A Meeting With John Thaw
by
Kenneth Seymour
(Whilst on holiday back home in 1994 I was touring Oxford when I chanced upon a location shoot for the ‘Inspector Morse’ TV series. It was quite an experience.)
When John Thaw is acting, John Thaw acts exactly like John Thaw. Whatever role he plays, be it a wily, easily irritated police Inspector, or a not easily fooled newspaper editor, the delivery is the same. John Thaw. The delight in watching this man is that he is himself, without any put-on of airs or those silly acting twitches and turns so common today. Watching Inspector Morse is simply watching the real John Thaw.
What is it that makes this man so easy to understand? He’s not a snob, and he has no aspirations to be anything other than what he really is. He mixes well with the highly educated as well as with the ordinary man in the street. He fears no man - or woman. But was he like that in real life? Yes indeed. Those who knew him said he was a man you can easily admire simply because he had honest standards, but no causes he was ready to die for. He thought fox hunting a rather mindless act, more for showing off than for anything else, but he wouldn’t join the ranks of those ready to go to jail in protest of it.
Whenever I go home for a holiday I do part of the trip as if I was a tourist. I’ve toured Scotland, the Wye valley, the Cotswolds, and even walked the length and breadth of inner London. In 1989 I was touring Oxford on my own when I saw an area near one of the colleges roped off, with lorries, wires, arclights, and all that other machinery that goes into making a TV show. Among all this I saw a restive John Thaw stretched out comfortably in a large canvas chair reading a script. I was within a few feet of him and one either gawks foolishly, or boldly goes where not many have gone before! I took the latter. ‘Mr.Thaw, I’m Ken Seymour. I’m from Canada and represent the Brits Abroad International Newsletter. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?’ He looked at me with that tired look of ‘oh no not another one’ but pulled himself forward in his chair and replied, ‘well make it quick then.’ I ducked under the cordon-tape and began a series of questions about his personal likes and dislikes. He stopped me cold. ‘No. I’m nothing like Morse. I don’t like beer and I’m not keen on classical music. I won’t discuss my limp, and yes I’m happily married. Anything else?’ ‘What were your personal thoughts on the TV production ‘A Year In Provence?’ ‘Did they actually show that awful thing in Canada?,' he asked. ‘Yes, and they tried to flog the video as well.’
We exchanged a few more words and John Thaw was called to walk through a scene with a young actress. They tried it several times when finally Thaw suggested how she should deliver a certain line so that he could react to it properly. It was an acting lesson by a superb actor. The scene was finally shot and was ‘wrapped’ as they say, in just two takes. He doesn’t like to waste time.
John Thaw passed away just a few years ago. He closed out the Morse series by dying of a heart attack. His real death was under similar circumstances. His last major series was one I love entitled, ‘Kavanagh Q.C.’ where he plays a lawyer within the British justice system of Queen’s Counsel. I remember mostly the way he looked at life. It pleased him, but also drove him crazy. It is sad to know that there will be no new series with John Thaw grinding his teeth, saying 'Oh for God's sake Lewis', or simply casting that distant look of his where he scanned the horizon, knowing, as he always did, what the truth was.
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