I’m on road to departure lounge of life says Shaw at 72
JUDGE John Deed star Martin Shaw says his hell-raising days are now well behind him and is approaching the “departure lounge” of his life.
The Inspector George Gently actor, who rose to fame as Ray Doyle in The Professionals, says his favourite role these days is playing grandad.
Shaw, 72, who has finished the eighth and final series of the detective drama, said growing older had been made easier by the fact he was “very fit and blessed with an iron constitution”.
But he admitted: “You know that line from Simon and Garfunkel: ‘How terribly strange to be 70?’ That’s me.”
He added: “I’m not in the metaphorical departure lounge yet but I’m a good way down the M4 and I can see the signs for the airport... it makes me quite reflective.”
Shaw also revealed that filming the final series of Inspector George Gently, after a decade of playing the ex-army boxer turned policeman, had been unexpectedly emotional.
“People had asked me, ‘Are you going to be upset?’ and I was like ‘No, no, moving on’.
“But I called the gang together for a farewell speech and I was fine until I got to the bit where I thanked Lee (Ingleby, who played John Bacchus).
“Suddenly, I couldn’t get the words out and my shoulders started shaking.” His big break in his 50-year career came in The Professionals, where he starred in the Seventies with Lewis Collins (William Bodie), who died after a five-year battle with cancer in 2013.
After three failed marriages, the first to Jill Allen – mother of his three children – Shaw has been living with yoga teacher Karen Da Silva, 55, for 14 years.
“Put baldly, I’ve learnt to know when I’m well off,” he said.
He also enjoys spending time with his children – all actors – and his four grandchildren.
“It’s a different thing from parenthood because there’s no guilt or sleepless nights. Just pure pleasure,” he said.
“They respond to you differently, too, and are fascinated by how old you are.” Right, Shaw as George Gently. Above, as Doyle with Collins