergeant Lewis was preparing to take the exams that would promote him to Inspector status. This situation allowed for an emotional play-off between the two characters for, even though Morse supported Lewis in his quest for advancement, he did so knowing that if Lewis were to become an inspector in his own right Morse would be forced to lose him as a partner after all these years, a prospect which he detested. It was a further sign of the closeness written between the two, mirroring the friendship of the actors offscreen as well. "Morse and Lewis just seemed to click with viewers," observed Thaw's co-star Kevin Whateley, "and I always love working with John. We stopped doing them before people got tired of them and I believe people are ready for another look at them now."
Viewers seemed to agree. Morse's return to the small screen drew an audience of 16.5 million, a whopping 65% of the available British audience at the time. The two actors, reunited, were clearly delighted to be back in harness once again. They were helped by a spellbinding story and some sparkling dialogue: In once scene, with Sergeant Lewis still pushing for his long-delayed promotion, the young man loses his temper for once with Morse and calls him "a miserable, self-centered, arrogant bastard." Morse was certainly back with a bang.
Four more Morse mysteries followed in the next four years. These resulted in yet two more acheivements for John; for in May 2001 he was awarded the Radio Times reader-voted Lew Grade Award for the Inspector Morse series, and a Lifetime Acheivement Fellowship Award from the Royal Academy of Drama and Acting. Both well-deserved awards were presented to John by his old friend, Sir Tom Courtney. John was at the peak of his career and this night was an emotional one for him. It was an honor John clearly cherished.
In the last two episodes viewers noticed a new direction the series was taking as Chief Inspector Morse began facing his own mortality. In one episode, after suffering chest pains and being hospitalized, it was discovered that Morse had become a diabetic; a lifteime of smoking, liberal drinking, and constant overwork were catching up with him. He was encouraged by Lewis and Strange that it his body's way of telling him he should retire. Lamenting his own lack of advancement, Lewis states, "I'll be made Inspector yet if there's any justice in this world." To this Morse replies, facing his own forced retirement, "I'm not sure there is, Lewis, or else there'd be one last case for Morse." Morse eventually decides against retirement as he had no other life outside of the force and no family ties for him to enjoy; he recoiled at the prospect of being "fobbed off by a gold watch only to grow old, waiting to die in bed." It was not the way he wanted to go out.
The truth was that it was a decison mutually arrived at by both Thaw and author Colin Dexter. When it came to film the ending, the cast and crew said although they were in tears, they felt it was time for the end. "Producer Chris Burt phoned to tell me that in Colin's next book Morse would die," said Thaw. "I was pleased in a way because it took away the responsibility of deciding if I, as an actor, should do Morse again and again. I didn't want the television Morse to end like Frank Sinatra, doing an endless series of farewell concerts." After 13 full-length novels, more than a dozen short stories, and 32 television screenplays in the span of 15 years, Dexter felt he had taken the character as far as it could go and that Morse was not the kind of person to go off into the sunset enjoying his golden years. So it was announced that in the 33rd and final Morse, the aptly-titled "Remorseful Day", the unthinkable would happen: the great detective would die. In a prophetic statement made at the time to an interviewer, John said that his onscreen demise was chilling: "Seeing yourself on a mortuary slab pulls you up. I've done a past Morse when he was in the hospital, and you think that this could be you tommorrow or in 6 month's time; I could be here as John Thaw."
Word spread life wildfire as fans of the show searched for any clues or hints concerning details of Morse's demise. Most remained a closely guarded secret and on November 15, 2000, TV's most popular detective passed into television history. In the course of his final mystery, re-opening a year-old unsolved murder case, Morse solves it with the assistance of Lewis (who finally makes Inspector) and succumbs to his condition right at the point of bringing the guilty parties to bay. Lewis brings the case to a successful conclusion, the final Morse scene being an emotional and moving farewell from Lewis to his friend and mentor of 15 years. In the coming weeks "Remorseful Day" was broadcast to audiences around the world. When aired in the U.S. it became one of the highest rated PBS broadcasts of all time, and it was estimated that worldwide the show was seen by upwards of half a billion people. Fans felt as though they had lost an old friend, but appreciated the dignity with which their favorite character had departed this life. They also looked forward to seeing John Thaw in future projects, and were curious as to what shape they would take now that he had put Inspector Morse behind him. In the ultimate irony, however, the actor who had breathed life into the character and had become inextricably linked with, himself would not long outlast his creation and would soon follow him in death as well.

Films and Movies

"I'm happy enough doing what I do."
- from Happy Families
"You are in God's care and you must care for one another.
Seek the best in people, not the worst. We must stand or fall together."
- from Monsignor Renard

Despite being primarily a television actor, John Thaw made occasional appearances on the big screen as well. Two notable examples of this are Sir Richard Attenborough's "Cry Freedom" in 1987 (starring Denzel Washington) in the role South African prime minister Paul Kruger, which earned John a nomination as Best Actor in a supporting role by the British Academy Of Film & Television Arts, and Attenborough's 1992 film "Chaplin" in which he portrayed Fred Karno, the London impressario who gave Chaplin his first job in vaudville but went bankrupt in 1926 and died penniless. "My first introduction to Charlie," John remembered at the time, "was as a boy in the 1950s in my local Odeon on a Saturday morning. His black & white two-reelers would bring the house down". But after completing both the Morse and Kavanagh roles, he returned to the small screen, which he made his own, and where he found a wealth of dramatic material in which to work.
How did John resist the lure of working in Hollywood? In 2000, John had been offered a part of an "English baddie" alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in an American feature film, but turned it down - because he preferred his starring roles on TV. In an interview in March, 2001, John explained that the bright lights of Tinseltown held little attraction to him. "I would sooner do leading parts on television than have 10 minutes - for 20 weeks work - in a Hollywood so-called blockbuster. The films I'm being offered are 10 or 20-minute slots and it's going to take three times as long as a film for television. I wonder, why do I need to do that? Why do 10 minutes in an Arnie movie when I could play Harry? I'm not bothered by that." (He was referring to the part of Harry Jenkins in "Buried Treasure" which turned out to be his final role.) Thaw added: "It was a film that was never made. I truthfully don't know why. They built the set and spent fortunes on it. It was a costume thing." But asked if he could remember much about the script, he laughed: "Nothing good." The actor instead took the part of a villain in a light-hearted musical departure as Captain Hook in a BBC Radio 3 version of Peter Pan, recorded at the Royal Festival Hall for later broadcast. "I've been practising with a pianist - and getting it wrong, forgetting when to breathe," he said. It wasn't his first singing role though: "I sang once on The Sweeney. We were supposed to be drunk on that occasion."
In spite of being kept busy with the ongoing Morse and Kavanagh Q.C. roles, John found a huge variety of work being offered him. Beginning in 1995, John starred in the televison miniseries "The Absence Of War," which was the final installament in a 3-part trilogy by David Hare on contemporary Britain. This installment dealt with the trials and tribulations of a Labour Party leader on the campaign trail, and the eventual downfall of Labour in a national election. John had originally performed the role in a stage version of the play in 1992. After "Absence Of War" John took on what he considered were two new exciting projects that were developed especially for him.
The first of these, "Out Of Blue" (1997), starred John as Harry Barnett, in a 2-hour thriller based on the bestselling novel by Robert Goddard. Harry Barnett, once married and successful, is now single, bankrupt and working as a caretaker at a villa on the Greek island of Rhodes. The villa is owned by his good friend, the powerful multi-millionaire and disgraced ex-government minister Alan Dysart. Through the generosity of his good friend, a few drinks and the beauty of Rhodes, Harry finds his life quite peaceful...until he has a fling with Heather Mallender. Suddenly, he is thrown into a stormy sea of blackmail, deceit and murder when, the next morning, Heather disappears and Harry is hauled in by the local police, suspected of her murder. Fortunately, the ever-connected Dysart gets his friend released, but he also has some curious news about Heather: she is the sister of Dysart's former personal assistant, who was found drowned in the sea near his home in Britain. Harry begins to feel like a pawn in a game he doesn't understand. He decides that his only recourse is to turn detective himself and uncover the truth. Just when it seems life can't get any worse -- it does. Uprooted from his peaceful life, Harry traces Heather back to London, chasing his innocence across a sea of political scandal, blackmail, and murder, as Harry unravels a conspiracy that may reach to the very highest corridors of power in the government itself. The terrifying climax leads Harry to a rediscovery of his own inner strength and courage, and ultimate vindication. Viewers cheered at the conclusion and like every project John was associated with, it became an instant ratings hit.
John next appeared in the much-acclaimed and very moving "Goodnight Mister Tom" (1998), based on the bestelling book by Michelle Magorian, in which he played Tom Oakley, a widower and recluse who had lost both his wife and son years before but takes on the care of a young 9-year old boy evacuated to the countryside from London, along with thousands of other children, to escape Hitler's bombs in the fall of 1940. In trying to make a home for the child, Oakley discovers that Willie has been the victim of severe child abuse, and decides to adopt the child as his own, in order to save him from the severe psychological damage caused by his natural mother. "It has something for everyone," said John of the story, "because in a way it's about everyone. We've all been children, we've all felt frightened, we've all felt unloved, and loved too, hopefully." This film won the National Television Award for best drama and John Thaw as best actor.
John appeared in two dramas in 1999, both of which confirmed his brillance as an actor and his popularity with the public. The first of these, "The Plastic Man", cast John in the role of a plastic surgeon whose life isn't as perfect as it seems as he is forced to face two moral dilemmas in his life: the first over a patient and the second concerning his troubled marriage. John played plastic surgeon Joe MacConnell, whose son is in training to be a doctor but was involved with a crime, the victim of which was one of Thaw's patients. In this 2-part, four-hour series, MacConnell's marriage is suffering from neglect, his son can't bear to tell him he's dropping out of medical school and his job is extremely highly pressured, So what does he do? Have an affair with a colleague. Naturally this only adds fat to the fire. This drama comes from the producer of the acclaimed detective series Prime Suspect. John revelled in the role of a man facing the crisis of being torn between two women, explaining "This character has far more depth that I have been allowed to show in either Morse or Kavanagh." 12 million viewers agreed.
John rounded out 1999 with a two-part adaptation of the Gerald Seymour thriller "The Waiting Time". Playing Joshua Mantle, a solicitor's clerk, Thaw becomes involved in post-cold war intrigue in England and Germany that might uncover the shady past dealings between a high-ranking British member of Parliament and a former member of the East German secret police. The story begins when a female Army officer attempts to get revenge on a former East German Stasi officer who killed her boyfriend. During the years of the Cold War Dieter Krause was an important officer in the Stasi - East Germany's secret police. One night in 1988 he and his men captured a spy, Hans Becker, and they killed him. Ten years on and the wall has come down, the Stazi has gone but Krause has managed to keep himself popular and in a position of influence by providing the West with tit-bits of information on a Russian colleague Rykov, who is seen as a potential Russian leader with hard-line military policies. The Americans need the officer because he's buddies with the possible new President of Russia, and so the mighty forces of the British Secret Service (run by former Doctor Who - and now Orson Welles lookalike - Colin Baker) to thwart Thaw's efforts to get to the truth. While visiting a British Army base Krause is attacked by Corporal Tracey Barnes. She was one of the British military contingent in Germany back in 1988 and it turns out that she was present when Krause killed Becker. She has decided that it's time Krause should pay for the murder. Joshua Mantle, a former soldier who gets involved, travels to Germany to help Tracy. Krause and his former-Stasi men have something in common - they can't afford the murder to be made public so they set out to intimidate and silence the few witnesses from 1988. Meanwhile British Intelligence are watching with interest because this whole affair could bring down the Russian Rykov. What everyone agrees on is that Barnes and Mantle are expendible. John was intrigued by the role as something different from anything he had ever done, and the attraction of working during part of the shoot in Germany, even though he decribed it as the coldest-ever location of his entire acting career. Besides the challenge of staying warm while filming was the equally daunting task of learning to speak rudimentary German for some key scenes. He viewed the character as "a lonely, rather bored man whose life is given purpose and meaning by this adventure."
The year 2000 saw John return to the screen in one of his most popular post-Morse roles, "Monsignor Renard", a 4-part drama in which John played a French Catholic priest who, after a twenty year absence, returns to his homeland in 1940 just as the German occupying forces march in. John's character, Augustin Renard, finds his hometown a place of confusion, led by an ineffectual mayor and a populace divided over resisting the Germans or collaborating with them. Filmed entirely in France, it covers the first eight months of the German occupation and covers Renard's inner struggle between doing what he thinks is best for his people and giving them a cause to fight for. John is later angered when plans for four more Renard films, continuing through the end of the war, are cancelled as being "too costly." John has looked forward to Renard as being his next long-term character and briefly considers changing his contract over from Carlton TV to the BBC in protest but later relents. The film is a huge hit. John explains, "Naturally I was disappointed when I was told. A lot of work has gone into it and I think we should all be proud of it. It's a quality drama, but I'm a big boy and that's the way the business goes." John also takes this time to narrate a 3-part televison documentary series called "Britain At War In Colour", using rare archival films and photographs. He also made his last stage appearance in April, 2001, when he performed the dual roles of Mr. Darling & Captain Hook in the one-night live performance of "Peter Pan" at the Royal Festival Hall mentioned above.
May 2001 saw John appear in a new 6-part drama called "Glass." This told the story of a woman, Carol (played by Sarah Lancashire) who is torn between the affections of a working class older man (Thaw), who plays the owner of a window company by the name of Jim Proctor, and a 22-year old younger man, a charming opportunity-seeker and fortune-hunting Paul Duggan, played by Joseph McFadden. To complicate matters, Proctor faces loses his glass company company (and his girl) to his evil, scheming nephew (Duggan), and his attempts to win them back.

In May, 2001, John also won the prestigious Lew Grade Radio Times Audience Award and a fellowship at the British Academy of Film and Television. 
Sadly, John Thaw's last screen appearance was also perhaps one of his most emotional and sentimental, and served to prove the extradordinary range of this gifted actor. In November 2001, John portrayed widowed estate agent Harry Jenkins in the moving "Buried Treasure", who suddenly discovers that his estranged daughter has died and that he is the grandfather of a mixed-race child he never knew existed. Dominque Jackson stars as Jenkin's strong-willed granddaughter, a spirited child who proves more than a match for him. A trip to London in search of the child's father forces Harry to face up to a few home truths, and that things need to change if he is to play a part in his granddaughter's life. This was a role John especially wanted to play, and served as a fine coda to a remarkable and varied career that has been equalled by few other actors, television or otherwise. John also gets to sing the Beatles "All My Loving" to his grandaughter during the film, one of the few times in his career that he permitted himself to do so. John looked forward to a new year full of exciting, new roles that would further challenge him as an actor, but the discovery of an unexpected illness kept this from becoming a reality.

Remorseful Day

"Ensanguining the skies
How heavily it dies
Into the west away;
Past touch and sight and sound,
Not further to be found,
How hopeless under ground
Falls the remorseful day."
- A.E. Houseman

"Thank Lewis for me."
- from The Remorseful Day

On June 19, 2001, John Thaw made an annoucement that stunned his fans. "I am receiving treatement for cancer of the esophagus," he said, and then, in typical Morse fashion, "As soon as this has been completed, I intend to return to work." He went on to thank the public for the concern they would show for him and his family during the coming months, then asked the reporters and press to respect their privacy during this trying time. The news came like a thunderbolt, totally unexpected. John's father had died of the disease in 1997, and ironically his wife Sheila's first husband had also died from the same disease back in 1971. Thaw admitted that he smoked heavily all his life and had once tried to give it up, but said he became "nervy, edgy and snappy" and that "after driving his wife and family mad he decided he would rather smoke and be pleasant and relaxed for everyone's sake around him." John knew this meant he would be forced to lighten his work load, which was his entire life. In his last public interview at the Royal Society of Arts in London, John commented "In the last few years I have made a conscious decision to slow down and I've not worked for a couple of months, quite deliberately," he said. "I've been called a workaholic in the past. But now I can think of many pleasant ways of spending retirement - lots of reading and walking, going to concerts, shows, and operas; sitting in the sun and long, leisurely lunches. I can think of lots of nice things to do."
John and Sheila take a vacation to France in the summer before starting his programme of treatment. "It's not been easy this year so it was lovely to get away to France for a break," Hancock said in an interview. "We get lost in the crowd there - I'm not complaining but it was nice just to look in the shops and sit in a cafe which is difficult to do over here. "John is doing well. He is in the middle of his treatment and they are all very thrilled. He is responding marvellously. There is no news when he might start working again. But we are hoping he will be able to start some time in the autumn. But with all these things you play it day by day and see what happens." She then went on to speak of their daughters. Originally all three decided to pursue a career in acting but Hancock admits she is happier two have now decided that it is not for them. "My eldest daughter Melanie, much to my relief, is doing interior design. She did her own house up very well and then a lot of people asked her for help. She thought it was silly as it was turning into a job. She did a course and is now working with an architect. My middle daughter, Abigail, is at The Globe and my youngest daughter is contemplating doing a course in psychiatry. I pray all the time that they will give up acting. If I get a sniff of them doing anything different I encourage them."
John and Sheila returned to England in good spirits. Most of his friends and associates felt that if anyone could beat the disease, he could. Colin Dexter observed that John went into the treatment "From day one in a positive frame of mind, optimistic, and determined to beat it." His wife Sheila had been a breast-cancer survivor herself from 16 years previously, and a 6-year old grandson had just recovered from a brain tumor, so there was hope among the family that the dreaded disease does not always have to win. John completed the prescribed program of treatement in time for the Christmas holidays. On January 3rd, 2002, he celebrated his 60th birthday and looked forward to returning to work. On February 13th, he and his wife met with long time-friend and producer Ted Childs over tea to discuss the possibility of John's reprising the role of Kavanagh. John looked over the suggested scripts and agreed to return in two more Kavanagh programs, slated to begin filming in March. Eight days later, on Thursday, February 21st, John Thaw was dead. He spent the last evening of his life walking in his beloved garden at home, and that very day had signed a one-year contract with ITV that Sheila found on the piano the next morning. He had refused to lose faith in the future right up to the very end.
John passed away at his small cottage home in Wiltshire, surrounded by his family, which consisted of three daughters: Melanie Jane from Sheila's first marriage; Abigail, from John's first marriage; and a daughter of their own, Joanna, all three of whom were actresses taking after their famed father. In addition to his immediate family, his 3 grandchildren were at his bedside. The family decided on a private ceremony with just Sheila and the daughters present, saying that the "entire family had been exhausted by the emotional stress of his passing and the constant care they had given him at home" for the previous eight months, but promised that there would be a memorial service later in the spring for the public and his fans to share in celebrating his life. John Thaw was cremated on February 25th, and his ashes scattered in his garden at home that he loved so much.
Ted Childs, John's longtime friend and producer for over 30 years, talked with great sadness of the last lunch they shared a week before his death. "John was as he had been throughout his illness, very positive, funny and self-effacing. He clearly was not very well, but he was anxious to get back to work and had a great sense of humor about things. We talked of the old days, of the time we spent working on The Sweeney. He was very funny." Denis Waterman, who co-starred alongside Thaw in The Sweeney, said he would "miss a great friend. I know John's family loved him dearly and will be devastated by his loss and my thoughts are with them all. All of us are going to miss a great friend and actor. I admired him hugely." (To hear audio clips from various individuals on John's passing and his impact on television, click on the following names: Ted Childs, executive producer of Inspector Morse, and John's frend of nearly 30 years (3 minutes 10 seconds), Torin Douglas of the BBC (2 minutes 45 seconds), and Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse novels and close friend of John's (20 seconds). From RTE Ireland comes a 90 second obituary from their evening news, that contains rare scenes from Redcap, The Sweeney, Morse and Kavanagh Q.C.
The night after his death, the BBC aired a special 30-minute tribute on ITV1 to John's life and career hosted by his Inspector Morse partner and colleague Kevin Whateley, after which they showed a selection of Morse mysteries thoughout the night. In it, Kevin paid tribute to his "Great pal and mentor. John's death will leave a hole in millions of lives", he said, adding that the country had lost "it's finest screen actor" but that his thoughts were with John's friends and family. Kevin then shared with viewers some personal stories and insights into John's character. "John had a wonderful sense of humor which is belied sometimes by journalist's impressions of him as irascible. He loathed the whole celebrity circuit. In between takes he was like an Irish storyteller in a bar, he wouldn't tell jokes, just stories and you would find yourself rolling around and crying with laughter. He was a wonderful mimic, particularly of people on the set rather than of famous people." At this point Kevin broke down and could barely continue the show.
And author Colin Dexter, who created the Inspector Morse character and became a close friend of John's over the years, summed it up for all by expressing that "John's death was a great sadness. He was very brave and optimistic and hopeful about the future, although I think everybody knew that this was an especially serious form of cancer." He described his friend as "A perfectionist. He did not mind how many takes there were. He was a person who was prepared to do anything to make sure that the television he made was as it should be. He always gave the best he had. And that is how I will remember him, always giving a hundred percent of himself."
Morse's beloved Jaguar MkII, perhaps the most recognizable example of its kind in the world, (which originally cost $2200 in 1959), sold at auction for an astounding $78,000 to a devoted collector and fan who vowed to keep the auto from leaving the U.K. When John's will (signed only five days before his death) is read, it is discovered that he left an estate estimated at 2.2 million pounds, divided up equally between Sheila and his three daughters. To his first wife Sally Alexander, mother of Abigail, he left her choice of cherished mementoes. And to give back something to the profession which he loved so much, a John Thaw Foundation is set up with an initial bequest of $200,000 pounds, as a scholarship fund to help struggling actors and students. Finally, in April, 2002, almost two months to the day after his passing, John Thaw won his second BAFTA, the coveted Lew Grade Award for his final performance in "Buried Treasure". At the conclusion of the ceremony a short filmed piece was shown remembering those actors who have passed during the last year, and John was left for last. They presented clips from both Inspector Morse and The Sweeney, and closed with a long, lingering shot of him showing that enigmatic smile on his face we've all come to know so well. The audience stood up in a thunderous ovation. John's final award was presented by his Inspector Morse colleague Kevin Whateley, and accepted on his behalf by his widow, Sheila. The actress said John would have been "absolutely overwhelmed and moved beyond belief. I think his is a remarkable story. He overcame adversity and fought a lot of personal demons to get where he was. John was really a very shy man who only ever regarded himself as a working actor. He never understood the public's fascination with him. Having reached a lovely, tranquil stage in his life, he has been snatched away from us. We really do miss him terribly." She went on to say: "It's very fitting that the last award that John will ever get should be one that's voted for by the audience. John would be hugely, hugely proud. He liked it when the critics gave him a good review. But if they didn't, he would always say 'it's only the audience that matters.'" That bond between John and his fans will forever remain strong and unbroken.

Some Final Thoughts

"To make an end is to make a beginning." - from The Wench Is Dead
"John could say a whole paragraph of dialogue in one look." - Chris Burt, film editor
"Well done, Morse, well done." - Chief Superintendent Strange to Inspector Morse

The stunning news of John's death came as a shock to millions of his fans. Messages of condolonce, sorrow, and grief continued to flood in to England from around the world, in dozens of languages, for two weeks after the actor's death. The most common feeling was that having gone through the death of their favorite character only a year before, it was like having lost Morse for a second time. He was truly an actor of international stature and the kind who only comes along once in a generation. John Thaw remains the only English actor to have had a television success in every decade from the 1960s to 2002, a span of over forty years.

Though being in the public spotlight for the better part of four decades, people knew very little about John Thaw the man. Part of the reason is the great lengths John went through to protect his and his family's privacy. "John's shyness is the reason why he never went on TV talk shows," said his late younger brother Ray, who lived in Australia. "He was remarkably quiet and reserved, and generous to a fault. He would constantly tell friends or relatives that 'if you're ever strife or need anything, you've only got to call me.' There was nothing John liked to do more than grab a book, listen to classical music, and basically lounge around. He's not the sort of actor that wants star treatment as soon as they get a name, he's not into that."

John always brought quality and a sense of class to whatever project he was in. He had a great respect for his profession, and it for him. Clive Jones, chief of Carlton TV (who produced Inspector Morse, Kavanagh Q.C., and Goodnight Mister Tom) called him "One of the great actors of his generation. He was universally the viewer's choice, and will always be remembered for setting new standards for others to measure up to." Ted Childs said of his friend "The power of his acting was very often in what he didn't say, rather than in what he did. He always brought a massive presence to every role he played. He was just a great human being."

It seems that everyone who met John Thaw shared this opinion and high regard of him. David Liddiment, director of channels for ITV, called John "The consummate TV actor who caught the imagination of millions. He had a warm, caring personality that just seemed to resonate with people no matter what country they were from." And Sarah Lancashire, Thaw's co-star in his next-to-last project "Glass", perhaps spoke most eloquently when she said, "It was a privilege to have worked with him but an even greater one to have known him, albeit briefly, as a friend. John was a national treasure and will be sorely missed."

The truth was that John Thaw was one of the greatest gentleman actors Britain ever produced. There was a depth of character to him and an unassuming gentleness you seldom find in stars of his stature. In spite of his fame, he was never able to forget the poverty and isolation of his childhood, and this was perhaps the key to his success. He said that acting was "Just a way of making a living, the way others make it from football." And the secret to a happy marriage - 28 years in his case - "Was being able to see the silly side of life whenever things were all in danger of getting a bit too serious." Today there is a movement in Parliament for John Thaw to be awarded a posthumous knighthood, and a call from the citizens of Oxford to erect a lifesize staute of Inspector Morse in the town square, as a permanent memorial to the close connection he shared with Oxford and the rest of the world. Not many fictional characters have ever achieved such a remarkable status.

We'll let John Thaw have the last word. In an interview he gave three years before his death, he spoke of his future in this way: "I don't envisage ever giving it up, acting, unless it gives me up first. I don't really want to do another long series or theater now at this stage of my life, but I will take on the parts that are worth getting out of bed for."

Rest in peace, John. You will be forever missed but never forgotten.

The Memorial Service

To My Dear And Loving Husband:
"If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man.
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold
or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that Rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such i can no way repay.
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let's so persevere
That when we live no more, we may live ever."
By Anne Bradstreet, read by Madelaine Newton.

On September 4, 2002, a memorial service was held at St. Martin-In-The-Fields, Trafalgar Square, to remember John and as a final opportunity for friends, colleagues, and fans to say goodbye. In a sign of the esteem in which John was held, those attending included the Prince Of Wales, future King Of England, paying his respects to the son of a lorry-driver, born into a working class family. Little could John have foreseen, playing as a child on the streets of Manchester, what the future would hold in store for him. We have two video clips of the day's events. The first is an ITV News report from early in the morning, before the services began, that also includes scenes from some of John's most famous roles. You can view that by clicking HERE. The second is Sky New's report on the memorial service, with comments by Lord Attenborough and Kevin Whateley, and you can view that by clicking HERE. Both clips are about 80 seconds long, and might take a minute or two to download, depending on your computer.
The following written accounts were taken from different and various news sources describing that emotional day.

PRINCE CHARLES JOINS THAW MEMORIAL (BBC NEWS Sept.4) - The Prince of Wales has joined 800 guests at a memorial service for actor John Thaw in London. He joined family and friends at St Martin-in-the-Fields church, off Trafalgar Square. Thaw's widow, actress Sheila Hancock, decided to choose a number of fans to invite at random after she was inundated by messages after her husband's death in February this year. Thaw died at the age of 60 after a battle with cancer of the oesophagus. The Prince of Wales, Lord Attenborough, Tom Courtney and Maureen Lipman were among the guests in attendance. They joined acting colleagues Kevin Whately and Richard Briers, Inspector Morse's creator Colin Dexter, and Cherie Booth, wife of the Prime Minister Tony Blair, in celebrating the life of the world-renowned actor.
One of the first to arrive was Kevin Whately, with whom Thaw appeared in Inspector Morse. The character's creator, Colin Dexter, actor Richard Briers and film-maker Lord Attenborough were also among guests. Hancock said she was moved by the reaction of viewers when her husband died. "His death has touched something deep in people, making them feel as though they've lost one of their own, a man whom they knew," she told TV Times in August. "It restores one's faith in humanity that people can be so kind," she added. Two hundred members of the congregation were fans of the Manchester-born star who had sent messages of condolence and support to his wife, the actress Sheila Hancock. The church was festooned with flowers and with a portrait of the star placed in front of the altar with a border of yellow, pink, and purple flowers. The actor's own voice was also heard at Wednesday's celebration, when a recording of his final acting performance, as Captain Hook in a musical version of Peter Pan, was heard. At the end of the celebration in St Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square, 60 balloons were released to mark each year of Thaw's life, each bearing the message: "Today we remembered John with love."
Hancock organised the service with the couple's daughter Joanne and the children from their earlier marriages, Melanie-Jane and Abigail. "We've randomly selected a number of people who will be allowed to come from those who wrote," she said before the service. Thaw was one of the best-loved TV actors of his generation, and his death prompted tributes from across the acting and TV profession. Lord Attenborough, who directed Cry Freedom - one of Thaw's few film appearances- called him an "exceptional" actor. "John was known to millions, about 20 million people watched him - there was a very great affection for John," he said. Many friends and colleagues remembered Thaw's irrepressible humour. Sir Tom Courtney, who met him when Thaw was aged just 16, reminisced: "Another thing we were fond of doing was talking as if we didn't have any teeth - I don't know why we did this - we did it a lot." The veteran actor added that he was proud to have introduced his friend to classical music, and during the service the Medici String Quartet played the Chorale from Bach's St Matthew Passion, one of Thaw's favourites. But Thaw's sense of humour was evident too; the choir sang a choral arrangement of The Sun Has Got His Hat On, arranged by Inspector Morse composer Barrington Pheloung.
The actor is still held in affectionate regard for his performances as the opera-loving Oxford sleuth Inspector Morse. The last episode of the ITV1 show in November 2000 was watched by 13 million people. In the 1970s he shot to fame as Jack Regan in gritty police drama The Sweeney, and in the 1990s he played a crusty barrister in Kavanagh QC. Hancock, herself a respected actress and comedienne, was Thaw's second wife, and they stayed together for 28 years despite a brief separation in the 1980s. A bursary (tuition grants for needy students) at Rada - where Thaw trained - has now been launched in his name.

The following report is from Reuters / AP: - PRINCE CHARLES REMEMBERS ACTOR JOHN THAW - LONDON (Reuters, Sept.4) - British actress Sheila Hancock was joined by Prince Charles, heir to the throne of England, Wednesday at a service to remember her husband John Thaw, the actor best known as the television detective Inspector Morse. Thaw, one of Britain's most popular and beloved television actors, died of cancer in February. At the end of the service in central London, Thaw's wife, actress Sheila Hancock, and his daughters released 60 red, yellow, and blue balloons, one to mark each year of Thaw's life. "Today we remembered John with love," read cards attached to each balloon.
Cherie Blair, wife of the British Prime Minister, veteran film director Lord Attenborough and Morse creator Colin Dexter were among the friends, family and mourners who packed the church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields on London's Trafalgar Square. Fans who wrote letters of condolence to the family after the actor died were among the congregation. Friends and family shared memories of Thaw at the memorial service. "John was known to millions — about 20 million people watched him — there was a very great affection for John," said Attenborough, who directed Thaw in the film "Cry Freedom." "Only once once or twice in a lifetime does someone of his talent and humanity come along. He was truly the best of his generation."
Hancock attended the service with the couple's daughter Joanne and their children from earlier marriages, Melanie Jane and Abigail. The service celebrated Thaw's accomplished career which began on the stage before moving to television where the actor found fame in the 1970s as the belligerent, tough detective Jack Regan in "The Sweeney." Thaw then won worldwide fame as Colin Dexter's curmudgeonly, music-loving Oxford detective in an award-winning series of made-for-TV films between 1985 and 2000.
He repeated the success in the 1990s as a crusading lawyer in "Kavanagh QC." But it was as Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse that Thaw became best known to millions at home and abroad as the grumpy detective with a fondness for opera, crosswords, his classic Jaguar car and a good pint of beer. More than 30 episodes were filmed among the dreaming spires of Oxford, the famous university town in southern England. The last episode, aired in late 2000, was watched by a British audience of 12.5 million.

The following story is from Sky News / ITV News - ROYAL TRIBUTE AT THAW MEMORIAL (Sept.4) - The Prince of Wales has joined the family, friends and fans of actor John Thaw in a service to remember both his public and private life. Thaw was best known to millions worldwide for his unforgettable role as ITV's Inspector Morse. The all-star cast at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square, surpassed even those seen on Bafta night. It was led by his wife, actress Sheila Hancock, and included Colin Dexter, the creator of Inspector Morse, John Thaw's best known role. Long-standing Morse co-star Kevin Whately, was among those at St Martin-in-the-Fields in London's Trafalgar Square to share memories of the well-loved star. The others ranged from Cherie Blair through actors like Lord Attenborough and Richard Briers to newsreader Alistair Stewart. Also in the congregation were the couple's three daughters, Abigail, Melanie and Joanna, John's younger brother Ray, and three of his grandchildren. Sarah Lancashire, Peter O'Toole, James Bolam, Richard Wilson, Maureen Lipman and Samantha Bond were among stars due to attend, along with Chadderton schoolgirl Dominique Jackson, who appeared with John in the TV drama Buried Treasure and Nick Robinson, who co-starred in Goodnight Mister Tom.
Sheila Hancock was so moved by the letters of condolence she recieved from the public after his death in February, that she also invited 200 fans to the service. During the service Abigail spoke movingly about her father's 60th birthday present given to him just before his death from cancer in February. She read a poem she had penned about the gift - a trip to Barcelona he could not take. Abigail was in tears by the time she had finished the poem and retaken her seat. She said: "He had wanted to go there for 20 years but was too ill. My two sisters and I went after his death." Weeping, she added: "Barcelona is a beautiful city. He really should have come too. I miss him."
Paying tribute to his friend and colleague Kevin Whately said: "There was emotion but it was mostly fun. I will miss his wolfish grin most of all. I think he'd have cringed at the attention but would have loved the music. I think he's happy up there." Kevin then spoke of Thaw's "mischievous sense of fun" and said he still found it hard to believe his friend was no longer here. "There is a lot to celebrate in John's life. His was a tragically early death but we didn't want today to be too sombre an occasion. It's nice that the public and the fans could also be here." Long-time friend Sir Tom Courtenay said his old friend would be smiling down on the service, which highlighted his sense of humour. "He was my best friend and he wouldn't want people crying." There were also tributes from friends Richard Briers and Lord Attenborough. The voice of John Thaw rang out when a recording of him playing Captain Hook in a musical version of Peter Pan that was performed at the Festival Hall, was played. It was his very last performance in April last year, one he particularly enjoyed as his wife and daughter were also in it. A poem "To My Dear and Loving Husband" was read by Madelaine Newton, wife of Kevin Whateley.
Thaw's love of classical music was reflected with the chorale from St Matthew Passion among the musical performances, a piece he chose as the one he could not live without during an appearance on Desert Island Discs. Faure's In Paradisum, which was featured in the last episode of Morse, was also performed. Inspector Morse theme tune composer Barrington Pheloung wrote a choral arrangement of The Sun Has Got His Hat On specially for today's event. Speaking before the service began, Sheila said: "This is the song that John always burst into when the atmosphere needed lightening at work. He incorporated a tap dance which, sadly, will be missing." Outside the church Thaw's three grandchildren released 60 balloons - one for each year of his life - each carrying the message: "Today we remembered John with love." Daughter Melanie paid tribute to her father after the service. She said: "It was great. Dad would have been bemused to see all these dignitaries, but secretly he'd be quite pleased." John Thaw played dozens of roles but was perhaps best loved for Morse. Thaw had a long and distinguished career on the stage and screen becoming a household name after starring in the tough cop programme The Sweeney. He then captured the hearts of the nation with his portrayal of Oxford-based detective Inspector Morse. He died in February, aged 60, from cancer of the oesophagus.

The following report comes from the Manchester Evening News - FINAL ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR JOHN THAW (Sept. 5) - Inspector Morse star John Thaw won applause right to the end. It came as 60 blue, pink and yellow balloons - one for each year of his life - were released in Trafalgar Square. Watching them rise high over St Martin-in-the-Fields in London was Chadderton schoolgirl Dominique Jackson, who co-starred with the late Manchester actor in the TV drama Buried Treasure. Dominique and her mum Jayne were among 800 guests who had just left the church after a moving service to remember Burnage-raised Thaw, who died from cancer in February.
Jayne was not alone in being touched by the hour-long service in tribute to the son of a Manchester lorry driver, which was also attended by Prince Charles. Dominique said Thaw had given her some advice. "He told me never to be too big for your boots and always be friendly to everyone," she said. "He never thought that he was better than anyone else."
There was also applause inside the church after a recording of Thaw's last stage performance was played. John’s younger brother Ray, family friend Cherie Blair and stars including Sarah Lancashire, James Bolam and Samantha Bond joined in a choral arrangement of The Sun Has Got His Hat On, written for the event. Everyone - Prince Charles included - sang along and laughed as Morse co-star Kevin Whately recalled how his friend would jokingly throw up his script after being awarded the CBE, exclaiming: "I can't say this rubbish, I'm a Commander of the British Empire!"
Upon his arrival, Prince Charles was asked about Thaw by ITV News to which the Prince responded, "He was a very special man." Attending in a private capacity, the prince joined family, friends and fans for the event in memory of Thaw, who was awarded the CBE in 1993. Prince Charles had sent flowers to John’s actress wife Sheila Hancock with a personal note the morning after Thaw died from cancer of the oesophagus in February. Family friend Richard Briers brought laughter when he recalled John’s “paraffin sausages” which were inedible at Thaw family barbecues, while Sir Tom Courtenay, John's oldest friend, who first met John at RADA when John was just 16, was choked with emotion as he recalled their long friendship. Sir Tom remembered seeing him for the first time in the canteen queue at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, "wearing a grey sweater and a manner that didn't invite conversation". The Royal Exchange favourite told how he introduced The Sweeney and Kavanagh QC star to classical music and later came close to tears when he concluded: "He was a very dear man and a very dear friend."
The Anne Bradstreet poem: "To My Dear and Loving Husband", read during the service by Kevin Whately's actress wife Madelaine Newton, was also read by Madelaine when John's ashes were scattered in the garden of the Thaw family home in Wiltshire, where John died surrounded by his family. Before reading it at St Martin-in-the-Fields, Madelaine explained to the congregation that she was doing so as "a tribute to John and Sheila's great love together" and also in tribute to the courage Sheila had shown during John's illness and after his death. Thaw's actress wife, Sheila Hancock, was flanked by her three daughters as famous faces and ordinary fans invited by the family filled the pews, along with doctors and nurses who had cared for the actor. Film director Lord Attenborough called him "probably the most decorated actor, in terms of public acclaim, of his generation" and added: "We are the privileged ones for being here at the same time as he." Lord Attenborough revealed the extent of John’s charity work on behalf of RADA, the drama academy which first gave him a scholarship enabling him to become an actor. And he revealed how Thaw’s contributions had been responsible for allowing 16 students, including some from Manchester, to take up places at the drama school. RADA is to set up “The John Thaw Bursary” in his memory.
As family and friends left the church, the theme from Inspector Morse was played before Thaw’s grandchildren released 60 balloons - one for each year of his life - in Trafalgar Square. Each carried the message: “Today we remembered John Thaw with love.” Morse co-star Kevin Whately said: “I don’t think he’d have enjoyed all the attention, but he’d have loved the music. I think he’s happy up there.”
Outside, as the bells rang out in Thaw's memory, Jayne Jackson said she hoped Dominique would realise what the whole event had been about. "The way he lived his life was a lesson for everyone," she said. "And he never forgot where he came from." Wiping away tears after the service, Sheila said: “It was lovely.” Outside, Melanie Thaw was asked what she thought her father would have thought of it all, to which she replied "He'd have been bemused, I think, to find all these dignitaries here, but secretly quite pleased. It's the sort of thing he would have loved to have been at."

The following item comes from The London Evening Standard, and gives a wonderful look at John's ever-present sense of humor - STARS' TRIBUTE TO JOHN THAW by Valentine Low (Sept.4) - The Prince of Wales, Cherie Blair and the cream of British acting talent were there to remember him, from Lord Attenborough to Sir Tom Courtenay - which, all in all, was not a bad achievement for the son of a Manchester lorry driver.
Around 800 people gathered at St Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar Square today to share their memories of John Thaw, whose performances in television shows from The Sweeney to Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC made him possibly the best loved actor in the country. For a while today, it was almost as if they were all there to say goodbye to Morse himself.
There in the congregation was the old superintendent who was forever giving him reprimands, there was Kevin Whately, who played his trusty, much put-upon sergeant, and at the end of the service the congregation filed out to the unmistakable strains of Barrington Pheloung's dotdot-dash theme tune. The only thing missing was that familiar, irascible voice barking out "Lewis!"
Indeed there was a bit of Morse in Thaw. The actor - who died from cancer in February aged 60 - shared his character's love of classical music, and today's service included a chorale from Bach's St Matthew Passion, which he chose as the piece of music he could not do without in Desert Island Discs. The choir also sang In Paradisum from FaurÈ's Requiem, which featured in the last episode of Morse, and the Medici Quartet - with whom he used to do readings - played one of his favourite pieces, the Cavatina from one of Beethoven's last quartets
It was Sir Tom Courtenay who introduced Thaw to classical music when they were studying acting together at Rada, persuading him to listen to a Schubert trio when all Thaw was interested in was his Cannonball Adderley LP. In those days Thaw could be just as gruff as any of his characters. Sir Tom, remembered their first encounter, in the queue for the canteen: "He was wearing a grey sweater and a manner that did not invite conversation. I was the only one in our class who dared speak to him. All I got for my pains the first time was a grunt."
But the curmudgeonly exterior was just a mask for his shyness, and the two became lifelong friends. Kevin Whately recalled the actor's "mischievous" sense of humour on set. He said: "I worked with him for 15 years and despite a long line of very grumpy roles and although he was the world's leading workaholic, it was always fun working with John. He had a nose for a wind-up, he could take off to perfection anybody on set or off it.
"My favourite creations were when he impersonated the schedulers and producers who made the show. He would imitate the producers talking about him as 'that fat white-haired one'. If there was a bump or crash on set he would suddenly shout, 'And stay out!' On another occasion the actor expressed dismay at a script he had been handed saying, "I cannot say that rubbish, I am a Commander of the British Empire." "Ten years ago we were filming in Eton College Chapel. John was displaying the usual apery he thought was funny when he heard a pupil at the college say, 'Who would have thought such a classy show would be made by such a bunch of thugs'?
Liverpool's theatreland was also represented today paying a personal tribute to the actor John Thaw at a memorial service in London. At today's service of thanksgiving at St Martin-in-the-Fields, John's widow, actress Sheila Hancock, was being presented with a pictorial collage marking her husband's guest appearance in a 1967 production of Around The World in 80 Days.

REMEMBERING JOHN THAW, By Derek Robins (Sept. 4) - The courage with which Inspector Morse star John Thaw coped with the cancer that killed him is revealed in an ITV1 documentary screened on Thursday. John died aged 60, in February, from oesophagal cancer. His widow Sheila Hancock says: "He had a rough time, not agonising, he just ignored it. "He had an ability that if something didn't please him, he turned his back on it. That stood him in good stead with his illness." She says he was determined to die at his Wiltshire home surrounded by his family. "The night before, we walked around our garden. He was hanging on a bit but still very strong. We had a Lancashire hotpot and he went downhill during the night. He is much missed I'm afraid," she adds.
"When I'd say 'You're going through it', he would reply 'I have got no choice'. It made it easier for everyone around him that he wasn't moaning. "In the last months of his life he was the most loving man. He knew he only had days or weeks to live but he chose not to hear that. We only had one slight weep." The John Thaw Story is shown the day after a London memorial service for the actor. As well as Sheila and daughters Melanie, Joanna and Abigail the tribute features: Kevin Whately, Dennis Waterman, Peter O'Toole, Lord Attenborough, Sarah Lancashire and Tom Courtenay.
John Thaw never forgave his mother for deserting him as a child, according to the tribute show. He was seven and his brother Ray was five when she abandoned the family. Ray recalls that John had to care and cook for him because their father was a lorry driver who was often away. His widow Sheila Hancock says: "He never forgave her or wanted to see her. He did meet her once later but he did not like her."
Thaw's effect on women is examined in an ITV1 profile this week. His first wife Sheila Alexander says: "All the women at Rada were in love with John or Tom Courtenay." Sarah Lancashire describes him as "astonishingly sexy", while Inspector Morse co-star Joanna David talks about his "devastating blue eyes". Kavanagh QC co-star Jenny Jules says: "I used to swoon over him in scenes, he went bright red when I told him."
Thaw's gifts for mimicry and cooking are also revealed in the profile. Daughter Abigail says: "He was terribly funny, a brilliant mimic. He could do anyone instantly - from the milkman to our boyfriends - and that was very embarrassing. He could also do daft dances." Even though he was the only man in an all-female house, he also did a lot of the cooking. Although one barbecue was a disaster as the sausages he had cooked tasted of paraffin.

The following article on "The John Thaw Story" Television special comes from the Manchester Evening News - JOHN THAW AND HIS LEGACY OF LOVE by Ian Wylie - John Thaw's ashes are scattered in the garden of the Wiltshire home where he died from cancer in February. His younger brother Ray recalls: "He had a beautiful house in the country, surrounded by big, high brick walls. And one day he said to me: `Ray, come and have a walk in the garden with me.'" The Morse star asked his brother: "Remember Burnage? Do you know I had a dream that I didn't tell anybody about? And the dream was that one day I was going to have a beautiful home, with a beautiful garden, and a brick wall all around so nobody could see me, and I was safe and protected. That's what I've achieved."
West-Gorton born John's rise from a broken home in Burnage to the birdsong of that Wiltshire garden is highlighted in a 90-minute ITV1 documentary being shown on Thursday, September 5. The John Thaw Story pays tribute to Britain's favourite actor and includes interviews with his actress widow, Sheila Hancock, and their three daughters, Melanie, Abigail and Joanna. Sitting in the garden where the couple took their last walk before he died, Sheila reveals: "John often used to sit here and say: `We cracked it, kid - we cracked it!' It was very important to John, coming from the background he did, to have lovely things."
Ray re-visits Burnage to tell the story of how their mother left their father when John was just seven. Their Aunt Beattie describes those tough days and Sheila explains how John was damaged by his mother's departure. Although brought up in an all-male household, in later life John found himself surrounded by a family of females. Married for 30 years, Sheila said her husband learned to trust women again. "The great thing about our marriage was that he started off very suspicious and very defensive and very angry and all sorts of things. And I think he learned to love. Certainly, the last month of his life, he was the most loving man you could have. "And I think that was one of his biggest triumphs - that he was a boy who wasn't taught to love as a boy, but learned to love as an adult. I think that is a mega triumph."
Daughter Abigail describes a lighter side to her father, not often seen by his millions of fans. "He was terribly funny. That's the strongest memory that I have of him. He was a brilliant mimic, because he could do anybody instantly." Sheila says shy extrovert Thaw was close to his driver, dresser, stand-in and continuity girl - who he called The Scallywags. "John really needed people round him that he could trust. He didn't trust lots of people, to be perfectly honest. He was very suspicious."
Emotions have, of course, been close to the surface in the Thaw family home since his death. Sheila says: "Last night one of my daughters burnt a tart and was in tears, as we often are at the moment. And she said: `If only dad had been here - he'd have cracked a joke and it would have been all right. He would have made it OK.'" Sheila describes the last day of her husband's life as he refused to acknowledge the end was near. She was determined to look after him at home. "People kept saying alarming things that might happen, but I took the risk because I knew he'd want to be here, and he died here. That's what he would have wanted - this was what he worked for. "This was when he was himself. He wasn't Morse, he wasn't Sweeney, he wasn't any of the things that the public thought he was. He was a husband and a father and a man. And that's what he was when he died."
In the upcoming ITV special The John Thaw Story, actress Sheila Hancock pays a moving tribute to her husband. Speaking from the garden of their Wiltshire home, where the Inspector Morse star lost his battle with cancer of the oesophagus in February, and where his ashes are now scattered, Hancock remembers the couple's last walk in the grounds the night before he died. "We had a Lancashire Hot Pot, which he suddenly wanted, and then in the middle of the night I knew that things were going downhill," she explains. "We only had one slight weep together at one stage, but even then he didn't want to talk about it. We just hung on to one another. "He never moaned. He made it easy for everyone around him."
Thaw's daughters Joanna, Melanie and Abigail have each shared memories of their father for the show. Both Melanie and Abigail are actresses and have appeared at Manchester's Royal Exchange. Thaw's childhood has been recaptured by his Auntie Beattie and younger brother Ray, who now lives in Australia, but returned to Burnage, where the pair grew up, especially for the documentary. Co-stars Kevin Whateley, Sarah Lancashire, Dennis Waterman and Tom Courtenay have also added their own tributes to the screening, set to coincide with the service remembering John Thaw at St Martin-in-the-Fields church, London, on September 4.

The following story comes from the London Times - (Sept.5) TEARS AND LAUGHTER AS JOHN THAW IS PRAISED IN HIS FINAL ROLE - By Robin Young - Inspector Morse would have commended the organisation; the 800 family, friends and fans at the actor John Thaw’s memorial service yesterday commended the man. Admission to St Martin-in-the-Fields in London was by ticket only, seats were numbered, with orders of service in place - including places for medical staff who attended him and for 200 members of the public picked at random from thousands who had written letters during his illness and after his death. The Prince of Wales entered with the choir, taking his front-row seat one away from the Prime Minister’s wife, Cherie Booth, QC, probably the only QC as well known now as Thaw’s Kavanagh QC. And as Inspector Morse, Thaw’s even better known alter ego, would have wanted, there was Bach, Fauré and Beethoven led by the Medici Quartet. Some of the music was in special arrangement by Barrington Pheloung, music director of Morse. Staff from Carlton Television, for which Thaw did much of his work, acted as ushers. Among the stars were Anna Calder-Marshall, Frances Barber, Francesca Annis, Honor Blackman, James Bolam, Richard Wilson, Geraldine James, Maureen Lipman, Prunella Scales and Timothy West attended.
Thaw’s youngest daughter, Joanna, and Dinah Garrett were credited with organising the event. The influence of Thaw’s widow, the actress Sheila Hancock, was also evident. Richard Briers, a close family friend, recalled Thaw’s enthusiasm for barbecues, and his increasingly moody grunts as he tried petrol, paraffin and gin to light the charcoal. Sir Tom Courtenay remembered first meeting a 16-year-old Thaw in the canteen at RADA. Thaw was “wearing a grey sweater and a manner that did not invite conversation”, but Courtenay said he persisted beyond the actor’s grunts and was by his side when Thaw received his Bafta fellowship last year. Thaw’s daughter Abigail spoke of a trip to Barcelona that she and her sisters gave him as a gift for his 60th birthday this past January. The dates were changed when his cancer returned, but he did not live to take the trip.
The Rev Nicholas Holtam, the vicar of St Martin's, said that despite becoming one of the country's best loved actors, Thaw's ambition had been "to be good at what he did rather than be famous". Lord Attenborough said that Thaw, the son of a Manchester lorry driver, would be honoured by a bursary set up in his name at Rada, his old drama school, to help other students from poor backgrounds, revealing that Thaw had secretly provided 16 students with financial help to attend the famous drama school. "He was deeply modest - a man of courage and compassion, and totally committed to the profession which he served," said Lord Attenborough.
Sir Tom Courtenay said he introduced Thaw to classical music - a passion he shared with his alter ego, Morse - while they were sharing a student house while studying at Rada. Remembering a friend who loved to impersonate Arthur Mullard and talk as if he didn't have any teeth, Sir Tom recalled his first encounter with Thaw in the queue in the Rada canteen. "He was wearing a grey sweater and a manner that did not invite conversation," he said. "I was the only one in our class who dared speak to him. All I got for my pains the first time was a grunt. But something about him made me persist and we soon became friends."
Richard Briers, another acting friend, said he and Thaw discovered they shared a common loathing for Christmas festivities when the Brierses visited the Thaws on Boxing Day each year. Recalling one year when they retreated to the kitchen for a quiet gin and tonic, Briers said: "Sheila [Hancock] appeared at the door and said, 'I know you two don't like Christmas but don't spoil it for everyone else. Get upstairs and play charades'." "John and I shared a very great gift - we were both world-class whingers," he said.
While Thaw was famous for playing a succession of irascible curmudgeons, the main message from his friends was that he had a wicked sense of humour. Whately, who played Morse's long-suffering side-kick, Sgt Lewis, in the ITV series, recalled Thaw's love for running gags on set and his perfect ability to mimic those around him. He said that Thaw regularly burst into a rendition of The Sun Has Got His Hat On to lighten the atmosphere on set, often accompanying the tune with a tap dance. "Whenever I felt down and gloomy in the last few months since John died, I got a vision of his smile, an avuncular and benign smile, and that mischievous, wolfish grin," he said. "He had a great nose for the wind-up, sometimes affectionate, sometimes not."
Kevin Whately, the much put-upon Lewis to Thaw’s Morse, recalled his years alongside television’s biggest grump and workaholic. Whately said he remembered Thaw’s wolfish, mischievous grin. He also recalled the actor’s mocking imitation of television schedule planners discussing forthcoming plans for programmes with “that fat one, with white hair . . . that John Thaw”. After Thaw was appointed CBE, Whately related how he had a new line of attack on scripts too: “I can’t say this rubbish. I’m a Commander of the British Empire.” The congregation heard his last performance, as Captain Hook in a musical version of Peter Pan, in his “dying speech lest when dying there should not be time for it”. The theme tune to Inspector Morse played everyone out. Outside 60 balloons were released, one for each year of Thaw’s life. The Rev Nicholas Holtam said that the balloons were environment friendly. The organisers had thought of everything.

The following review of The John Thaw Story comes from the Manchester Guardian - (Sept.5) As Hercule Poirot noted, you can't libel the dead. There was no danger of that in The John Thaw Story (ITV1), a predictably deferential and affectionate appreciation of the actor best known as Jack Regan of the Flying Squad and Inspector Endeavour Morse. And yet this was no run-of-the-mill biography/ obituary/thespian love-in. Rather, it was a tender profile of Thaw, a man who genuinely seemed to deserve the adoration and accolades heaped upon him.
According to family, friends and colleagues, he had vulnerability, deep goodness, profound honesty and was without conceit. On top of all that, of course, he was an excellent popular actor. He seemed embarrassed by compliments, shy of publicity and indifferent to celebrity.
Thaw was painted as a great man, but not one without flaws. His first wife, Sally Alexander, described their marriage candidly, and his widow, Sheila Hancock, was frank in her discussion of his volatile moods as well as his sense of humour and of Thaw's desertion as a child by his mother and how it affected his other relationships with women.
The film itself was a little choppy and disjointed, but it felt like a square tribute to a decent man. As Hancock noted, 'In the last months of his life, he was the most loving man you could have. I think that was one of his greatest triumphs. He was a boy who wasn't taught to love as a boy, but he learned to love as an adult.'
DI Jack Regan would have found it a bit posh and Morse would certainly have hated the fuss. But neither of these iconic coppers, created by John Thaw in the course of his 35 year career, would have underestimated the depth of goodwill and the warmth of the sentiments expressed at the actor's memorial service yesterday.
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In going through some of my records regarding John Thaw I recently rediscovered a wonderful look back at his life that appeared through the UPI press service at the time of his passing. While most obituaries that appeared at the time did little more than give a recital of his most famous roles and performances, this article was unique in that it gave an in-depth look at John's appeal to viewers of all classes and cultures and his lasting impact on the world of acting through the gift of his talent that he left us. It was perhaps the best look at the man and his ability that I have ever read and I thought it appropriate that I reproduce it here in full for others to read as we all share in remembering John on this special day.

THE MAN WHO WAS INSPECTOR MORSE - By Martin Sieff, UPI Senior News Analyst, Published 3/1/2002 5:03 PM - WASHINGTON, March 1 (UPI) -- Inspector Morse has finally died without hope of a surprise revival. John Thaw, who portrayed the beloved, cultured and sensitive Oxford detective for 15 years, died of throat cancer last month at the age of 60. No actor or entertainer had done more over the past decade to represent the best qualities of English life in the global media. None was more popular or beloved in his own country. And yet Thaw's global triumph as "Inspector Morse," which won him the hearts of millions of Americans, was only the tip of his iceberg of achievement, and a highly misleading tip at that.
Almost none of the scores of millions of viewers worldwide who since the mid-1980s have faithfully followed Thaw's Morse in 200 countries knew, or could have imagined, that the actor who embodied English cultivation and culture for them was the working-class son of a long-distance truck driver. He left school at 16 with almost no qualifications and started his working life as a market porter. He never went to college or university and when he won a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1959 at the age of 17, he turned up dressed as a teddy boy, a trouble-seeking young street thug at the time. But Thaw entered British drama at a time it was going through one of the most extreme and fruitful creative revolutions in its history. Working-class and Northern regional underdogs were coming into dramatic fashion. Class barriers were being shattered, at least for the moment, and his obvious lack of cultivation and learning and tough, weather-beaten features, even as a youth, helped him to become a recognizable national actor while still in his 20s in the low-budgeted British Independent Television series "Redcap."
It was the launching point for what appeared at first to be a solid but unremarkable career until in 1973 he starred in a made-for-television movie that became one of the most successful and radically innovative television series in British history. The movie, like the series it spawned, was called "The Sweeney," London East End Cockney rhyming slang for the "Flying Squad," the elite commando unit of the London police. And Thaw's portrayal of the hero, Inspector Jack Regan, made him a national star. The series, which lasted from 1974 to 1977 and spawned two motion films, had obvious parallels with "Inspector Morse," but the contrasts were even more remarkable. Like Morse, Regan was an unmarried police inspector fighting crime who loved his pint of beer and was often unlucky in romance and at odds with his superiors. But in contrast to Morse, Regan was a young and virile, hard-swearing, foul-talking, street-smart thug of a hero. Intensely physical, the fight scenes he was involved in were the most realistic and intense ever displayed on national television in Britain, and far more so than American network television has ever had the imagination, the nerve or the sheer talent to reproduce.
The shoot-outs and chases in "The Sweeney" were spectacular, too. No TV or movie car chase since Steve McQueen's famous San Francisco one in "Bullitt" was ever as wild or nail-biting. Jack Regan, also like Endeavor Morse, drove Jaguars, but where Morse was a famously nervous and cautious driver, the younger Thaw as Regan was a hell-raising, daring and fearless one. And in their shoot-outs, the police and criminals alike did not use U.S. police regulation .38s or even Clint Eastwood's famous "Dirty Harry" .357 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world," but far more devastating sawn-off double-barreled shotguns. "The Sweeney" was Britain's answer to its American police procedural series contemporaries "Starsky and Hutch" and "Kojak," but it was far more realistic than either, especially in its grim, unyieldingly unsentimental vision of the way two generations of welfare system undermining of the family structure and disastrously permissive education and criminal prosecution policies had created a hideous new social underworld in London's vast working-class suburbs. In this, it preceded NBC's justly acclaimed "Hill Street Blues" by nearly a decade. It was also an amazingly conservative and unsentimental show. The contrast between good and evil was very clearly, even starkly defined and individual moral responsibility, not some amorphous, anonymous "system," was seen as the crucial deciding factor of fate in almost every episode. It was the most popular drama series in Britain and its popularity may well have reflected the growing wave of public revulsion from the bankrupt social and economic policies of the previous quarter-century that would lead to the Thatcher revolution in the 1980s.
The transition from "The Sweeney" to "Morse" eerily paralleled Thaw's own life and the achievements of the working-class "cultural revolution" of the late 1950s and '60s of which he was a part. Thaw grew in person into the sophisticated, cultured figure he played publicly as Morse. After an early brief marriage, he found lasting happiness with the talented British comedienne Sheila Hancock. When they met, she was far more famous than he was. Their marriage endured 29 years until his death. They had three daughters, one together, one from Thaw's first marriage and one from Hancock's. They both proved adept at playing stage Shakespearean roles. He was a huge success as "Sir Toby Belch" in "Twelfth Night" during a stand-out season with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Thaw looked tough and mature even when first playing Jack Regan in his early 30s. By the time he first played mystery author Colin Dexter's "Morse" in his mid-40s, he had a face that looked as if it was carved from the rocky slopes of the Pennine Mountains outside his native Manchester. He had already become Britain's version of Mount Rushmore.
All his life, he was associated with television productions of the highest technical quality, a striking contrast to the miserable, non-filmed taped television that still marks so much even so-called prestigious television work. His achievements were also triumphs of the free market. Both "The Sweeney" and "Morse" were productions of independent television companies, not of the state-supported British Broadcasting Corp., whose dramatic output is both critically and commercially far less successful. But for all the talents of Dexter and the Carlton Television team that produced the 33 "Morse" films and serials from 1985 to 2000, it would all have been for nothing without Thaw. "Morse" in the books is an engaging but hardly original or profound creation. Virtually all fictional detectives drink beer, clash with their superiors or are exceptionally soulful and sensitive. The Morse character was in no way original, and the characters and the mysteries he solved were not in themselves notable either. It was Thaw's unique personal combination of rugged toughness and wisdom combined with a brilliant mind and an almost excruciatingly unbearable sensitivity that makes the character so convincing and the shows so riveting. So charismatic is Thaw, and so compulsive his performance that as viewers we pay no attention to the utterly ludicrous, unrealistic and bizarrely fantastic creaking workings of the arcane, archaic and convoluted plots. Their true purpose is only to serve as an excuse to follow Morse.
Dexter was fully appreciative of what Thaw was doing for him and his character and the later Morse novels are striking for the way in which their eponymous hero has evolved to conform with the way Thaw played him. Only Sir Alec Guinness playing John le Carre's veteran spymaster George Smiley has had a similar effect in actually influencing the way the character's own literary creator saw and shaped him. It was a tribute to Thaw's intelligence and superb acting skills that someone who never made it past the British equivalent of 10th grade should be so convincing as a former student of Oxford University. Like Sir Michael Caine, Sir Sean Connery and Albert Finney, Thaw came from the most humble and physically impoverished personal background without any advantage of higher education. And like them, he started out as a revolutionary upstart shaking up British theater and drama who over the decades grew to become one of its finest gems. His work looks certain to endure for decades and even generations to come even after he himself is sadly gone. - Copyright © 2002 United Press International

The following look back at John's life comes from The London Times - John Thaw rose to become one of Britain’s favourite actors from an unpromising working-class background and with few physical advantages. He was a shortish, stocky man whose craggy face and prematurely greying hair made him look years older than he was and despite the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s best efforts he never quite lost his flat northern vowels.
His greatest triumph was one of the least likely, playing the donnish, opera-loving, real-ale drinking Inspector Morse in the Oxford-based television whodunnits which drew enormous audiences in the 1980s and 1990s. It was a bold, even contrary, piece of casting, for hitherto Thaw’s most famous role had been the uncouth Flying Squad detective in The Sweeney.
Although he was not an actor of great range, Thaw managed never to get himself typecast and the success of Morse did not overshadow other popular roles, such as the barrister in Kavanagh, QC. Thaw was also a considerable stage actor, as he demonstrated playing the embattled Labour Party leader in David Hare’s Absence of War. It was the theatre’s loss that he did not spend more time there, though he admitted that he could find stage work boring.
Thaw was a dedicated, fastidious actor, much liked and respected in the profession, and something of a workaholic. Away from the screen he tried to live quietly and inconspicuously, although the instant recognition that came from starring in so many high-profile television roles often made this impossible. He was proud of his success but did not enjoy fame. Like Morse, he enjoyed classical music and poetry.
His origins gave no hint of things to come. He was born in Manchester during the Second World War. His father, a miner who became a lorry driver, was left to bring up the family after Thaw’s mother abandoned him for another man when Thaw was seven. The boy left his technical high school at 16 with a single O level, in English. The lack of educational achievement, coupled with his unsettled childhood, gave him a sense of insecurity which persisted long after he became one of the highest paid performers on British television. Despite his wealth he remained committed to socialist principles and refused to exploit his fame by doing advertisements.
After school he worked briefly as a market porter and apprentice baker before moving to London in the hope of becoming an actor. Although under age, he was accepted by the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where his fellow students included Tom Courtenay and Sarah Miles. He lost some, but not all, of his Manchester accent and made such progress that he soon got a part as a young policeman in the recently launched Z Cars. He also picked up theatre work at the Royal Court and in the West End and by 22 had his first television lead, as a military policeman in the ITV drama Redcap.
In the 1960s, too, he supported Michael Caine in The Other Man, a two-and-a-half-hour television play by Giles Cooper which imagined that Britain had made peace with Hitler and was a Nazi satellite. There was more theatre before in 1974 he took his first stab at situation comedy in Thick As Thieves. The series, in which Thaw played a criminal living with another villain’s wife, had only a short run but he was in distinguished company. His co-star was Bob Hoskins and the writers were Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais.
The Sweeney, which started in 1975 and ran for more than 50 episodes, made Thaw, still in his early thirties, a television star. With Dennis Waterman as his underling, George Carter, and sporting the kipper ties and flared trousers fashionable in the period, Thaw’s Jack Regan was a cop for whom the ends justified the means. In a brutal series leavened by shafts of mordant wit, Regan often behaved as badly as the villains he was chasing. It was as much a landmark in police drama as Z Cars in the previous decade. When The Sweeney finished Thaw returned to the theatre, appearing in a revival of John Arden’s Serjeant’s Musgrave Dance at the National and joining the Royal Shakespeare Company for the 1983 season at Stratford, where he played Toby Belch in Twelfth Night and Cardinal Wolsey in King Henry VIII.
In 1985 he embarked on another sitcom, Home to Roost, as a grumpy divorcé whose children come to live with him. It ran for five seasons. Meanwhile, Thaw had established himself as the equally morose Morse, forever castigating his affable assistant, Sergeant Lewis, as he solved murder cases of serpentine complexity in agreeable Oxfordshire surroundings. Despite a slow pace and involved plotting, the two-hour show ran on and off for 14 years and the revelation towards the end of the run of Morse’s first name, Endeavour, made national news. Morse did not preclude Thaw from other work and in 1991 he starred in an adaptation of Kingsley Amis’s comic novel, Stanley and the Women.
Not everything Thaw touched turned to gold. The BBC series, A Year in Provence (1993), was a critical and ratings disaster, with Thaw unhappily cast as Peter Mayle, the advertising man who leaves the rat race to live in rural France. But it did him no harm, especially as he had other and better work around at the same time, including Absence of War which started at the National Theatre and was later adapted for television, and a powerful TV rendering of the controversial wartime figure, Arthur “Bomber” Harris. In 1993 he was appointed CBE.
Morse was still solving murders when Thaw was launched on Kavanagh QC, playing a bluff northern barrister, based in London, whose cases tended to have an unexpected twist at the end. It was a polished series, which, like Morse, attracted quality writers, and it mixed the cut and thrust of courtroom drama with sub-plots turning on intrigues in chambers and Kavanagh’s family life. The Kavanagh series ran until 1999 and the following year Thaw played Morse for the last time, in an episode where the character dies of a heart attack. It was watched by 13 million people. Thaw had moved on to play a crusty widower who befriends a young wartime evacuee in a sentimental TV film, Goodnight Mr Tom. He repeated the formula in Buried Treasure, as another gruff widower this time trying to cope with an eight-year-old granddaughter.
An ITV series Plastic Man, which saw him as a surgeon having an adulterous affair, made less impact, as did the curiously flat Monsignor Renard, in which he played a Roman Catholic priest working for the French Resistance. His last major television project saw him as the boss of a double-glazing firm in The Glass. He was teamed with Sarah Lancashire but two of television’s most popular names failed to lift a trite series. Thaw’s cinema films were spasmodic but he had a leading role in The Grass is Singing, from the Doris Lessing novel, and telling cameos in Richard Attenborough’s Cry Freedom and Chaplin. He also appeared in two spin-off Sweeney films and played a redundant former union official who becomes a house husband to Glenda Jackson in Business As Usual.
In 2001 Thaw was awarded a fellowship by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, having previously won two Baftas for his portrayal of Morse. A few weeks later Thaw, who had been a heavy smoker for 40 years, announced through his agent that he had cancer of the oesophagus, the passage from the throat to the stomach. But he added that he hoped to get back to work as soon as treatment was completed.
Thaw’s first marriage, to Sally Alexander, later a history professor at University College London, was dissolved after four years. In 1973 he married the actress Sheila Hancock, a union which survived well-publicised difficulties including a six-month separation after she had breast cancer diagnosed. He had a daughter from each marriage and formally adopted Hancock’s daughter from her first marriage. His wife and children, all three of whom are actresses, survive him.

And finally we have these thoughts from Scottish actor and fellow RADA student Michael Sheard - JOHN & BARRY - I'd like to say a few words about a couple of chums who have recently left us for that big studio in the sky, John Thaw and Barry Foster. And I want to keep it as happy as I can, I'm sure they'd want it that way. There have in fact been a goodly number of thesps who've left us these last couple of years - Shelagh Fraser, Pat Coombs, Jack Watling, Anthony Steele, Kenneth Connor. These, and I'm afraid lots of others, were grand people and my friends. But John and Barry were particular mates and aside from anything, they've only recently trotted along.
OK, it must be said. I think we all smoked in those far off days at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. I stopped when my daughter said, 'Dad, if I can do all the study necessary to become a doctor, you can give up smoking', but for as long as I knew John, and that's a hell of a long time, he did smoke heavily. But what a professional, what a friend and what an actor.
We at RADA were all, I admit, rather jealous when John landed the lead part in a filmed series called 'Redcap' before we'd even completed the RADA course! The rest, as they say, is history. I'm delighted to report that John and I filmed together several times - in 'Special Branch' and 'The Sweeney' for example and I remember missing a 'Rumpole of the Bailey', which of course didn't give him the leading role, but the 'guest' part. Hey, and I've just recalled another, 'Black Beauty'! John was the baddie, I was the copper. John should have been knighted for his contribution to our glorious profession. Perhaps his departure to that big studio in the sky I'm always talking about came a wee bit too early. Of course it did.
From the John Thaw Fan's Site at http://johnthaw.topcities.com/johnthaw.html