The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw, Sheila Hancock

The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw by Sheila Hancock, Bloomsbury, DAT. ISBN:0747570205

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When John Thaw, star of The Sweeney and Inspector Morse, died from cancer in 2002, a nation lost one of its finest actors. Sheila Hancock lost a beloved husband. In this unique double biography she chronicles their lives - personal and professional, together and apart. John Thaw was born in Manchester, the son of a lorry driver. When he arrived at RADA on a scholarship he felt an outsider. In fact his timing was perfect: it was the sixties and television was beginning to make its mark. With his roles in Z-Cars and The Sweeney, fame came quickly. But it was John Thaw's role as Inspector Morse that made him an icon. In 1974 John married Sheila Hancock, with whom he shared a working-class background and a RADA education. Sheila was already the star of the TV series The Rag Trade and went on to become the first woman artistic director at the RSC. Theirs was a sometimes turbulent, always passionate relationship, and Sheila describes their love - weathering overwork and the pressures of celebrity, drink and cancer - with honesty and piercing intelligence.

• The Two of Us: My Life with John Thaw by Sheila Hancock - a candid biography well worth reading.