I hear that PBS is updating the 'Inspector Morse' series, and there is an actress in the new version named Abigail Thaw. Is she related to John Thaw, who starred in the original series?
—Edmund Eaton, Lowell, Mass.
Abigail Thaw is most definitely John Thaw’s daughter. She appears in just one scene as a newspaper editor in the new version of 'Inspector Morse,' called 'Endeavour,' airing July 1 on PBS.
'Endeavor' is actually a prequel, not an updated version of the British series. If the numbers do well, the plan is for the London-born actress to join Shaun Evans, who is playing Endeavour Morse as a young constable, if the film turns into a series.
“This is his own baby. Shaun is playing him as a very much younger man. So there are little things, little twinkles, little nuances that I see on screen,” says the 46-year-old Thaw, when asked to compare Evans’ performance with her dad’s.
“Off screen, I don’t know him well enough yet, but they’re both from the north, both have a few parallels in their upbringing, [such as] going to drama school, traveling down [to London] very young.”
Thaw adds that she jumped at the chance when asked to join 'Endeavour,' as she had no negative memories of her dad starring in Inspector Morse.
“What I did find in the latter years of his life was that we worked with a lot of the same people,” she says. “I’d go and do a show, do some telly job, and it would be the same cameraman, or the same boom operator, and that was really nice. So in that sense, it was a very positive aspect. But he was a very established actor long before Morse started. So in fact, if anything, 'The Sweeney' [another series her father starred in] was probably more influential. As a schoolgirl, I’d have ‘Sweeney girl!’ shouted out at me all the time.”
