JOHN AND BARRY
(This article first appeared in 'You Boy!' Michael's appreciation society magazine. For more details send an e-mail to Sherring@shplondon.co.uk.)

I'd like to say a few words about a couple of chums who have recently left us for that big studio in the sky, John Thaw and Barry Foster. And I want to keep it as happy as I can, I'm sure they'd want it that way.

There have in fact been a goodly number of thesps who've left us these last couple of years - Shelagh Fraser, Pat Coombs, Jack Watling, Anthony Steele, Kenneth Connor. These, and I'm afraid lots of others, were grand people and my friends. But John and Barry were particular mates and aside from anything, they've only recently trotted along.

Barry Foster
I used to play golf - a lot, Dearly Beloved would say! - and when we had our first house, quite near Wimbledon, I tended to play the Wimbledon course - the public one - oh, twice or sometimes three times a week. As often as not I'd play with a mate of mine who was far better than me and used to take me to the cleaners. But sometimes I'd have a bash on my own (trying to improve my game!) and for some reason it tended to be then that I'd meet Barry - he lived on the high ground at the posh end of Wimbledon. Barry, too, was a stickler for improvement. 'Hello Michael, how's your game?' he'd greet me as I turned the corner of the . . eighth hole I think it was. Barry was practising too, and whereas I trudged round the eighteen holes Barr stayed on the eighth, which is long and straight - far more sensible. We never actually played against each other. I think we were probably afraid that the other had progressed better with his studies!

This was all long before I had the fortune to do two (Dearly B. says it's three but I'm not sure) episodes of 'Vander Valk' with Barry - I played the police art expert. We had a great time in Holland. And of course we also worked together on 'Frenzy' with Sir Alfred Hitchcock. The first time I remember seeing this lovely dedicated actor was in the film 'Dunkirk'. It wasn't a large part, a dispatch rider who happened on Johnny Mills and the rest of his troop, but how Barry made that part tell, what an impact.
What a great guy. I and thousands - millions - will greatly miss him.

John Thaw
OK, it must be said. I think we all smoked in those far off days at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. I stopped when my daughter said, 'Dad, if I can do all the study necessary to become a doctor, you can give up smoking', but for as long as I knew John, and that's a hell of a long time, he did smoke heavily.

But what a professional, what a friend and what an actor.

We at RADA were all, I admit, rather jealous when John landed the lead part in a filmed series called 'Redcap' before we'd even completed the RADA course! The rest, as they say, is history. I'm delighted to report that John and I filmed together several times - in 'Special Branch' and 'The Sweeney' for example and I remember missing a 'Rumpole of the Bailey', which of course didn't give him the leading role, but the 'guest' part. Hey, and I've just recalled another, 'Black Beauty'! John was the baddie, I was the copper.

John should have been knighted for his contribution to our glorious profession. Perhaps his departure to that big studio in the sky I'm always talking about came a wee bit too early. Of course it did.

Goodbye chums, to you both and see Ya - but not too soon I hope!

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