Tim Ewbank
To my mother Joy for her wonderful love, support and encouragement.
Stafford Hildred
To my wife Janet and daughters Claire and Rebecca.
For their co-operation and help; John and Tyna Airey, Jay Bowers, John and Pippa Burmester, Brian Clemens, Lewis Collins, Peter Coppock, Roger and Dr Jutta Davis, Maggie Forwood, Rod and Joy Gilchrist, Kathryn Holcombe, Hazel Hyslop, Clive Jackson, Gordon Jackson, Selina Julien, Paula Jones, Barry Kernon, Hilary Kingsley, Alan Kingston, Simon Kinnersley, Frank and Hazel Langan, Zoe MacIntyre, Paul McNichol, Moira Marr, Fraser Massey, Kit Miller, Keith Richmond, Alasdair Riley, Vanda Rumney, Brian Tesler. And special thanks to Emma and Oliver Ewbank.
The authors would like to acknowledge the following as important sources of information; Daily Express, Daily Mail, Mirror, Radio Times, TV Times, Sun, News of the World, The Times, Evening Standard, Woman’s Own, Primetime magazine, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4.
Special thanks must go to Channel 4’s Within These Walls programme about The Professionals which provided invaluable information and observations from the show’s actors and creator Brian Clemens.
Stafford and Tim would also like to thank Dave Matthews who expertly runs The Professionals website which provides fascinating and detailed information about the TV show.
We would also like to thank the many actors, writers, producers, directors and assorted friends and colleagues who were happy to share their memories of Martin Shaw, but who preferred to remain anonymous. Thanks to Garth Pearce and Ian Woodward.
The authors would also especially like to thank Clive Hebard for his enthusiastic input, and all at Blake Publishing.
CONTENTS
Title Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 Wheels of Fortune
Chapter 2 Childhood
Chapter 3 LAMDA
Chapter 4 Coronation Street
Chapter 5 Macbeth
Chapter 6 Transformation
Chapter 7 Helen: A Woman Of Today
Chapter 8 A Streetcar Named Desire
Chapter 9 The Professionals
Chapter 10 Captain Scott
Chapter 11 Elvis Presley
Chapter 12 The Golden Decade
Chapter 13 The Chief
Chapter 14 Rhodes
Chapter 15 Pimpernel
Chapter 16 A & E
Chapter 17 Judge John Deed
Chapter 18 Dalgliesh
Chapter 19 Martin Shaw – A Man For All Seasons
Epilogue
Copyright
‘He hit me hard and I went sailing through the air and hit the road face first’
Martin Shaw on the motorbike accident that could have cost him his life
It is 25 years since Martin Shaw’s love of speed almost cost him his life in 1981, but he can remember it as if it were yesterday. In a hurry as usual, Martin was pushing his beloved BMW R100RS motorbike as fast as he dared while overtaking two lines of frustrated backed-up traffic on London’s North Circular Road. He was concentrating hard on staying just inside the white line and constantly checking to make sure there was no right turn ahead and nowhere for any of the trapped cars and lorries to go. Then suddenly, his motorcycle was sideswiped by a car that pulled out in front of him very fast.
‘I can only think that because of the traffic jam he’d got irritated and decided to do a U-turn,’ said Martin. ‘And that’s something you can’t predict. He hit me hard and I went sailing through the air and hit the road face first. The next thing I saw was an artic coming towards me on the other side of the road!’
Instinctively, he carried on rolling, very fast across the road and he even managed to bump up the kerb on the other side. It all happened much too fast for him to realise exactly what was happening and afterwards he decided he must have been knocked out as soon as he hit the road, although he did recall a painful glimpse of his bike somersaulting end over end down the carriageway.
At the time, The Professionals was the hottest show on television, so seeing Martin Shaw performing death-defying stunts was nothing out of the ordinary. But this time as he gingerly began to recover there was no director to shout ‘Cut!’. After he had finally stopped rolling, Martin finished on the edge of the road. He was semi-conscious and at first unable to move. His visor was shattered but miraculously he escaped without any real injury. As the feeling gradually came back into his body he was able to think that he must not move because he might have broken bones or internal injuries. People rushed to his side wondering if they had just witnessed yet another motorcycling fatality.
‘There were people talking to me, but because the front of the helmet and visor was smashed, they didn’t know if I was dead or not,’ said Martin. ‘Obviously I wasn’t dead and I wasn’t even badly hurt. I found that everything moved and I hadn’t broken a thing. I had been really, really lucky.’
The bike was pretty badly damaged but the driver who pulled out and caused the crash admitted his guilt, and the driver of the artic. and two other motorists offered to explain what had happened. Martin was very grateful: ‘So many people these days don’t want the hassle and don’t want to get involved.’
Such a terrifying accident might have pushed some motorbike enthusiasts to the comparative safety of four wheels but not Shaw. A few months later he took delivery of an electrifyingly swift F1-spec Honda.
‘I enjoyed the experience so much I wouldn’t leave the stage’
Martin Shaw on his first stage appearance at the age of 3
The Birmingham suburb of Erdington was briefly mentioned in the Domesday Book under its earlier name of Hardintone, but it never seemed to really come into its own until the engineering industry arrived in the city in the nineteenth century. Then the giant Fort Dunlop building came to dominate the local skyline and became Britain’s largest poster site, just as the production of the motor car drove the local economy.
Famous residents are distinctly thin on the ground, according to the average Yentonian (as Erdington residents are known), though the controversial newspaper columnist Richard Littlejohn once lived there. Erdington does have its own abbey, which is an outstanding example of Gothic Revival architecture. Also, from 1968 to 1971, Erdington was home to the famous rock music venue, Mothers, where Traffic appropriately made their world debut and bands like The Who, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple performed. As the late John Peel once said: ‘People are amazed to hear that for a few years the best club in Britain was in Erdington!’ And, most noticeably, the district is now bordered by the astonishing road junction that was christened the Gravelly Hill Multi-Level Interchange – better known as Spaghetti Junction.
However,