John Thaw

I'm Abigail Brierley, and in this week's episode, we hear from Prue Leith on her life post-Bake Off, her new TV show, and her foray into fashion modeling.

John Connolly explores Manchester's uncomfortably close links with the UAE.

Flora Watkins asked whatever happened to the midlife crisis, and Lloyd Evans tells us about his experience observing a Britain First protest march.

First up, here's Prue Leith.

So this year, for the first time in nine years, I could corral children and grandchildren in a nice big house overlooking Saint-Jean-de-Luz on the Basque coast.

Heaven.

And then husband John and I spent a month touring the Baltic countries of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

With the exception of Kraków, which surrendered to the Nazis, most of the main cities were pretty well flattened by bombing or burned to the ground by retreating Germans in the war.

But, you know, to see London of the '70s, and then to go on John's tours and go and see them as they are today, it's, it's such a contrast.

So it, it... was London for me, the dialogue, the realism, and John Thaw even said himself in, in an interview that he felt, um, some of the magic of The Sweeney was that you had these guys who worked really hard, played hard because every day they were going to work, they were potentially facing death or serious injury, so you needed that gallows humor almost among the squad.

You know, there's that great line with Gerry Bertenshaw, "Grab a gun, you're working." It's different work than what I'm used to, you know?

[laughs]

Not one of his own lines as well.

He- the line he quoted back to me was, "He's one of the few the twins left alone," which was one of Carter's lines.

And, you know, he remembered it very vividly, you know? He sort of said that John Thaw had asked him y- you know, to develop his own character.

Actually, you know, if, when you think of Brian, Brian Blessed, you think of someone who's loud and whatever else, and he, he spoke in a very low and measured way, which he himself had, had actually commissioned.

Oh.

Hello, John Thaw.

I see.

And his dodgy haircut.

It is the Contessa di Contini?

Yes.

Oh, it's an Italian John Thaw.

"Get your ass to us.

You've gone completely rogue.

Next up, Jack Regan, John Thaw in The Sweeney.

Shut up-

Yeah

Yeah.

You know, in docklands.

With Dennis Wa- it was John Thaw and Dennis Waterman.

And Dennis Waterman, and it was brilliant.

Yeah.

My other one's, uh, Inspector Morse, A, 'cause I love John Thaw-

Yeah

... because my earliest memory of John Thaw-

Mm

... was The Sweeney-

I might try and see if I can watch...

There was a John Thaw adaptation on the telly around the same time that Hercule Poirot was coming out.

I'm just stuck in the '90s.

Very happy in the '90s, thanks.