The crime mystery is one of the
most enduring forms of popular entertainment, from Willkie Collins to Conan
Doyle and on to Agatha Christie, and my two featured actors became Britain’s
favourite policemen through hugely successful TV series- John Thaw in the
guises of DI Jack Regan and inspector Morse while David Jason triumphed as
Inspector Jack Frost. Few actors were so recognisable and so avidly followed.
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| John Thaw in Inspector Morse |
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| David Jason in A Touch of Frost |
John Thaw (1942 – 2002) was born into a working class family in
Manchester – his father was a lorry driver and his mother abandoned the family
when John was 3. Educated at technical school, John somehow managed to start
learning to act at RADA from the age of 16. In time he picked up small parts in
both Manchester and the West End. He was a rough diamond, smoking from the age
of 12 and considered a heavy drinker. Perhaps his dark-rimmed almost hooded eyes
and rough expression appealed to the casting directors of the day as he was
offered the plum part of confrontational Sergeant John Mann of the Special Investigations Branch of the Military Police in the crime drama Redcap which ran for 26 episodes between
1966 and 1968, which enjoyed some success.
In 1974 Thaw played DI Jack Regan
in a one-off drama called Regan
written by Ian Kennedy Martin. It was well received and from 1975 to 1978 a
series was spawned featuring Thaw as Regan called The Sweeney. Thaw was partnered by Denis Waterman as DS Carter. The
series had Thaw as a member of the Flying Squad (in rhyming Cockney slang
Sweeney=Sweeney Todd=Flying Squad), the crack Metropolitan Police arrest unit. Thaw
and Waterman noisily tracked down a selection of London villains amid much
cockney banter (though Thaw was a Mancunian!). Ironically enough, at the same
period, the real head of The Flying Squad in London was tried and imprisoned
for corruption in 1977 at the Old Bailey. In all events, the TV series was
wildly popular and was replayed regularly.
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| Denis Waterman and John Thaw tough it out in The Sweeney |
Thaw was a busy actor on stage
and TV from the 1960s and had married in 1973 Sheila Hancock, no mean actress
herself. Sheila was (and is) an activist, taking up many a fashionable cause
and she and Thaw were a power couple in the conventional Leftie territory of
the acting profession. Their 28-year marriage was an enduring one.
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| John Thaw and Sheila Hancock |
Thaw moved on to a more
intellectual and more thoughtful TV police role as the lead in the Inspector Morse series, which ran from
1987 to 2000 and involved the making of 33 2-hour episodes. The Morse character
was created by the writer Colin Dexter. Inspector Morse is based in Oxford and
the TV series has ample opportunity to explore the beauties of the University
colleges, the Thames pubs and the surrounding areas, where many an exotic crime
is committed by a rich medley ranging from dons to down-and-outs. Morse himself
is a rather grumpy and cantankerous bachelor, assisted by the slower but loyal
DS Lewis (Kevin Whateley), with a fondness for classical music, beer and his
vintage Jaguar. He often clashes with his boss, Superintendent Strange (James
Grout) but usually unravels the densely plotted mystery to general admiration.
The Morse episodes were, to me
anyhow, highly addictive and gave matchless armchair pleasure. They are often
repeated and have given birth to the spin-offs Lewis and Endeavour,
featuring a younger Morse. John Thaw
died, too early aged only 60, of oesophageal cancer in 2002 and is greatly
missed.
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| DS Lewis and Inspector Morse in Oxford |
David Jason (1940 - ) was also a police hero on TV but he made a
considerable mark initially as a comic actor. Born David White in Edmonton,
North London to a father who was a Billingsgate fish porter and a Welsh
char-lady mother, he wanted to follow his elder brother into the acting world.
Instead his father insisted he learned a trade as an electrician which David
bore for 6 years. By the mid-1960s, David was a jobbing actor, impressing with
his versatility in children’s shows, comedy sitcoms and one-off roles. He
attracted the attention of Ronnie Barker, a great comic talent, and Jason
played the part in Open all Hours of
Granville, assistant to Arkwright, stuttering corner-shop proprietor in
Yorkshire. The series ran from 1973 to 1985 and much fun was squeezed from
Barker’s miserly ways and Jason’s genial naivety.
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| David Jason (as Granville) and Barker (as Arkwright) in Open All Hours |
Jason’s next substantial role
made him a national institution. Only
Fools and Horses, written and created by John Sullivan ran from 1981 to
2003 with 6 Christmas specials mainly after the weekly show itself had ended.
The 64-episode series recorded the adventures of the Trotter family with David
Jason as Derek (Del Boy), Nicholas Lyndhurst as frustrated younger brother
Rodney, and Lennard Pearce as Grandad, succeeded by Buster Merryfield as Uncle
Albert. The Trotters lived in a high-rise council block in Peckham, South
London and eked out a precarious living as market traders and purveyors of
stolen, defective or rejected goods. Del Boy was the archetypical spiv, dressed
in a camel coat, drinking cocktails covered by a paper oriental umbrella and
spinning unlikely stories to a bemused circle of nefarious friends like Boycie,
Trigger and Denzil. Del Boy augmented our English vocabulary by regularly
denouncing Rodney as a “Plonker” and expressing approval with “Cushty” and
“Jubbly Bubbly”! Only Fools was a
comic riot and won awards by the barrowful.
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| Uncle Albert, Rodney and Del Boy (David Jason) from Only Fools |
During the long run of Only Fools, Jason had added further lustre to his comic reputation by playing Pop Larkin in The Darling Buds of May (1991-93) an adaptation of the 1954 H E Bates novel. The series was notable for the unveiling of Catherine Zeta-Jones as Pop’s daughter, toothsome then and gorgeous still.
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| DI Frost and Superintendent Mullett |
Jason then took a huge gamble.
Hitherto a comic star of some magnitude, he took on the entirely straight role
of Inspector Frost in A Touch of Frost,
a series of 2-hour police dramas, whose 42 episodes ran from 1992 to 2010.
Jason’s Inspector Frost operates from Denton, a fictional town, maybe somewhere
near Swindon. Frost is a widower, unlucky in his search for new love, living
frugally on takeaways or tinned food, chaotically disorganised and
disrespectful of authority. Frost’s sidekick is efficient DS George Toolan and
a lesser helper is archivist PC Ernie Trigg (Arthur White and Jason’s real-life
brother!). Frost’s boss is officious disciplinarian Superintendent Norman
Mullet (Bruce Alexander) with whom Frost clashes constantly. Mullett is
infuriated by Frost but admiring too, as he usually collars the culprit. The
Frost series is loosely based on early thrillers of R D Wingfield and is
constantly repeated, a perfect winter night’s brain-teaser.
Jason is now 78 but still works,
reprising his earlier role as Granville in
Still open All Hours - he refuses to retire saying he is looking for a
final big role. His beloved girlfriend since 1977, actress Myfanwy Talog died
in 1995; he married production assistant Gill Hinchcliffe in 2005 and has a
9-year-old daughter. David Jason was knighted in 2005 and Sir David has made an
immeasurable contribution to our enjoyment.
SMD
20.03.18
Text copyright © Sidney
Donald 2018
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