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

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Hancock, who kept wondering why the producers hadn’t cast Judi Dench until she found herself lying in a freezing cold sleeping bag 2,000 feet up on the side of a mountain, believes she is the oldest person ever to have done this – though as she admits in Old Rage, the short flight in the helicopter that retrieved her from the summit was, in the end, far more terrifying than the climb. 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. Oh, I do agree – and the wonderful thing about getting older is that you can be a bit cantankerous and odd. When Sheila went to the hospital the next day her ninety three Aunt Billie quietly had let go of her grasp on 18th December. Following the death of her husband, John Thaw, she wrote a memoir of their marriage, The Two of Us , which was a no.

Thaw was much more like Jack Regan than Inspector Morse, she tells me, and for this reason she has occasionally plucked up the courage to watch The Sweeney since his death. I really enjoyed Sheila Hancock’s latest book - this lady us such an inspiration for me, I recently saw her talk as part of Falmouth’s book festival with a friend. Around her neck is a chain, on which there are five rings: her wedding ring, those of both husbands, and of her parents.She covers everything in old age from the loneliness and aches and pains to rage at the body that once did so much but now can’t, and the strange society that we’re all making our way through. Hancock is brilliant company as she looks back on her life as a daughter, mother, widow and still an excellent performer, while railing against much of the modern world. I would have preferred more about her as a person and her life and career, but maybe she’s done that in her previous books. She has strong opinions and is not afraid to express them but I share many of them so the book appealed to me.

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 was so honest and to the point -Sheila just says things as they are and is not afraid to be opiniated and to share those views -and this was so refreshing and I really resonated with this! The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.So refreshing to read a book with a person's views and opinions written down exactly how they said them and felt them - she wrote the book as herself and didn't try to be anything or anyone else - loved it! She doesn’t shy away from telling her own opinions and that’s missing in todays world when everyone is so scared of saying the wrong thing. In 2019 she was starring with James Nesbitt in Tim Firth’s musical comedy This Is My Family in Chichester when she fell in the bathroom of her digs, and had to have 10 stitches in her head. 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.

Was really looking forward to this book as I love Sheila's straight talking and not phaffing and this didn't disappoint!I watched a film clip on YouTube and was in awe of Sheila's determination which she talks about in the book. I bought this as I have enjoyed Sheila Hancock's other books and the premise of this appealed to me. But six months later I went to a place where I used to get my nails done, and there it was, hanging on the peg, as if to say: how dare you leave me behind? At her age she has seen much and it gives her deep insight into the people who claim to know how things should be and trying to wield power over us. Sheila Hancock shares her story and unflinchingly examines her life and all that comes with it, flaws, mistakes and all.