Abigal Thaw in Endeavour
Abigail Thaw, daughter of much-missed actor John Thaw, chats to Yours about her dad and the latest series of the Morse prequel
Actress Abigail Thaw, who plays newspaper editor Dorothea Frazil in the popular Morse prequel Endeavour, reveals that her dad, the late John Thaw – who, of course, played Morse – would have thoroughly enjoyed the period crime drama.
It would perhaps have been understandable if Abigail had had a few doubts about accepting the role in Endeavour when she was offered the part, nine years ago. From 1997 to 2000 her father John had played the original Endeavour Morse, immortalising the cantankerous detective with a taste for real ale, cryptic crosswords and classical music. Both John and his character became national treasures as a result. But Abigail jumped at the chance.
“There were no doubts in my mind, although I was surprised that a Morse prequel was in the pipeline,” she says. “The scripts were and continue to be wonderful. One of the joys of writer Russell Lewis’s scripts is his stage directions and it’s a shame in a way that the audience never get to see them. They’re full of references, quotes, puns… which help the actor and are like reading a really good novel.
“I know Dad would have approved of Endeavour and I think he would be
‘Endeavour really is a wonderful legacy – Morse was very special to Dad’
quite frankly amazed by the continued popularity of Morse.
“It really is a wonderful legacy. Morse was very special to him. He would have loved Endeavour – as my stepmother, Sheila Hancock, does. Initially, I didn’t know how long Endeavour would go on for, but this is our eighth series and it just gets better and better as it evolves.
“I think that has a lot to do with the team making sure the standards were kept very high; it wouldn’t have worked otherwise.
“Dorothea was something of a cameo part to begin with, but she’s involved in every episode this series. It is an honour to play her and to be in the show. It’s so
good that it doesn’t really feel like work.”
Is Abigail anything like her character, Dorothea?
“Dorothea is much braver than me,” she laughs. “She also has no family to speak of, whereas I am very familyorientated. My husband [actor Nigel Whitmey] and two daughters [MollyMae, 22, and Talia, 16] mean everything to me. The thing is, 50 years ago women tended to have to choose between a career and having a family. Fortunately, that’s no longer the case. I think Dorothea and I have a similar sense of humour, though.”
Abigail literally learned to laugh at her father’s knee.
“Dad was incredibly funny,” she recalls. “He was a brilliant mimic and did great impressions of people. He really made me laugh. He loved the slapstick of Laurel and Hardy and thought Spike Milligan was a genius. He also really enjoyed Morecambe and Wise. He had incredible comic timing and one of my most cherished memories of him is seeing him on stage playing Sir Toby Belch in a production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.”
Before becoming an actress, Abigail (54) briefly considered becoming a journalist – like Dorothea. Her dad, she says, had wanted her to be a musician. “He didn’t really want me to act,” she smiles. “I think Dad was very protective and didn’t want me to feel that rejection that you get inevitably being an actor. Rejection is disheartening and frustrating but I just always wanted to act. I tried other things, I was quite bright as a kid, but acting always fascinated me. I went away to Italy for a year to try to learn another language and see if there was anything else, but it came down to acting in the end.
“Once I made that decision, Dad was very supportive. He would give me advice when I asked for it but I
‘I think Dad didn’t want me to feel the inevitable rejection that comes with acting’
think he wanted me to have my own experiences. Actors are so dependent on other people to provide them with work that they have to have something else in their life to make them feel solid. My family grounds me.”
Abigail’s next project is treading the boards rather than being on TV.
‘I’m going on tour in a few months with the play Neville’s Island,” she says. “It was originally about four men who go to the Lake District for a team-building exercise which turns into a fight for survival, but it has been adapted for the roles to be played by four middle-aged women which, I think, is a great idea.”
We couldn’t agree more!
■ Endeavour is on ITV, Sundays, at 8pm