We were using a hand-held camera to film the scene when Morse collapses. The camera wouldn't start. Three times they said action and it still wouldn't work. To this day, they still don't know what was wrong.

His first film role was a bit part in the 1962 adaptation of The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner starring Tom Courtenay and he also acted on-stage opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in Semi-Detached (1962) by David Turner. Thaw was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in March 1993 by Queen Elizabeth II. He met actress Sheila Hancock in 1969 on the set of a London comedy So What About Love?.

John Edward Thaw CBE (3 January 1942 – 21 February 2002) was an English actor who appeared in a range of television stage and cinema roles his most popular being television series such as Redcap The Sweeney Home to Roost Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC.