Old Rage: 'One of our best-loved actor's powerful riposte to a world driving her mad' - DAILY MAIL

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What I loved most of all though was the sense of a long life, the witness to events - a world war, and to stars of the stage from long ago…Kenneth More, Kenneth Williams, James Mason. Around her neck is a chain, on which there are five rings: her wedding ring, those of both husbands, and of her parents. In her latest book, the grand dame of British acting, Sheila Hancock, takes vicious yet educated swipes at Brexit, bereavement, British television and the state of the nation compared to her wartime childhood. It’s 20 years now since Hancock’s second husband, John Thaw, died of oesophageal cancer – the same disease that took her first, the actor Alec Ross, 31 years earlier – and I wonder if the isolation born of Covid-19 painfully reinforced the state of widowhood. I felt Old Rage was a gift from the universe, given its positivity, despite Hancock’s righteous rage about various aspects of life.

Today is particularly piercing on this score, the death of Denis Waterman, Thaw’s co-star in The Sweeney, having just been announced. I find it interesting to see Hancock's point of view on a great many recent events from a perspective somewhere less Americentric. Its pages would, she hoped, describe fulfilment and contentment as well as how best to keep your aching back straight (believe me when I tell you that her spine would induce awe in even the sternest pilates teacher). As raindrops plopped on Hancock’s umbrella, Pinter turned and asked her: “Are you still angry, Sheila?

I realised that maybe I wasn’t as much of a wordsmith as I thought I was, as she uses a lot of words that I didn���t understand and had to look up, so prepare yourself for feeling like an English language novice.

She defies the stereotype of an octogenarian and it was wonderful to read her thoughts on many current events and her reflections on her life. Hancock as Mrs Lovett, with Denis Quilley as the demon barber, in Sweeney Todd at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, 1980.John was abandoned by his mother, and it dominated his life to a certain extent, certainly his relationships. We all went through similar experiences but maybe too close to our own situations to recognize we weren't alone in our isolations. Some topics I didn't know, like her late husband actor John Thaw, her daughters, her bolt-hole home in France, and many luvvie friends (her words) mentioned in lively anecdotes.