Sheila Hancock The Two of Us

Annotation

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's role as 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" is a remarkable book - a biography of a born actor and a tender, often heartbreaking memoir of a marriage. Full of insight and vivid memories, it evokes two lives lived to the utmost.