back to contents

Reviews

The Two Of Us, My Life With John Thaw
By Shelia Hancock

Publication: 4th October 2004, Bloomsbury hardback £17.99

Sheila Hancock’s moving and utterly compelling memoir of her marriage to John Thaw is a story of love and loss, a fascinating portrayal of Britain over the last fifty years and the biography of truly one of the most popular men on television.

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 - from the Second World War to the Iraq War, from rationing to affluence, together and apart.

John Thaw grew up in Manchester, the son of a long-distance lorry driver. Acting was not an obvious choice of career, but his timing was perfect: it was the sixties and television needed new voices – young, angry, regional – just like his. Starring roles in the hit series Z-Cars and The Sweeney followed. In 1974 he married Sheila, with whom he shared working-class roots, a RADA education and a huge talent for acting. Sheila was already the star of the television series The Rag Trade and went on to become the first woman artistic director of a company at the RSC. Theirs was a passionate, sometimes turbulent, relationship, and Sheila tells the story of their lives together with honesty and piercing intelligence. Their marriage weathered separation and joyful reunions and the pressures of celebrity, drink and cancer. Sheila’s diary entries describing John’s illness and death, and the heartbreak of bereavement, stand alone as an intensely moving memoir of loss and recovery.

The Two of Us is a remarkable book - a biography of a born actor and the complex man behind Inspector Morse, and a tender memoir of a marriage. Full of insight and vivid memories, it evokes two lives lived to the utmost in a changing Britain.

Sheila Hancock will be touring the UK nationwide talking about her book and her life with John Thaw in October 2004.

Shelia Hancock’s literary agent has been in contact with the Society and it is hoped to be able to offer this publication at a discount from the cover price and also hand signed by the author. Further details will follow when available.