Sheila’s trauma after burglars ransack cottage
ACTRESS Sheila Hancock was being supported by her neighbours yesterday after burglars ransacked her family home.
Police are investigating the break-in at the 17th century country cottage in which Sheila nursed her beloved late husband, Inspector Morse star John Thaw, in his final days.
Sheila, 86, was away filming when raiders struck in broad daylight at the secluded property, using a council recycling bin to carry away valuable silverware.
One local said: “They must have targeted the house – nowhere else was broken into.
“It’s where she lived with John Thaw for many years. We are thinking of her – it must be upsetting that someone has been rummaging around.”
Heartbreaking
The couple bought the listed cottage in the Cotswolds village of Luckington in 1990 and it became their country hideaway which they nicknamed Lucky.
When Thaw was diagnosed with terminal cancer of the oesophagus, Sheila cared for him there rather than at a hospice. He died in 2002.
In her biography Just Me, she said: “Not being a country girl, I never had quite the passion for our house in Wiltshire that John did.
“Two days before he died there he said, ‘Do you like it here now, kid – a bit?’
“To my deep regret I said, ‘I love anywhere with you’. Which must have been heartbreaking for him.”
Sheila’s film and stage career spans 60 years. She became a TV favourite as Carol in Sixties sitcom The Rag Trade and has appeared in EastEnders, Dr Who and opposite Thaw in Kavanagh QC. She now splits her time between a home in Hammersmith, west London, and the cottage.
Villagers have pledged to help to find the raiders and retrieve Sheila’s missing silver.
Just two hours after the break-in, Neighbourhood Watch leader Tim Guard told residents: “Sheila Hancock’s house was broken into this morning. Please think of anything out of the ordinary that you might have seen.”
Mr Guard said the burglary took place between 10.15am and 10.45am last Friday.
Sheila’s agent Clare Eden confirmed the actress was away filming when the burglars struck at the cottage, which now belongs to her oldest daughter Melanie, 55.
A Wiltshire police spokesman said: “We are investigating a burglary at a property in Luckington which occurred sometime last Friday.
“Silver ornaments were taken during the burglary and inquiries are ongoing.”