Martin Shaw on family heartbrreak, dangerous boozing, his stalker torment,new cop TV role...and The Professionals (2024)

Unlike the brilliant sleuth he plays in TV's Inspector George Gently, actor Martin Shaw admits he is baffled by one particular case.

Unlike the brilliant sleuth he plays in TV's Inspector George Gently, actor Martin Shaw admits he is baffled by one particular case.

He has no idea, he says, why he is frequently named in polls as one of Britain's sexiest men...or even sexiest vegetarian.

"I've been in the business for 45 years and am a grandfather," laughs the grey-haired 64-year-old veteran. "It doesn't feel real to me when I'm talked about in those terms. Never has and it never will."

Martin's legion of female fans-going back to the days of his role as secret service agent Ray Doyle in the '70s ITV hit series The Professionals - would disagree.

When the cult show co-starring Lewis Collins as sidekick Bodie and Gordon Jackson as C15 boss Cowley ended over 25 years ago, Martin was relieved to get out.

Since then he has played a huge range of roles on TV, including the ever-smooth Judge John Deed and last year the exorcist Father Jacob in Apparitions. On stage he won awards for his Broadway role in An Ideal Husband and more recently acclaim as star of A Man For All Seasons.

But there's no escaping The Professionals. And these days Martin feels a touch of pride when fans mention it. :The public have a long memory for certain things and The Professionals is one of them," he says.

Martin, a charming, handsome and self-deprecating man currently on our screens as Sixties copper Chief Inspector George Gently, had no idea he would become a hit actor when he was growing up in the West Midlands.

He was born in 1945 in Erdington where the family, including his younger brother, lived with grandparents in a council house. When Martin was 11 his father, an engineer, and his mother, a competition ballroom dancer, scraped together enough money to buy a house in Sutton Coldfield.

"Now people's dream is to win the Lottery," he has says. "Ours was to own a house and a car. To achieve both felt amazing."

He hated school and was "crap at almost everything". But thanks to an English teacher, Alan Hill, who cast him in plays he discovered his talent. Martin says: "It was the one thing that I was truly good at."

Amazing

His parents supported his decision to go to London drama school at 18. "They were amazing people who were completely openminded about so many things," he says.

Sadly his mother now has severe Alzheimer's and is in a care home. "Poor Mum," says Martin. "When I see her now I think she realises I'm familiar but I'm not sure she knows who I am. She's fine in a way because she has no idea where she is or what's happening to her." Martin's father cared for his mum at their home for 12 years until in his 80s.

Martin says: "He had to be persuaded that she would be better off in a care home, although the truth is that when she went it broke his heart." Martin's father died last August, leaving what the actor describes as "an enormous hole in my life. There's not a day when I don't think, 'Oh, I must call Dad'."

Martin has been married three times, first to actress Jill Allen (mum of his three kids Luke, Joe and Sophie), then therapist Maggie Mansfield and TV presenter Vicky Kimm.

He now lives in Norfolk with yoga teacher Karen Da Silva, 46. She was the victim of an unhinged elderly female stalker who had pursued the star for years and finally poured petrol through Karen's letterbox. Martin, who had to endure a court case four months ago which ended in the woman being tagged and given a curfew, will only say: "It's been a pretty difficult business."

Martin was helped through the ordeal by the Eastern philosophy of Sant Mat which he has followed for 38 years and requires devotees to be vegetarian, shun mind-altering drugs and live morally.

He said: "Vegetarianism comes down to a simple question. 'Is it possible to be healthy without meat?' Obviously it is." He was also ready to give up drink. In past interviews he admitted that at one time he was a borderline alcoholic - like other famous actors. Nearly four decades on he doesn't miss meat or booze although he still does have the odd craving for a cigarette.

It's a problem in his latest TV drama. "Everybody smoked in the Sixties, including George Gently," he says. Martin and Lee Ingleby, 33, who plays DS John Bacchus, get round it on-screen by smoking honey-rose tobacco. Cigs aside, life seems good at the moment. Martin is proud of his kids who are also actors and he can choose career moves.

But he can still worry and complain with the best of them. "What has happened to political dissent? Why is there no repertory theatre for young actors to learn their craft? Why does TV churn out dramas equivalent to MFI furniture when every actor would rather work on a Chippendale?"

Martin smiles at his own ranting. "Take no notice," he laughs. "These are just the thoughts of an old fart who's been in the trenches. Forgive me." Who wouldn't? jon.wise@people.co.uk

Inspector George Gently, 8.30pm, BBC1, tonight

Martin Shaw on family heartbrreak, dangerous boozing, his stalker torment,new cop TV role...and The Professionals (2024)
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