1992

The Final Series

TV Times 26 Sept-2 Oct edition, 1992 | by Katie Ekberg

George Baker is hard at work doing what he does best. Ever the professional actor, he is never late on set and rarely needs to glance at the lines that lie on his lap, as he sits rehearsing the last Ruth Rendell series featuring Det Ch Insp Wexford for the foreseeable future.

All around him are the television team who have worked alongside him over the past six years. The producer, director, wardrobe and make-up people are now good friends, who have shared laughter and tears filming Wexford from the Hampshire countryside to the hustle bustle of Hong Kong for Sunday’s story, The Speaker of Mandarin, the first of four new Rendell stories adapted for TV.

At Baker’s side is Sarah, youngest of his five daughters and an assistant with the production team, who stands ready with a cup of tea. “Thank you darling,” says Baker without looking up - there’s no emphasis on the family connection here, but it’s not hard to recognize Sarah Baker, who bears such a close resemblance to her mother, actress Sally Home, Baker’s wife of 28 years.

And it’s a mark of his professionalism, courage and dignity, that he flew out to Hong Kong to film, just days after his beloved Sal had lost her three-year battle against cancer.  “The TV team was very kind while Sally was ill and said that they would postpone filming, but it was Sally who said, ‘No, that wouldn’t be like us, would it?’ There was no point in changing things really, because we both knew it was a matter of days. But Sal said, ‘Either I’ll go before you do, or I’ll wait until you get back’.”

Sadly, it was to be the day after Sally’s funeral, that Baker made the 14-hour flight to Hong Kong. “Friday the 13th, a bad omen anyway,” he says. He was whisked to wardrobe for a costume and then straight on to the set for a scene that didn’t finish until 11.30 that night. The punishing schedule kept that pace for the next 10 days. It was also a step back in time for Baker to the seven months he spent as a 19-year-old doing national service in Hong Kong.

With just a few days more filming in Britain remaining when we met, George Baker was cherishing the prospect of quiet days at the Wiltshire cottage he and Sally loved so much. “Her presence is very much there and I can never wait to get back,” he says. He’s also looking forward to moving off centre-stage to concentrate on his writing. He adapted The Mouse in the Corner, which will feature later in the series and has two more commissions.  “My diary is starting to fill up, but am saying, ‘No, please leave me for a minute, give me a moment for reflection’. It has been a very hard, strange four years. My aunt, of whom I was extremely fond, died, then Sally’s aunt who we both loved, then my first wife (costume designer Julia Squires, mother of his other four daughters), my mother a few weeks later, followed by my youngest brother Terry, who was like a son to me and then Sal, all died. I just needed to go home, have a shake of the head and see what the hell’s going on.”

Sally of course, is on his mind all the time and her name on the tip of his tongue. But he is not bitter and the word unfair is not in his vocabulary. “Sal and I decided at the beginning never to ask ‘Why me?’. She was brave and smiling to the end, even though it was not a pleasant way to go and it ill-beholds me to go stomping about now.”

Instead he is looking forward to the future and a trip to Australia to meet his first grandson, Samuel George, born to his eldest daughter, writer Candida, 37. “A boy in the family at last, can you imagine?” he smiles with obvious delight.  “He was born on 24 February, a couple of weeks before Sally died, so she was able to speak to Candy on the phone.”

Daughter Charlie, a remedial therapist, also lives in Sydney. Her twin Ellie is in England with Baker’s two granddaughters, Rosie and Kim. Tessa, a chief, lives in France, but had flown home to help pack up the London house he and Sally sold shortly before she died and the small Southampton flat he rented during the filming of Wexford. “I am very lucky, they are all so supportive and they are my friends,” he says. “I’ve never had enormous jackpots financially - but I have five very good reasons why.”

And, as he casually slings Wexford’s jacket over his shoulder, possibly for the last time, one of the kindest, nicest men in the business gets back to work.

© TV Times, 1992

Last chapter for Rendell’s hero?

26 September, 1992 | by Pauline Wallin

The end of the road is in sight for ruddy-faced detective Reg Wexford as he returns with four new Ruth Rendell Mysteries. The kindly copper’s very last case will be called Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter - the final episode in the new series starting this week.

Ruth Rendell has brought down the curtain on Reg and his inscrutable partner Mike Burden (Christopher Ravenscroft). George Baker, who has played Wexford for six years, says: “If Ruth Rendell writes another one, I’ll do it. But I do feel we have reached the end with the latest series. There’s a sense of finality about it.”

The cast and crew of Wexford had a farewell party after filming the last episode. It was an emotional day, recalls Louie Ramsay - who plays Mrs Wexford and has been a friend of George’s for 40 years. “After our last scene an enormous bouquet of flowers arrived at my dressing room and I burst into tears. I’ll miss all my friends but I’ll have many happy memories.”

The first new mystery, to be screened on Sunday, is The Speaker of Mandarin, which takes Wexford to China and Hong Kong.  For George it was a heartbreaking trip. His wife Sally had just lost her battle against cancer and the funeral had been the day before filming started. “I got through Hong Kong in a bit of a daze,” he admits.

© The Mirror, 1992

Wexford’s sidekick prepares to pack his bags

TV Times 17 Sept-23 Oct edition, 1992 | by Katie Ekberg

He began as Wexford’s strait-laced sidekick; thin, angular Detective Inspector Mike Burden, old-fashioned, conservative and bashful. And then, as tales of life in Kingsmarkham began to unfold on TV, so it seemed that author Ruth Rendell had decided to let Burden unburden himself of some of his hang-ups, loosen his tie a little, so to speak.

And it’s a very different detective who’s preparing to take the final curtain. For Wexford and Burden tackle one of their last cases in The Mouse in the Corner - after that, there are only two more stories featuring the policeman pair to be seen.  “By the end of the series he is almost quite human,” says actor Christopher Ravenscroft. “He started off six years ago as intensely prudish, but has loosened up considerably during the series. After his first wife died, he had an affair with an actress - from a world he knew nothing about - and then he married for a second time, a woman (Jenny played by Diane Keen) who is much better educated than he is.”

“But the nicest thing has been that he has changed naturally, in the way people do change in real life,” says Ravenscroft. This has meant a constant challenge for the actor, and now he thinks it’s time to say goodbye to Burden.  “I think we are stopping at the right time because we’ve been going for a long while and it’s hard to keep work fresh.  This year I think the series has been of an especially high standard and I don’t know whether we could sustain that for much longer.  I believe Ruth Rendell has no plans to write more Wexford books, but if she did and there was a demand for more on TV, I’d consider playing Burden again.”

When we spoke, Ravenscroft had just filmed Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter, the very last Rendell story featuring Wexford and Burden, which will be shown in mid-November. “I have mixed feelings - obviously a great sadness, but also exemment because I have no plans, nothing up my sleeve!” Far from finding that prospect daunting, he was looking forward to doing a greater variety of work, and hankering especially for the stage. “The last I did was Twelfth Night for Kenneth Branagh’s Renaissance Theatre Company five years ago. I’d love to do more,” he says.

He was also cherishing spending more time with his wife Caroline, a theatre director, and grown-up son Jack, at their home in Manchester. During the making of the Ruth Rendell Mysteries he saw little of his family. “We would finish one story and immediately move on to the next, which was quite hard,” he says. “To be at home is a holiday in itself… so that will be terrific.”

Christopher nearly became a solicitor but opted for the theatre instead and made his TV debut in 1974 in John Halifax, Gentleman; he was also in several other series including Crown Court. And there was one other TV appearance he holds dear: a 1978 part in Coronation Street. His role?  A policeman.

© TV Times, 1992

If only Grandma could be with us now

24 September 1992| by Pauline Wallin

Wexford star George Baker travels to Australia to meet the grandson born days before his wife died…

Pride and joy shine in his craggy face as he cuddles the baby close. “Sam is a very, very special boy,’’ George Baker says. And he wipes away a tear. For with the happiness there is sadness, too. Sally, the wife who was like a second mother to the Inspector Wexford star’s four daughters, can’t be with him in Australia to share this moment. She died of cancer just a few days after Samuel George was born.

The bouncing baby grandson - George’s first - will do much to ease his heartache. But now, more than ever, he feels Sally’s absence deeply. “It was wonderful that Sam was born before Sal died,’’ George says. “They were able to speak to each other on the phone - he made gurgling noises to her. Sally said, ‘Isn’t it extraordinary - I go and Sam comes?’ She was very philosophical and happy about it in that way. It would have been horrid if he had been born a few days after she died.’’

George and Sally had been planning to fly out to Australia for his daughter Candy’s wedding to novelist Robert Drewe two years ago. But, just as she never saw Candy’s baby, Sally was denied that, too. The trip had to be cancelled when Sally was told the cancer she thought was beaten had returned. She spent the next 18 months putting a brave face on her illness, with lots of loving support from George.

Missing, too, from this family reunion Down Under is George’s first wife, Julia Squire - Candy’s mum. She died three years ago in a tragic fall down a flight of stairs. “I was very sad that Julia didn’t see the boy,’’ George says. “But she saw one of our granddaughters. Still, that’s life. It isn’t as pretty as we are given to understand in fairy tales.”

He brightens. Rather than dwell on the past, he wants to talk about his grandson. “He’s enormous,’’ he says. “He was 10lb when he was born. I hope he is not going to be taller than me. I was 6ft 4in when I was 14 and 6ft 2in when I was 12 … that doesn’t help at all.” George’s love for this happy, chuckling child is just as giant-sized. “This is the first fella I have had in my family. I have five daughters and two granddaughters, so it is pretty exciting, as you can imagine, suddenly to have a boy. I’ve been used to playing dolls all these years. Now I’ll have to learn to play football.’’

Such thoughts and many others went through his mind on his journey to Australia. He was thrilled about the prospect of seeing Candy, 37, for the first time in three years. It was also a chance to see another daughter, Charlie, 29, who has also made her home in Sydney. And, of course, there was baby Sam to dangle on his knee. George loves kids.

The 60-year-old actor has two granddaughters, Rose, 5, and three-year-old Kim by daughter Ellie. Naturally, he spoils them rotten.But the day before he boarded the plane the pleasure of the reunion was tinged with sorrow. Sally wasn’t with him. And he knew he’d be more keenly aware of her loss than ever because he wouldn’t be able to bury himself in his work.

The Ruth Rendell Mysteries re-established George as a household name. It was Sally’s dying wish that he should throw himself into his role as country copper Inspector Reg Wexford - and that he has done with a vengeance. Six months of 12-hour days, six days a week - that’s what it has taken to film the only four Wexford stories not previously adapted for TV. George put the finishing touches to the last episode just over a week ago, and the new ITV series starts next Sunday. Unless Miss Rendell writes any more Wexford adventures, he has played the man from Kingsmarkham for the very last time. “Now,’’ he says, “I can do my grieving in peace. I only hope I did everything Sally would have wanted me to do. I got on with the work, tried very hard to stay jovial, and kept a smiling face. Now I might sit down on the beach and have a good blub.’’

Candy, a journalist who settled in Australia 15 years ago, offers comfort. She feels the loss of her mum and Sally too. “I have missed them very much since Sam was born. There is not a day which goes by when I don’t think of them,’’ she says. “I was very close to Sally. We have always been a close family although there are 12,000 miles between us. I was so pleased she lived until just after Sam was born. It was a bright moment in a dark time. Sally was dad’s lynch-pin and her death was a great shock, especially coming so close to the loss of my mum. The trip will help him get over Sal’s death. It will also give him a chance to recharge his batteries and have a look at where he is going next.’’

George will make the most of the chance to unwind in the Australian sunshine - it’s spring over there. But his dedication to work will be in evidence too. He has already written the pilot for a new series called Dead On Time. It’s about a London-based detective and his TV bosses are eager to have the rest of the scripts.

“I’m a total puritan about work,’’ he confesses. “If I go on holiday and don’t do some work, I feel it is quite reprehensible. So I plan to do a couple of hours’ writing in the morning then go off and have a swim in the afternoon. That’s when I’ll do my thinking about Sal and Julia and the days I shared with them.’’

But George is a realist. He knows that life goes on. Little Samuel is testimony to that. So his focus is on the future - Sam’s future.  “My daughter and her husband have asked me to be his godfather as well as his grandfather,’’ he says. “That means I’m responsible for his spiritual welfare. And that means I shall have to live longer to be around when he needs me.’’ Determination shows on his face. Sally would have wanted that.

© The Mirror, 1992

Little things that remind me of you

24 December, 1992 | by Pauline Wallin

Big George Baker will be smiling as he strides around his kitchen, wine glass to hand, putting the finishing touches to his Christmas lunch. It won’t be easy for him. It’s his first Christmas without his beloved wife, Sally, who died of cancer earlier this year. But the man who has become a favourite as TV detective Reg Wexford in The Ruth Rendell Mysteries is determined not to let his cheery mask slip. As usual, he’ll be cooking for a houseful of people … chicken liver pate to start, plum pudding to finish and - the highlight - a nice plump goose stuffed with chestnuts and prunes.

And there will be tinsel and presents and a walk across the rolling Wiltshire countryside. But, inevitably, the welcoming atmosphere in his picture book cottage will be tinged with sadness. Sally has gone. And so has George’s brother Terry. He died 18 months ago at the age of 52.  Terry was a top London agent and a wonderfully larger-than-life character who loved nothing better than a day at the races in lively company. Terry’s widow, Valerie, will sit next to George and the two of them will share a toast to their absent loved ones.

And George is determined not to be gloomy. “It wouldn’t be fair to my daughter Sarah or Valerie’s children if we went round with long faces,” he says. “I’m prepared for Christmas. I know I’ve got to get through it without Sally.” The most difficult moments come when he leasts expect them.“‘I’ll be walking along the street and something will remind me of her and I’ll be quite overwhelmed.”

George’s Christmas will begin tonight with midnight Mass at the little church in his village, West Lavington, where Sally’s funeral was held last March. The poignancy hasn’t escaped him, but he’ll be singing Christmas carols heartily and trying hard not to dwell on it.

Earlier tonight, Wexford fans will be delighted to see, there’s a repeat (ITV, 7.30pm) of The Ruth Rendell Christmas Mystery. George will be watching. He filmed Achilles Heel in Corsica and Sally, very ill by then, flew out to join him. It’s a favourite of his, bringing back memories of the time he and Sally shared there. “I know she is never very far away from me,” he says.

© The Mirror, 1992