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Academy Fellowship
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THE
As his short but gracious accep- tance of a BAFTA Fellowship recently revealed, John Thaw is, in public at least, a man of few words. Only the 14th actor ever to be conferred with the honour – following in the footsteps of Guinness, Gielgud, Connery, Caine and Finney – Thaw said, “I won’t keep you long. I feel greatly honoured. This is truly one of the happiest moments of my profes- sional life.”
Of his Lew Grade Award for Inspector Morse – voted on by punters rather than his peers – he noted, even more pithily, that “it was a great send- off for the old fellow.” His combined time on the podium this year for the two prestigious trophies probably totalled about three minutes.
Fortunately for television viewers across 35 years, his scripted moments have usually amounted to a much more rewarding series of encounters with the distinguished actor, who will be 60 next year.
Thaw – married to Sheila Hancock since 1973 – is, of course, no stranger to the BAFTAs. Nominated no fewer than four times as Best Actor for Inspector Morse, he won the mask in 1989 and 1992. Just two years ago the bucolic drama Goodnight Mr Tom, in which he played the eponymous role, scooped the Lew Grade Award. And one of his rare big screen outings – as the sinister Kruger in Cry Freedom – earned him a BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor back in 1987.
According to his old friend Sir Tom Courtenay, who presented him with his Fellowship, Thaw was first winning awards way back when they were both students at RADA in the late 50s.
In his delightful memoir Dear Tom: Letters From Home (Doubleday, £16.99), Courtenay recalled: “John was extremely silent when he arrived at RADA from Manchester [where he was born on January 3, 1942]. He wore a red-spotted handkerchief atop his dark, grey jersey, and a manner that didn’t invite conversation. I was the only one of us in the first term who dared speak