Sheila Hancock - IMDb IMDb Actress | Producer Sheila Hancock was born February 22, 1933. on the Isle of Wight. She later moved to King's Cross in London, where her mother and father ran a pub. Sheila went to Dartford Grammar School, and then with a grant she went to RADA. She then went into nine years of weekly repertory around the country. While in repertory in Bath she met actor Alec Ross , ... See full bio » Born: a list of 130 people created 20 Nov 2010 a list of 940 people created 22 Jan 2012 a list of 142 people created 24 Jun 2013 a list of 13 people created 26 Dec 2015 a list of 2190 people created 2 months ago Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Sheila Hancock's work have you seen?

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forgettable: The Sweeney (TV Movie documentary) Herself - Actress and John Thaw's Wife 2012 The Story of Musicals (TV Series documentary) Herself 2012 The Unforgettable John Thaw (TV Movie documentary) Herself - John's Second Wife 2008-2011 The One Show (TV Series) Herself - Guest 2011 In Confidence (TV Series documentary) Herself 2010 A History of the World (TV Series documentary) Herself - Presenter 2010 The British Academy Television Awards (TV Movie documentary) Herself 2010 Over the Rainbow (TV Series) Herself - Judge 2010 Dear Diary (TV Series documentary) Herself 2009 Pinter's Progress (TV Movie documentary) Herself 2009 Fern Britton Meets...

(TV Series) Herself 2008 Evacuees Reunited (TV Series documentary) Herself - Interviewee 2006-2008 Grumpy Old Women (TV Series documentary) Herself 2007 There's Something About... Morse (TV Movie documentary) Herself 2006 Grumpy Old Holidays (TV Series documentary) Herself 2004-2006 Richard & Judy (TV Series) Herself 2005 Watchdog (TV Series documentary) Herself 2005 Jeremy Vine Meets...

(TV Series documentary) Herself 2004 Grumpy Old Women at Christmas (TV Movie documentary) Herself 2002-2004 Breakfast with Frost (TV Series) Herself 2004 This Morning (TV Series) Herself 2002 The John Thaw Story (TV Special documentary) Herself 2001 Live Talk (TV Series documentary) Herself - Presenter 1999 Call My Bluff (TV Series) Herself 1998 Reputations (TV Series documentary) Herself 1982 Playing Shakespeare (TV Mini-Series documentary) Herself 1981 The Theatre Quiz (TV Series) Herself - Panellist - Episode #1.1 (1981) ...

Herself - Panellist 1981 Omnibus (TV Series documentary) Herself 1977-1981 This Is Your Life (TV Series documentary) Herself 1974 The Book Programme (TV Series documentary) Herself 1970 Call My Bluff (TV Series) Herself 1969 Just a Minute (TV Movie) Herself 1968 Dee Time (TV Series) Herself 1966 Late Show London (TV Series) Herself 1962-1965 Juke Box Jury (TV Series) Herself - Panellist - Episode #1.11 (1963) ... Herself - Guest Hide 2013 Doctor Who: The Doctors Revisited (TV Mini-Series documentary) Helen A - The Seventh Doctor (2013) ...

Helen A (uncredited) 2010 Newsnight (TV Series) 2007 Timeshift (TV Series documentary) Herself - Storyteller, Jackanory 2007 The Music of Morse (TV Movie documentary) Herself (uncredited) 1994 The World of Hammer (TV Series documentary) Karen Taggart Personal Details Other Works: Radio: Was a regular panel member on the BBC Radio game show "Just a Minute". See more » Publicity Listings: 2 Print Biographies | 8 Interviews | 2 Magazine Cover Photos | See more » Height: Did You Know? Personal Quote: I know how to build a block of flats. I have watched them for hours building the foundations. I've watched bricks being laid, like Lego. I've seen workers sacked. There is always something to engross you in life. See more » Trivia: She is a breast cancer survivor. Her first husband, actor Alec Ross , died of cancer in 1971 and her second husband, actor John Thaw , died of esophageal cancer in 2002. She has been a spokesperson for Cancer BACUP.

See more » Star Sign: John Thaw - Biography - IMDb John Thaw Jump to: Overview (4) | Mini Bio (1) | Spouse (2) | Trivia (20) | Personal Quotes (17) Overview (4) 5' 7½" (1.71 m) Mini Bio (1) He was the working class boy from Manchester whose intensity and natural honesty made him British television's most bankable actor. He studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His first starring role on TV was as Sgt John Mann in Redcap (1964). His first great success, though, was as Detective Inspector Regan in The Sweeney (1975). Violent and uncompromising, the series changed the portrayal of police work on British television and was one of the defining dramas of the 1970s. For Inspector Morse (1987), Thaw was yet again cast as a policeman, but this time a more cultured character than Regan. The leisurely-paced series, set in beautiful Oxfordshire, was Thaw's most popular and long-running project.

It established him as British television's most bankable actor, and during the 1990s he had many other starring vehicles. He was also a favourite of film director Richard Attenborough , who cast him in Cry Freedom (1987) and Chaplin (1992). John Thaw was a quiet, private man. His marriage to actress Sheila Hancock was generally regarded as one of the strongest in showbusiness. When he died at the age of 60, the BBC website was inundated with tributes from the viewing public. His "Inspector Morse" co-star Kevin Whately simply described him as the country's finest screen actor. - IMDb Mini Biography By: Anonymous Spouse (2) ( 27 June 1964 - 1968) (divorced) (1 child) Trivia (20) Winner of 2 BAFTA awards for Best TV Actor in "Inspector Morse" (1989 and 1992) and nominee for the same series in 1990 & 1991.

He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1993 Queen's New Year Honours List for his services to drama. Treated for cancer of the oesophagus. His wife, Sheila Hancock, is a breast cancer survivor. [June 2001] Broke his foot in his teens when he tripped while running for a school bus. This left him with a slight limp that is noticeable in some scenes of the Inspector Morse series. Married Sheila Hancock on 24 December 1973 in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. When he married Hancock he decided to officially adopt her daughter Melanie, from her first marriage to Alec Ross, which is why she bears Thaw's surname. He performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His favourite episodes of "Inspector Morse" (1987) were "The Dead of Jericho", "Masonic Mysteries" and "Promised Land". He performed with the National Theatre. He lived quietly in an 18th century manor house in Wiltshire, England.

His most famous roles on British TV were all as straight-talking, no-nonsense characters: Jack Regan, Inspector Morse and James Kavanagh. Father of actress Abigail Thaw , born 1967, (with first wife Sally Alexander ) and Joanna Thaw , born 1974, (with second wife Sheila Hancock ), and adopted father of Melanie Thaw . Thaw was a fan of classical music ever since he was a young man. Younger brother, Ray, was born November 15, 1944. He died in 2004. His mother Dorothy (Dolly) walked out on the family when he was 7 years old. He did not see her again for 12 years when she showed up briefly back stage in a production of "The Fire Raisers." He never saw her again. She died of stomach cancer in 1974. Began at age 11 performing in school plays. In one of them he appeared as Mistress Quickly in "Henry V." Was Laurence Olivier 's understudy in the stage production of "Semi-Detached" and later stepped into the part for a week due to Olivier's problem with gout.

His first stage role was at Green End Junior School in Manchester, England as Uncle Joseph, the leading part in "Where the Rainbow Ends" (1953). Was accepted by RADA in 1958 when he was two years underage. Thaw was told to say he was 19 if anyone asked. Started smoking when he was twelve. Personal Quotes (17) I didn't want the television Morse to end like Frank Sinatra - doing an endless series of farewell concerts. I get to work with some of the finest actors around. I was born looking fifty. When I first met her, I had no idea I was looking for a wife. I was just extremely attracted to her. Now, all these years later, I see how lucky I was to have found her because it's difficult to imagine life with anyone else. Maybe it's the years of rubbing together, we do have the same outlook on life - on politics, ideals, morals. We're very similar people in all sorts of ways and we're very close. We're certainly best friends. - on his wife, Sheila Hancock I was going to say that Sheila and Sally are not at all alike -- except they're both extremely intelligent women.

When I met Sheila I wasn't consciously looking for anything in particular. I was just very attracted to her. Who knows why people fall in love? All I know is that I'm a very lucky man. I suppose I learned about being a father from my own dad. I learned that even when your children are grown up -- as mine are now -- you don't stop being a father. He was still my dad until the day he died last year. I still miss him every day. I realise that I'm one of the lucky ones. Talent has very little to do with it really. There are lots of talented actors around without work, simply because at any one time, there are only jobs for about twenty per cent of them. That's one reason why I'm happy to be doing a series. It's bad enough for an actor, but actresses have a hell of a time. There are more of them for a start, and far fewer parts to go round. I've seen too much of what it can do to girls to want my daughter to be any part of it. People always say how difficult it is for two actors to live together, and in many ways it is.

But at least we can share the problems and understand the pressures and the demands it makes on you. My first wife was nothing to do with the profession and I think it was difficult for her to understand when I came home shattered at the end of a day's filming or rehearsing. It's hard to explain to someone who doesn't actually know what it's like. I go to a lot of Police functions and I have some close friends who are policemen. Mind you, they do have their criticisms from time to time. A Flying Squad officer said to me once, 'Sometimes it takes us three days to get a man to admit his own name, whereas you solve a case in sixty minutes.' But generally they're pleased. They like The Sweeney because it shows dilemmas and problems that a policeman has to face - just as a man, not only as a policeman. I treasure my life with my wife and children, and my health. If you ain't got your health, you ain't got anything. There are times when you think your career is the most important thing in the world but you move on. My career has always been important to me and still is. But less important than is used to be.

Your learn that at the end of the day, there are more important things in life, such as the people you love. Sheila and I have had our ups and downs. But the thing that keeps us together apart from the fact we love each other, is having the same sense of humour and out look on like, the same beliefs about what is important, what's right and wrong. If you fundamentally disagree, then when the initial romance goes, you've nothing to replace it with. You've got to have a solid foundation and mutual respect. I like Sheila, I respect her, and I know its vice-versa. That's what kept us together. We don't live in each others pockets. Sheila sometimes goes to the theatre with friends because I am working, and I go to things that would bore her. So in that sense we are not always together. Smoking and drinking is a mugs game. I used to do both, but I've not yet managed to kick the smoking. You would be surprised how many people don't drink now. It has become the 'in' thing to kick alcohol. I decided boozing wasn't good for me and particularly some mornings if you had too much the night before.

The only answer is if you don't want to fell like that, don't do it. Now I feel good. I wake up fresh and stay fresh till the end of the day. [on the death of Inspector Morse]: All good things come to an end. I am proud to have done it. When I saw him (Morse) dead I had a mental flashback of the fifteen years that we had been doing it. All the stories, all the various locations and the different actors and it all ends with a dead human being in the morgue. But in a way I think it is a good thing he died rather than driving off into the Oxford sunset. Supposing he had just retired and gone to live in Lyme Regis. In a couple of years ITV would have said, 'Do one more and we'll set it in Lyme Regis', and trouble is I probably would have been tempted. At my stage in the game, there are lots of parts you can't play because you're just too old, so you accept that. I'm getting to the point where I have done it now. I've earned my spurs. I'm not fighting anymore.

I just enjoy what I have and what is around and whatever work I do and whoever I meet. I just enjoy the moment. (2001) Of course I'd get worried if the scripts stopped coming through the letter box. But I haven't been in that position for a long time now. I was once told I wouldn't come into my own until I my forties - and it has been quite true. But it was a daunting at the time. I was about seventeen or eighteen and I thought I'd have to survive for twenty years before I started making a living. But then, at twenty-two I was in my first TV series Redcap. My name was above the title. I thought whoever said about me waiting until I was forty was wrong. Then at twenty-six I was out of work for those nine months and it all came back. At various times in my life I've been a heavy drinker, there's no question about that. But I hasten to add, it has never affected my work. I never drank while I was working, although afterwards - particularly when I was doing The Sweeney with Dennis Waterman - I'd go into the pub and have a few drinks. But I'm getting too old for it now.

I'd wake up in the morning feeling bad. When you're younger you can shrug it off. A lot of my friends have given it up. It's become the thing to do. I read about Anthony Hopkins giving it up and saying he'd never felt better in his life. All these guys - Peter O'Toole 's another - have given it up. They were all preaching that it was good and that you felt better so, truthfully, I thought I'd give it a go myself. I'd see what it was like. I found it was so easy to do - like giving up sugar in tea. I remember once giving up sugar years ago, and although at first I thought I'd never do it, from that day to this I've never had any sugar in tea or coffee. [on A Year in Provence (1993)]: I had a disaster with that, but we're all allowed one. I was saddened because we all worked hard and hoped it would be enjoyed. It was enjoyed - but only by five people. I've had that upset, but I've still been given other work.

See also Sheila Hancock on husband John Thaw: After his death I became incredibly selfish, self-centred and vile - Mirror Online Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email After all she’s been through, there aren’t many things that can knock 80-year-old actress Sheila Hancock sideways. But something did the night before we met. Sheila is hobbling after a road accident in which another driver came out of nowhere and hurtled into the driver’s side of her beloved Jaguar. “For the first time in my life, I’m aware of how it feels to be old,” she laughs, before wincing in pain. “I’ve been extremely lucky as I’ve never had any physical problems associated with being my age, but suddenly it hurts every time I move. "I can’t bend down. I can’t turn around. I honestly don’t know how people cope with it.” Yet while she may have been lucky to avoid the aches of old age, there’s a pain deep in her heart that’ll never go away. But Sheila has found in a more positive way to deal with losing her husband John Thaw 11 years ago.

John, whose most famous character Inspector Morse was ?also a Jaguar driver, was just 60 when oesophagael cancer took him. “When you lose someone you have two choices,” Sheila says. “You can stay stuck where you are or you can say, ‘I am now on my own, my life has changed and I need to change the way I operate’. "I went through a period where I realised that I was on my own, but didn’t quite settle for it because I was so used to living through John. “It’s quite difficult to suddenly say, ‘Oh, I can do that and nobody is going to stop me’. "Or ‘I could leave now and go away somewhere – anywhere I wanted to go.’ "I’d spent so much of my life considering other people – my children, my first husband (actor Alec Ross) and then John, that it was extremely difficult to let that go.” Beautiful moment: Sheila with baby Melanie Jane Ross and first husband Alec Ross (Photo: Daily Mirror) The fact that Sheila also lost Alec to cancer of the oesophagus, in 1971, didn’t make grieving for John any easier.

In the months after John’s death, Sheila turned to her children – Ellie, from her marriage to Alec, Joanna, her and John’s daughter, and Abigail, John’s child from his first marriage, to academic Sally ­Alexander. But, looking back, Sheila feels she might have relied on them too much. “I was so distraught that I really thought they should be looking after me,” she admits. “And I had no right to rely on them so much. "I became incredibly selfish, self-centred and vile, oblivious to the fact they had their own lives with their own children and careers to worry about.” She adds: “They didn’t need some wretched woman crying, ‘I’m all on my own, why don’t you come round? Why do you never phone me?’ “When you’ve been bereaved, you expect other people to rescue you, but I’m afraid they can’t – it’s down to you. "I suddenly realised that I was being outrageous and had to get on with things by myself.” Sheila channelled her grief into bestselling books, The Two of Us, about her life with John, and sequel Just Me, which described her adjustment to life alone, using her diaries.

Now she’s revealed she has burned the heart-rending journals to save her family the suffering she went through. “Thankfully I live on my own more enthusiastically now,” she says. “I like being on my own, but at times when I don’t, I’ll phone a friend or the grandchildren.” Another nipper: Sheila with John and baby Joanna Suzy (Photo: Getty) It seems that her eight grandchildren are a great source of comfort for Sheila. “I wish I could say I was wise and clever, but I’m really not,” she says. “I’m not certain of anything. "I’m always saying to my grandchildren, ‘don’t do like Nana does…’ because I’m always changing my mind. I’m like a two-year-old who can be easily swayed. "Someone could persuade me that black was white if they presented a good enough argument.” And that’s what she misses most about John – sitting in front of the TV together, mulling over the rubbish that’s on, or listening to a talk show on the radio. “We used to have a lovely little rampage,” she remembers fondly.

“We were very in tune with one another so if there was a politician on the radio who we disagreed with, we’d say in no uncertain terms what we thought of him. ‘What the f*** is he talking about?’ John would scream. “And I’d be shouting, ‘He’s talking rubbish – this is crazy.’ It’s not so much fun having no one to share that with. “I also miss not being able to talk to him when things go wrong. If I was rehearsing and got stuck, I would go home and say, ‘I can’t f****** do this part’. "And he’d say, ‘Calm down. You’ve been there before, you can do this’. "I miss that – the absolute knowledge that he would either agree with me or convince me that I was wrong. I really trusted his judgment. Even though he was younger than me, he was very shrewd.” An attractive woman with the energy of someone half her age (when she hasn’t just had a car crash), surely it wouldn’t be too difficult to find a new companion to share her life with? “If I could find a ­fabulously tolerant, rich, brilliant, intelligent, funny man, who’s as sexy as John, then maybe yes.

But I’ve not had a sniff of it so far! "I've been out with a couple of guys and my barometer is whether I can get through the date without thinking, ‘Have I turned my electric blanket on?’ Which I invariably do! “I can’t be bothered to play the games. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have found two soulmates. Some people don’t ever find one, so I’ve been blessed. But it was a long and arduous trip with both and I haven’t got the energy to go through all that again.” Not even when she knows how good it can be? “What John and I had was meant to be,” she says. “Once we found one another, neither of us could be without each other. We were obsessed and sometimes it was awful, absolutely ghastly, and I’d try to get rid of him or he’d try to get rid of me, but we just couldn’t. “From the outside, people probably thought it was a bad relationship. I’ve made the same mistake, saying about other people, ‘She’d be better off without him’. "But actually no she wouldn’t, because that’s the way she operates.

It was stupid really but it was just meant to be and no one else could possibly measure up.” While John may no longer be by her side, Sheila’s life is full. She enjoys lunches with friends, concerts and trips to the house she shared with him in France. No let-up: Sheila still treads the boards (Photo: Rex) And she’s still working as hard as ever, treading the boards eight times a week opposite Lee Evans in new play Barking in Essex. Where does she find the energy? “I just can’t say no to anything,” Sheila says. “But funnily enough, while I’ve been doing this play, I have begun to think that maybe it’s time to do something different! “I’m not sure I’ve not had enough of the discipline of theatre, of having to look after my voice. I have spent a lot of my life working every night, and I’m not knocking it as it’s made me very happy, but I think I’ve got to an age where I’d like to do other things. “I love the freedom of writing, presenting documentaries and keeping fit. There’s so much more to do. I could even run a ­marathon… well, perhaps not.

But then again, if I trained maybe. Who knows?” In the meantime, there’s a show to put on and even by her own admission, this latest venture isn’t without its perils. “Barking in Essex is without doubt the biggest risk I’ve taken in my career,” she says. “I play a character who has no redeeming characteristics and uses the most obscene language. "I’m glad I’m doing it because it’s a ­challenge, but I’m aware it could go hideously wrong and we’ll fall on our faces.” But what a swan song. Getting to see the normally regal Sheila swearing like a trooper with no moral compass must be worth the cost of a ticket. “I could never say I won’t come back to the theatre, but I’ll probably just keep refusing more and more work,” says Sheila. And at 80 years old, she’s earned the right. After all that she’s been through I wonder what she’s learnt most about herself. “There are no big lessons,” she says. “I just learnt I could survive.

That’s all.” Video Loading Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8Cancel Play now Sheila Hancock admits that she begged dying husband John Thaw not to leave her | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV | Daily Express CELEBRITY NEWS Sheila Hancock admits that she begged dying husband John Thaw not to leave her ACTRESS Sheila Hancock has revealed that she begged her late husband John Thaw not to go when he was dying of cancer. 14:49, Tue, Mar 26, 2013 Sheila Hancock has admitted that she begged John Thaw not to leave her (WENN) The 80-year-old star lost her husband of 28 years back in 2002, and has compared their romance to that of Cathy’s and Heathcliff’s in Emily Bronte’s ‘Wuthering Heights.’ “Emily writes extraordinarily about the depth of Cathy and Heathcliff’s desperation, with him actually grabbing her body as she’s dying to try to stop her going, as it were,” Hancock explained during an interview with Radio Times. “Well, anyone who’s watched somebody die, that’s just what you want to do. I did.

‘Don’t go, don’t you dare go!’ She puts into words something I totally understand.” The pair were married for 28 years before Thaw's death in 2002 (ITV) If you have ever known that obsessive love, which sometimes makes it difficult to be together but impossible to be apart, you can identify with the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff. Sheila Hancock Hancock has gradually learned to live without the late actor over the past decade, but believes that she was meant to be with him. “If you have ever known that obsessive love, which sometimes makes it difficult to be together but impossible to be apart, you can identify with the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff,” she said. Hancock has gone on to make a film about the life of Bronte and her sisters, Charlotte and Anne, who were also writers. The full interview with Sheila Hancock can be seen in the latest issue of the Radio Times.

Most read in TV & Radio I begged my dying husband not to leave me, says Sheila Hancock - Telegraph Celebrity news I begged my dying husband not to leave me, says Sheila Hancock Sheila Hancock has spoken of the “obsessive love” she felt for her husband, John Thaw, and the desperation she felt in watching him die as she begged him not to leave her. Sheila Hancock begged John Thaw not to leave her Photo: MARTIN POPE Follow The actress said her 28-year marriage to Thaw was so strong that it was impossible to imagine being with anyone else and that neither had ever been tempted to stray. She compared their connection to that between the lead characters in Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, who could not bear to be apart, and said she could empathise with Heathcliff’s pain as he watched Cathy die. John Thaw and wife Sheila Hancock at Downing St in 1997 “Emily writes extraordinarily about the depth of Cathy and Heathcliff’s desperation, with him actually grabbing her body as she’s dying to try to stop her going, as it were,” she told Radio Times. “Well, anyone who’s watched somebody die, that’s just what you want to do. I did.

‘Don’t go, don’t you dare go!’ She puts into words something I totally understand.” Related Articles The consummate actor who caught our imagination 22 Feb 2002 Hancock, 80, said she believed there were certain people you were meant to be with and that once you had found that person, it was impossible to imagine life without them. “If you have ever known that obsessive love, which sometimes makes it difficult to be together but impossible to be apart, you can identify with the relationship between Cathy and Heathcliff,” she added. Thaw, the actor famed for his roles in Inspector Morse and The Sweeney, died of oesophageal cancer in February 2002, aged 60. Hancock admitted that after years of pain, she had gradually learned to live without him. It was her fascination with Emily, Charlotte and Anne Bronte, and their acclaimed writing, that prompted the actress to make a film about their lives for ITV’s Perspectives. She suggested that all three sisters covered subjects that Jane Austen never broached, but admitted that she had always been “snotty” about Austen.

Hancock began her acting career in the theatre and appeared in various plays with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). In the 1980s, she ran the RSC’s touring company, which included a young Daniel Day-Lewis. She revealed that the actor, who won the best actor Oscar for a record third time last month for his role in Lincoln, did not think he was “beautiful” enough to play the lead role in Romeo and Juliet in 1983 and consequently found the role difficult. The actress tried her utmost to convince him of his physical charms but to no avail. She said: “I could tell him until I was blue in the face that he was the sexiest creature on God’s earth, which he was, but he didn’t think he was.” BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Charles joins Thaw memorial Wednesday, 4 September, 2002, 14:12 GMT 15:12 UK Charles joins Thaw memorial Cherie Booth joined Thaw's widow Sheila Hancock The Prince of Wales, Lord Attenborough, Tom Courtney and Maureen Lipman were among 800 guests to attend a memorial service for actor John Thaw in London on Wednesday.

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 actor, who died of cancer in February this year. Prince Charles, speaking to the Reverend Nicholas Holtam 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. 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." 'Affection' 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.

Kevin Whately, who played Sgt Lewis in Inspector Morse, attended 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'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. Six-year-old Welsh fan Nadine Roderick attended after writing to Hancock The church was festooned with flowers and with a portrait of the star placed in front of the altar with a border of blooms.

Sheila Hancock organised the service with the couple's daughter Joanne and the children from their earlier marriages, Melanie-Jane and Abigail. Thaw was one of the best-loved TV actors of his generation, and his death from cancer of the oesophagus prompted tributes from across the acting and TV profession. A bursary at Rada - where Thaw trained - has now been launched in his name. Affection The actor is still held in affectionate regard for his performances as the opera-loving Oxford sleuth Inspector Morse. Thaw became best-known for playing 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.

Much-loved actor dies BBC News | TV AND RADIO | Actor John Thaw dies Friday, 22 February, 2002, 05:00 GMT Actor John Thaw dies John Thaw had been battling cancer of the oesophagus Actor John Thaw, star of Inspector Morse and The Sweeney, has died at the age of 60. He had been battling cancer of the oesophagus and died on Thursday at his home in Wiltshire. His wife, actress Sheila Hancock, said: "John died with his family around him. "We have all been so grateful for the thousands of letters and messages from people wishing him well. Thaw's wife, actress Sheila Hancock, beat breast cancer "Everyone, including the media, has been wonderful during this difficult period. "I would like them all to know how much their support and understanding has meant to him and to all of us." Thaw's public admission on 19 June that he was undergoing treatment for cancer of the oesophagus made front-page news. It was delivered with characteristic bluntness. In a statement Thaw said: "I am receiving treatment for cancer of the oesophagus.

As soon as this has been completed, I intend to return to work." The star had been planning to resume work in spring, filming two more episodes of the ITV drama Kavanagh QC. Cult status He had been married to Ms Hancock since 1973. Between them they had three daughters, Melanie Jane, from Hancock's first marriage, Abigail from Thaw's first marriage and Joanne. Ms Hancock herself fought back from breast cancer 13 years ago. Thaw's big break was as the tough-talking, no nonsense policeman in The Sweeney. The series lasted only three years but it has attained a cult status. He was anxious to get back to work and had a great sense of humour Television producer Ted Childs The role that was to define Thaw's career began in 1985 when he was cast as the cerebral Inspector Morse, based on the books by Colin Dexter. When the character was finally killed off on screen in 2000 there was a sense of mourning, as 13 million people tuned in. Television producer Ted Childs had tea with Thaw and Ms Hancock on Wednesday last week to discuss planned episodes of Kavanagh QC.

"John was as he has been throughout his illness, very positive, funny and self-effacing," he said. "He clearly was not very well. "But he was anxious to get back to work and had a great sense of humour. Childs, who worked on programmes with Thaw for nearly 30 years, added: "We also talked about the old times, working on The Sweeney, and it was very funny." WATCH/LISTEN We invited the actor Sheila Hancock to look through the newspaper cuttings of her life and gave her the chance to set the record straight | Television & radio | The Guardian Share on Messenger Close I always made it my business not to look at my newspaper cuttings, so it's a bit of a shock walking into a room full of them. On the whole, I think journalists have been kind about me, but they do make me sound a bit of a dreary cow. There seems to be so much suffering in my life. Right from the start, the focus is all death. In 1971, my mother died of cancer and within a year my first husband Alec Ross died, also from cancer. Of course, it was a terrible time for me, and it did change me.

I lost my religion, for one thing. As a child, I was deeply religious and went to church every Sunday. But after mum and Alec died, I got really bored with talking about the love of God and I thought, I can't be bothered. I was no longer interested in who caused it and why did it happen, I just thought, if somebody's suffering, let's do something about it, and if I'm suffering I should pull myself together rather than thinking somebody up there is going to help me. So I became a humanist and later on I became a Quaker. In 2002, my second husband John Thaw died of cancer of the oesophagus, just as Alec had done, and there I was on the suffering treadmill again. Poor Old Sheila, Tragic Widow, that kind of thing. Some of the headlines right from the start are so sober and pious. And yes, I felt awful, and I felt sorry for myself and I missed John terribly, but that is certainly not all of me. All the time, I've been working and doing shows - and having fun a lot of the time.

I suppose I have always had a sense of duty, and wanted to help people, but I'm much larkier in real life than my cuts suggest. There's a dreadful headline from one interview - "She tells the desolate that all things are possible; that things might become better." I sound like Mother Teresa. I've never been as nice or as selfless as that. In lot of ways, I've been selfish. There's a Relative Values I did with my daughter Ellie-Jane in the Sunday Times, and she gets it just about right. She says, "Because she's such an old cow she wants to interfere with everything; if there's something going on she wants to do it. Like writing. So now she's writing and she hasn't just stopped with writing a book; now she's decided she wants to write for television so she goes on a course for television writers." It's true, and my children suffered for that. I was always going off on something, and they were neglected. It's not that I actually left them, but I did do my own thing a lot. Then again, I had to make a living.

John started to make money eventually, but at the beginning of The Sweeney I was still earning a great deal more than him through musicals such as Annie, but the children were battered around a lot by our relationship and careers - metaphorically, that is. There's another headline from Ellie-Jane saying, "I despised my mum when I was a teenager." And we certainly did have our problems. I remember telling her that I loved her but didn't like her. But that's the past. These days I get on great with all three girls. When John and I married, it was before The Sweeney and he wasn't very well known. We got a copy of Who's Who and John looked up Sheila Hancock and there was a bit about me and then he looked himself up and it said: "John Thaw, see Sheila Hancock ." He was so furious. But I always knew he would be successful, and that was important to me. My first husband Alec was a very good-looking man, but by the time he came out of the war, his sort of acting was no longer in demand - although he was a working-class boy, he was actually very good at suave handsome-men parts.

I began to get successful when he was out of fashion; it was agony to watch him. He never said anything about it, and he wasn't jealous, but I couldn't really enjoy my success because I would say, "No, I'm sorry, I've got to go and see my husband," because I didn't want to be out drinking champagne when he was at home. There's a quote from John that I had never seen until today. "The best thing I ever bought for five quid." He's talking about me. Well, the marriage certificate. Cheeky sod. He could be fierce, but on the whole he was a gentle soul. So much has been written about our relationship. A fair bit of it by me. The only reason I wrote the book The Two of Us was because I received a letter from somebody saying they were going to write a warts-and-all biography exposing him as an alcoholic. I thought if I wrote an honest book about him and me, nobody would want to publish a hatchet job from an outsider. And it turned out that way. In the late 1980s I got cancer, and thankfully recovered. We were in the news again.

The thing is, I can't keep my trap shut. If somebody interviews me I tell the truth. I'm not very good at dissembling. There was a tabloid headline from 1995, "John and I split up when I had cancer - now we know we could never live apart ..." At that period, John was drinking quite heavily and our marriage was very dodgy and we were constantly splitting up and then coming back together again. I tried to pretend that things were fine, but didn't make much of a job of it. We gave interviews pretending that we were together and the minute the journalists left I probably said: "I'm off, I'm off, I'm leaving you and I'm not coming back." It was a very tempestuous relationship. And I really miss that. My career started off in revues and theatre, and on the whole the critics were kind. Funnily enough, the nastiest review I ever received was when I was in a play with John before we got together called So What About love? It was the worst he received, too.

There was a famous critic called Harold Hobson and he came to see it and the review for me was, "She is unbearable to the eye and unendurable to the ear," and John's review was, "I dreaded his every entrance." We used to quote it to one another if ever we got a bit uppity; I'd say, I dread your every entrance. Looking through my cuts, one thing is pretty obvious - journalists are more interested in my life than in my work. Maybe that's a bit sad, but then again it does get boring when actors go on and on about their method and motives. What amazes me is that, at 75, I'm still working regularly. Last year I was in Cabaret, and I recently played the batty seaside landlady in Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party. Early in my career I did a lot of comedy, and that was great. Then the roles became a bit serious. Perhaps that is to do with how I was perceived - tragic, serious Sheila again. I loved being the sister of Catherine Tate's foul-mouthed Gran in her TV sketch show. These days, I rarely survive a play. I always play old ladies, most of them on their last legs.

It pisses me off a bit. On stage, I could get away with playing quite a bit younger with makeup and good lighting. But there's always been one rule for men and another for women in the acting world. In sitcoms particularly, wives are always much younger than the actors who play the husbands. At one point I was told I was too old to play John's wife in A Year In Provence. True, I was 10 years older than him, but I didn't look it. Looking back through the decades, I find the old pictures of me interesting. I never watch myself in things because I always think I look so hideous - I've never ever seen myself on TV or in movies. But now I think, what a shame because I wasn't that bad looking, I was quite nice, and yet like all women I was hung up about my appearance. I really did have quite a good figure. I think I was always a great appreciator of female beauty - if not my own. In one of the newspaper cuttings, I said, "Apart from John, I would rather spend time with another woman than a man.

Apart from the fact that I need men for sex, I could easily have been a lesbian." I think that's true, I do very much like women. But it is a rather unfortunate way of saying it - as if men were walking dildos. Maybe I didn't say it quite like that at the time, but I probably did. It comes across as rather ruthless. Personality wise, I don't think I'm much changed over the years. I'm still as curious and willing to change my mind as ever. That's why I find all the old interviews with me a bit disturbing, because I read an article where I've said something and think, "What? I don't think that! What the hell did I say that for?" Women of my mother's generation grew old quietly and uncomplainingly. But I do think this is changing. The generation that are going to be old now are going to remain narky and campaigning. They're not going to be prepared to sit around a television in a nasty chair and be drugged and behave themselves. That's become something of a recurring theme in my more recent interviews - that we can be old and lively and good fun.

Women are still expected to behave in a certain way as they get older - you're allowed to be maverick and different when you're young, but when you're older you're expected to be wise, to be a granny, to be a widow. That's all bollocks. We still have our appetites, our humour, our ambitions. The other day I was on Paul O'Grady's television show and some of the Olympic team were there and there were two gorgeous guys on and there was Paul and I both drooling. There was a picture of one in the nude - a very carefully taken picture - and he was beautiful. What a piece of work is man! The thing that has always surprised people most about me is that I love fast cars - and I still do. Why should things change just because I'm getting old? Of course, there's plenty to be sad about in life, but there's still all the good stuff - fast cars, lust and laughter. • Sheila Hancock was speaking to Simon Hattenstone.

To order Just Me for £17.99 with free UK p&p, call Guardian book service on 0870 836 0875 or go to guardian.co.uk/bookshop · This article was amended on Wednesday November 26 2008. John Thaw Is Dead at 60; Played TV's Inspector Morse - The New York Times The New York Times Arts |John Thaw Is Dead at 60; Played TV's Inspector Morse Search John Thaw, the British television actor known to millions as the crusty, music-loving Chief Inspector Morse of Oxford, died at his home in Wiltshire, England, on Thursday. He was 60. The cause was throat cancer, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Thaw's death occurred almost exactly a year after that of his character in the final episode of ''Inspector Morse'' broadcast in the United States. Mr. Thaw announced in June that he had cancer but that he intended to continue acting. His series, based on novels by Colin Dexter, began in 1987; its 33 two-hour episodes were broadcast over 15 years.

It was shown in the United States on the PBS ''Mystery'' series, beginning in 1988. It was estimated that 13 million people watched the final episode in Britain. The series was also shown in many other countries. Idiosyncratic characterization rather than fast action or complex plotting was what fascinated regular viewers of ''Inspector Morse,'' and the inspector gave them plenty. Advertisement Continue reading the main story He was said to have graduated from Oxford, but was bone lazy. He ignored forensic science and could not stand the sight of blood. He drank too much and drove a bright red Jaguar. In the final show there was deft interplay between Inspector Morse and his sidekick, Sergeant Lewis, as both men faced retirement. Lewis, still polite to his boss, nevertheless admitted that he had not yet given up hope of succeeding him. ''I'll be an inspector soon, if there's any justice in the world,'' Lewis said with a trace of bitterness. Morse replied: ''I'm not sure there is.'' He sighed, then remarked, ''If there were, this would not be Morse's last case.'' Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter.

You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Privacy Policy Both the public and the critics adored Mr. Thaw's Inspector Morse. Reviewing one episode in 1988, the New York Times critic John J. O'Connor wrote: ''Solid, not flashy. Mr. Thaw gives the inspector a perfect turn.'' In February 2001, Ron Wertheimer wrote in The Times that the secret of Mr. Thaw's performance was in ''locating that kernel of believability in the man to make yet another far-fetched tale seem real.'' Often that kernel would be an endearing flaw rather then a virtue. Closing one episode, Mr. Thaw's Inspector Morse soothed himself with classical music and alcohol. ''If anyone wants me,'' he told the world, ''they'll find me looking at fish -- through the bottom of a beer glass.'' Advertisement Continue reading the main story Born in Manchester, in northern England, on Jan. 3, 1942, Mr. Thaw was the son of a truck driver.

After dropping out of school, he worked as a laborer and a baker until a teacher who had seen him perform in school plays urged him to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was accepted at the age of 17. Early in his professional career, he often played a police officer, onstage or on television. His first major success was as a tough, foul-mouthed cop in ''The Sweeney,'' a popular British television series that started in 1975 and lasted for three years. The role of Inspector Morse brought fame and fortune to Mr. Thaw. In 1993 he was honored as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. The Inspector Morse shows had been ''an amazing success, beyond my wildest dreams,'' he said in an interview in The New York Times last year. Mr. Thaw is survived by his wife, the actress Sheila Hancock; two daughters, Abigail Thaw and Joanne Thaw; and a stepdaughter, Melanie Jane.

Question: Sheila Hancock was the wife of which deceased actor?
Answer: JOHN THAW