1991

Why George plans to say goodbye to Wexford

TV Times 28 September, 1991 | by Katie Ekberg

Since actor George Baker stepped into the sensible lace-up shoes of old-fashioned Det Ch Insp Wexford, he has won the hearts of many. “When I made Wolf to the Slaughter, the very first Rendell, I thought it was going to be a one-off,” he says. “Six years later it’s a different story.” There will be four more serialised books before the end of the year, a two-hour special at Christmas and four more are planned for new year.

“Then no more. No more books, that’s it, boom”, says George. “Of course I’ll miss Wexford - It’s been lovely regular work and I’ve had involvement not just in front of the camera. I’ve done some writing, too. But it would be nice to proceed with other things.”

George’s distinguished stage and film career spanned more than 30-years when he was picked for Wexford. But now he admits he’s looking forward to a break from the part in the near future. “It sounds as though I’m grumbling, but I’m not,” he says. “But once we start work at the beginning of the year, I have a week between that and the next, four days between the next two and nothing at all before the final one.”

When we met he was preparing to start a 12-hour shoot through the night, which meant he wouldn’t see his wife, actress Sally Home, until the next day. She is very ill at their Wiltshire home, suffering from a tumour on the spine. George had just called her on his mobile phone to see how she was, and bravely spoke about her illness. “No she’s not very well, but I’m happier knowing she’s at home rather than here on location. And I’m always ringing in, just to check that she’s okay. We planned to see our girls in Australia last January but Sally was too ill,” explains George.

George’s youngest daughter, Sarah, worked on the latest Ruth Rendell Mystery as a third assistant director. “She was rather good,” he smiles. “She must be because people keep asking her back.”

Daughters Candy and Charlie live in Australia. Tessa is a chief in France. Ellie (Charlie’s twin) is married and lives in England with her daughters Rosie and Kim. “My only grandchildren …” says George, “but I’m hoping for about 20 more girls,” he jokes.

George’s own childhood was happy. His mother, a nurse from Dublin, went to Bulgaria in the Twenties. There she met his father, a Yorkshireman working for the British Council. “She died two years ago at 87. She was a wonderful woman.” George was born in Bulgaria. The family moved to Britain shortly after the war began, but his father stayed behind. George never saw him again - he died there in 1942. ‘I’ll never forget the words he said to me as he saw us off: ‘Remember son, you take a woman by the waist and a bottle by the neck.’ It’s good advice.”

© TV Times 1991

Rendell’s Fair Cop

September 1991 | by Lucia Green

Sitting back, relaxing in his mobile dressing room on location for ITV’s brand new three-part Ruth Rendell Mystery: A New Lease of Death, Christopher Ravenscroft looks uncharacteristically cheerful. “I’ve just had a fan letter,” he grins.  “It reads: ‘You’re a lucky bugger being married to Diane Keen.  Perhaps you will smile a bit more now!’.“

As a matter of fact, he smiles a lot — although you’d never know it to watch him as Detective Chief Inspector Wexford’s dour sidekick, Detective Inspector Mike Burden.  But that’s about to change now he’s married Jenny (Diane Keen).

“Mike used to be prudish and irritable — and some of it rubbed off on me.  My family complained I’d become pernickety,” Christopher says.  “But we’re really very different.  I enjoy reading, music and nosing around art galleries, while Mike Burden’s a cultural desert.  Hopefully, Jenny’ll change all that.”

“He’s an interesting character to play because so much has happened to him.  When his first wife died, he was devastated, left to bring up two children alone.  Then, later, he had this passionate affair.  He was lonely, desolate and probably sexually frustrated.  He became infatuated.”

He smiles as he recalls those steamy scenes.  “We filmed in a house near Southampton, which was completely redecorated to fit this lady’s exotic character.  They even brought in a different bed!

“I was nervous at first, but there isn’t time to get embarrassed.  You’re busy trying to make the scene work and there’s a crew of 50 people around you!

“In the end their relationship didn’t work out, but if it hadn’t been for that affair Mike might not have been ready for Jenny.  He needed someone to burst that bubble of loneliness.  Jenny’s ideal for him - he’s loosening up no end.”

Diane Keen, for one, intends to see that he continues to do so.  “I used to long for something nice to happen to Mike,” she says.  “I wanted to shake him and say, ‘For goodness sake, do something silly!  Go for it!’ In fact, Chris is a lot more open-minded and humorous than Mike Burden.  But he has the same air of vulnerability.  He also has something that Mike is only now just beginning to show — a most beautiful smile!”

A New Lease of Death explores a tougher, more ruthless side to Mike.  He’s required to re-investigate a possible miscarriage of justice which also happens to have been the first case his boss ever worked on.  “It causes a bit of a rift between them, but Mike follows his own lines of inquiry,” says Chris.  “Once you’ve seen it, you won’t be calling him boring any longer!”

© Lucia Green 1991