Martin Shaw was born in Birmingham, England on 21st January 1945 and grew up in the Erdington and Sutton Coldfield areas the city. He has stated that his first ever acting role was at the age three when he appeared in a local amateur dramatics performance which also featured his parents in the cast. He attended Great Barr School in Birmingham, where he was found to be naturally talented in English Literature and displayed a flair for acting and drama. This resulted in Shaw being offered a scholarship to study at a local drama school, but on the advice of his parents he declined the offer and sort employment on leaving school.
He was involved in a drunken brawl during his teenage years which resulted in a fractured skull. He also had broken teeth and a fractured right cheekbone which required surgery to rebuild it. Posterity does not record the extent of injuries to the other party involved in the brawl. After taking on several jobs, including time spent in the office of a Birmingham foundry, Shaw decided he wanted to pursue an acting career and on turning eighteen he moved to London and began attending the London Academy of Dramatic Art. On graduation he served his time in local rep theatre working as an assistant stage manager at The Bristol Old Vic and Queen’s Theatre in Hornchurch. His early on stage work included a small role in a run of the pantomime Jack and the Beanstalk at the Queen’s Theatre from December 1965 through to January 1966. November 1966 saw Shaw appear in a production of Misalliance at the same venue
Shaw became active on television from 1967 and made his debut in this media in the ITV Play of the Week episode ‘Love on the Dole’ (17th January 1967) in the supporting role of O’Leary. This was followed three days later with Shaw appearing in an episode of the soap opera The Newcomers (20th January 1967). During April 1967 Shaw appeared in the play Message from the Grassroots staged at the Bristol Old Vic. Staying with the theatre he was then in a production of War and Peace which toured the country between June and July 1967. His second ITV Play of the Week appearance for the year came with the instalment ‘Travelling Light’ (11th September 1967) with Shaw playing the character Arnold Champion.
He then appeared as Piet Reinders in two episodes of the TV series Sexton Blake, Knave of Diamonds (13th and 20th November 1967) but his most high profile TV role of the year was as Robert Croft in five episodes of Coronation Street (13th December 1967 – 10th January 1968). He appeared opposite Alfred Burke, lead actor in the down at heel private eye series Public Eye, in the episode ‘Strictly Private and Confidential’ (2nd March 1968) as the guest character Ron Baker. This was followed by Sanctuary, an ATV drama series set in a centre run by nuns to help people who have fallen into hard times. Shaw featured in the episode ‘The Novice’ (1st April 1968) which opened the second season of the programme.
For Amusement Only was a series of comedic plays with little or no dialogue and Shaw featured in a small uncredited role in the episode ‘Anything But the Woods’ (18th August 1968) which was written by the Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) actor Kenneth Cope. City 68 was a series of plays which addressed the issues of modern urban living and the episode ‘Son of the City’ (15th December 1967) features Shaw in the unsavoury role of swimming pool attendant who attacks a women in the pool. Shaw also featured in the second season of City 68 in the episode ‘The System: Them Down There’ (24th September 1968) as Andy Blake.
The first major revival of John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger was presented by the English Stage Company at the Royal Court from the last week of October 1968. Shaw appeared alongside Jane Asher in the cast. This was followed with a television appearance in the first season of Fraud Squad as the character Marchmont in the episode ‘All Clean and Paid For”’(17th June 1969). His first regular TV role came in the sitcom Doctor in the House (1969) with Shaw featuring as the regular character Huw Evans. He was also seen in the role of Norm in the ITV Sunday Night Theatre production ‘Two Feet off the Ground’ (16th August 1969). During October and November 1969 he appeared in The Contractor, a play by David Storey, at the Royal Court under the direction of Lindsay Anderson. In the cast was T P McKenna and Norman Jones who would both appear in the Beasts episode ‘Baby’.
Next was ‘Report 7931: Sniper – When Is Your Cousin Not?’ (14th December 1969), an episode of the ITC adventure series Strange Report, which featured Shaw as Ravi. His final TV role for the year was in the ATV Yuletide special All Star Comedy Carnival (25th December 1969) which featured Shaw as his Doctor in the House character in a short sketch. February 1970 saw Shaw appear at the Lyric theatre in a production of Peter Shaffer’s play The Battle of Shrivings directed by Peter Shaw. Also in the cast was future Beasts actor Patrick Magee. Shaw also appeared in the stage production Cancer at the Royal Court Theatre during September 1970 before turning up on TV in the first episode of the comedy series The Mating Machine (9th October 1970). This was followed by his second appearance in an ITV Sunday Night Theatre episode in a production of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ (17th November 1970). Shaw played Horatio.
He made a rare appearance in the medium of film with the role of Banquo in Roman Polanski’s gruesome version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth (1971). On TV he had a single credit for the year in an episode of the BBC drama anthology Play for Today – playing Brian in the comedy drama ‘The Pigeon Fancier’ (9th December 1971). The following year he had just two TV roles; playing the student Mike in the Thirty Minute Theatre episode ‘The Sit In’ (10th April 1972) and portraying Monty Parkin in the mini-series Villains (1972). Alan Clarke directed the London Weekend Television (LWT) play Achilles Heel (18th March 1973) which was set in the world of professional footballers. Shaw features as Dave Irwin. He stayed with LWT for the drama series Helen: A Woman Today (1973) appearing in ten of the thirteen episodes as Frank Tully. Stage credits for the year took in a production of Euripides’ The Bacchae presented by the National Theatre at the Old Vic from August 1973. The play was directed by Roland Joffe who would later direct the award winning film The Killing Fields (1984). Shaw undertook the role of Dionysus which The Stage described as “a mixture of romantic god and well groomed pop star, and quite an impressive figure, played with conviction and fine speaking by Martin Shaw.[1]” His next cinema role was as Rachid in the fantasy film The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973).
After all this onscreen activity Shaw took a sabbatical to concentrate on theatre work during 1974 and as such he made only one appearance on television in a BBC Play of the Month episode ‘Electra’ (24th October 1974) based on the story by Sophocles. Shaw played Orestes, the brother of Electra. 1975 would see Shaw more than make up for having a fallow period of screen roles the previous year with credits in BBC detective series Barlow playing Stefan Borowski in the episode ‘Asylum’ (5th February 1975) and King Ferdinand of Navarre in the BBC production of Shakespeare’s Loves Labour Lost (14th December 1975) for the BBC Play of the Month strand. He also appeared as Karel Curda in the British war film Operation Daybreak (1975).
During April 1976 Shaw appeared in a new stage version of Strindberg’s Miss Julie adapted and directed by Mai Zetterling. May and June saw him replace Jack Shepherd in a second run of David Hare’s Teeth and Smiles at the Wyndham theatre. Prior to his appearance in ‘Buddyboy’ Shaw guest starred in an episode of the BBC drama Sutherland’s Law – “Blind Jump” (13th July 1976) as the character Alan Forsythe. His role as Dave in ‘Buddyboy’ was next. Also during 1976 he was part of the repertory of actors who supported Bob Hoskins and Donald Gee in a series of fifty ten minute programmes called On The Move. Written by Barry Took the programme was designed to support an adult literacy project that the BBC ran between 1975 and 1978. The programme won the 1976 Royal Television Society Award for most original programme of the year.
Post Beasts Shaw then appeared in the BBC drama anthology Jubilee which set out to reflect the British way of life during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Shaw appeared in the seventh of thirteen episodes, ‘Our Kid’ (10th May 1977) as Paul. The drama also featured the pop group Ultravox’s singer Midge Ure in a small role. Next was the Z Cars episode ‘Domestic’ (28th June 1977). Shaw played the role of Graham Moffat. This was followed by a guest role in the first episode of the second season of the BBC period drama The Duchess of Duke Street – ‘Family Matters’ (3rd September 1977). Just over three weeks later Shaw reappeared on the BBC in the BBC 2 Play of the Week – ‘Exiles’ (28th September 1977) as Michael J Arlen, the son of an acclaimed and popular writer, who investigates why his father stopped writing.
Shaw had featured alongside his future co-star Lewis Collins in The New Avengers episode ‘Obsession’ and it was on the back of this that he was cast as Doyle in The Professionals (1977 – 1983) which also featured Lewis Collins as Bodie. Shaw was able to appear in other productions in between filming seasons such as the LWT Dennis Potter play Cream in My Coffee (2nd November 1980) and the BBC period play East Lynne (29th December 1982) which was based on the popular 1861 novel by Ellen Wood.
In March 1982, during a West End run of They’re Playing Our Songs, Shaw pulled a cartilage badly resulting in him having to withdraw from appearing. He returned to the stage with a West End run of The Country Girls from October 1983. Other cast members included Hannah Gordon and John Stride. One of his first television first roles after The Professionals came to an end was in a production of The Hound of the Baskervilles (3rd November 1983) as Sir Henry Baskerville. Ian Richardson played Sherlock Holmes. Following this, for Australian documentary drama series The Explorers (1984) which detailed the exploration of the North and South poles, he appeared in the supporting role of Burke. He stayed with Artic exploration for The Last Place on Earth (1985), a seven episode mini-series which detailed the events of the race to conquer the North Pole between Scott and Amundsen. Shaw played Captain Scott. Also during 1985 Shaw appeared in Alan Bleasdale’s musical play Are You Lonesome Tonight? playing Elvis Presley in his later years, with Simon Bowman as the young Elvis. The production was staged at the Phoenix theatre in London.
September 1988 saw the launch of the play The Big Knife at the Albery Theatre in London and the producers hoped that casting Martin Shaw along with Hill Street Blues star James B Sikking would strike box office gold. The play closed after just five weeks due to poor receipts. Shaw quickly moved on to play Roskov in the American TV movie Intrigue (11th September 1988), an espionage thriller which also starred Scott Glenn. Also in September he could be seen in the stage production In The Midnight Hour at the Bolton Octagon. Aside from regular stage work Shaw was selective in his screen appearances for the next few years. The Most Dangerous Man In The World (1988) was a star studded BBC film which featured Shaw as Suleyman. Cassidy was a 1989 Australian TV mini-series based on the novel by Morris West. Shaw stars as James Griffin. He played the researcher Ian McBride in the single drama Who Bombed Birmingham? (22nd April 1990). Based on real events the story sees McBride and his fellow researcher Chris Mullin (John Hurt) uncover the real facts behind terrorist pub bombings in 1974. He then played MP Peter Balliol in the drama series For The Greater Good (1991). This three part series was written by G F Newman and told the tale of Balliol who reaches a crisis in his life as his political career is stalling and his wife is leaving him. Screen One production ‘Black and Blue’ saw Shaw play the first in a long line of policemen during his later career. He portrayed Chief Superintendent Mike Barclay in a tale of police corruption and racism following a murder on a predominantly black housing estate. Ladder of Swords (1990) was a Film Four production in which Shaw played Don Demarco, an escaped convict who evades the law with a travelling circus act. Atherton, a local policeman, takes an instant dislike to Demarco and accuses him of a series of offences. Bob Peck portrayed Atherton.
Stage work during the 1990s included a run of An Ideal Husband during November 1992[1], Terence Frisby’s play Rough Justice which toured from February 1994 and Other People’s Money at the Lyric theatre during October and November in the role of Lawrence Garfinkle. Shaw, complete with padded suit, sweated through the role of the overweight, chain-smoking, doughnut-eating slob. The Chief (1990 – 1995) was a police drama which featured Tim Piggot Smith in the first two seasons and the first few episodes of the third season. Shaw played his assistant in the initial episodes of season three before being promoted into the leading role. Shaw played the role of Chief Constable Alan Cade for the next three years up until the fifth and final series. His major TV role for 1996 was in the BBC mini-series Rhodes which saw Shaw playing the title character Cecil John Rhodes who went on to found Rhodesia, now known as South Africa. The production also featured Shaw’s son Joe in the cast.
He was cast as the surgeon Robert Kingsford in the Granada medical drama Always and Everyone (1999 – 2002). Shaw featured in all four seasons. The cast also included fellow Beasts actor Michael Kitchen. Another police role was next as Commander Adam Dalgliesh in Death in Holy Orders (2003) and The Murder Room (2005). Shaw appeared in a new stage production of A Man for All Seasons at the Theatre Royal in London during January 2006 following in the footsteps of Paul Scofield who had originally undertook the role of Sir Thomas More. Amongst the cast was his youngest daughter, Sophie.
Judge John Deed was a BBC series featuring Shaw as the title character which quickly established itself as one of his key roles in his later career. In total 29 episodes were produced between 2001 and 2007. After the series finished Shaw guest starred in an episode of the period drama Cranford – May 1843 (18th May 2008) as Peter Jenkyns. His next role was a pet project which also saw Shaw act as an executive producer. Apparitions (2008) featured Shaw as Father Jacobs in a series of supernatural scenarios. Sadly the series failed to find an audience and ran for only one season of six episodes.
Shaw’s most recent success has been as the morose and melancholy policeman Inspector George Gently which has clocked up 25 episodes between 2007 and 2017. Based on a series of novels by Alan Hunter. Shaw plays 1960s policeman Gently who initially crusades to eradicate police corruption before this leads to the murder of his wife. Gently retires rather than seeking any revenge but is goaded out of retirement when a missing East End gangster reappears at a funeral of a teenage girl.
Shaw has become one of the UK’s most popular and regarded actors since his first appearance on TV in 1967. He shows no signs of stopping as he enters his sixth decade in the business with several projects currently in production. He has three children – Sophie, Luke and Joe. All three of them are actors
TV Credits
1967 The Newcomers, ITV Play of the Week – “Love on the Dole” / “Travelling Light”, City ’67 – “Son of the City”
1967 – 1968 Coronation Street (5 episodes as Robert Croft), Pubic Eye – “Strictly Private and Confidential”, Sanctuary – “The Novice”, For Amusement Only – “Anything But the Woods”, City ’68 – “The System: Them Down There”, The Gunpowder Plot (as Guy Fawkes)
1969 Fraud Squad – “All Clean and Paid For”, Doctor in the House (as Huw Evans), Strange Report – “Report 7931: Sniper – When Is Your Cousin Not?”, ITV Sunday Night Theatre – “Two Feet Off the Ground”
1970 The Mating Machine – “Who Sleeps on the Right?”, ITV Sunday Night Theatre – “Hamlet”
1971 Doctor at Large – “Mother and Father Doing Well” (as Huw Evans), Play For Today – “The Pigeon Fancier”
1972 Thirty Minute Theatre – “The Sit In”, Villains (as Monty Parkin)
1973 Achilles Heel, Helen: A Woman of Today (as Frank Tully)
1974 BBC Play of the Month – “Electra”
1975 Barlow – “Asylum”, On The Move, BBC Play of the Month – “Love’s Labour Lost”
1976 Sutherland’s Law – “Blind Jump”, Beasts – “Buddyboy”
1977 Jubilee – “Our Kid”, Z Cars – “Domestic”, The Duchess of Duke Street – “Family Matters”, BBC2 Play of the Week – “Exiles”, The New Avengers – “Obsession”
1977 – 1983 The Professionals
1980 Cream in My Coffee
1982 East Lynne
1983 The Hound of the Baskervilles, The Kenny Everett Television Show
1984 The Explorers – “South to North”
1985 The Last Place on Earth (as Captain R F Scott)
1988 Intrigue
1989 Cassidy
1990 Who Bombed Birmingham?
1991 For the Greater Good (as Peter Balliol MP)
1992 Screen One – “Black and Blue”
1993 – 1995 The Chief (as Chief Constable Alan Cade)
1995 Timewatch – “The Life and Loves of Oscar Wilde” (as voice of Oscar Wilde)
1996 Rhodes (as Cecil John Rhodes)
1999 The Scarlet Pimpernel (as Chauvelin)
1999 – 2002 Always and Everyone (as Robert Kingsford)
2001 – 2007 Judge John Deed (as John Deed)
2003 Death in Holy Orders (as Adam Dalgliesh)
2005 The Murder Room (as Adam Dalgliesh), The Iceman Murder (narrator)
2007 Cranford – “May 1843, Lemur Island” (narrator)
2007 – 2017 Inspector George Gently (as George Gently)
2008 Apparitions (as Father Jacob)
2010 Poirot – “Three Act Tragedy”
2012 City Hall
2016 Short Change – “Eyeballs in Boxes” (short, voice work)
2017 C B Strike (as Tony Landry)
2021 The Long Call (as Dennis Stephenson)
Film Credits
1971 Macbeth (as Banquo)
1973 The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
1975 Operation: Daybreak
1984 Facelift
1988 The Most Dangerous Man in the World
1990 Ladder of Swords
2017 6 Days
2021 Off the Rails
[1] Shaw was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor for his role in this production
[1] The Stage, Thursday 9th August 1973, page 15
No comments:
Post a Comment