Jack Shepherd (1940-2025) actor & playwright. Not just Wycliffe but also Bill Brand
The actor and playwright Jack Shepherd has died aged 85.
His Guardian obituary is here. It gives a fuller account of his work but not either of his politics or the political moment that led him into acting roles in the later 1960s and 1970s
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/nov/26/jack-shepherd-obituary?CMP=share_btn_url
The post here has a rather more specific purpose.
Shepherd will be remembered I suspect for playing a Detective Superintendent in the HTV series Wycliffe (1993-1998)
However he played in and wrote a number of plays on the political left. He had a role in Trevor Griffiths 1970 play Occupations about Gramsci and factory occupations in Italy in 1920 and in 1976 played the left-wing Labour MP Bill Brand in the ITV series of the same name written again by Trevor Griffiths (d 2024).
The series can be found on You Tube although I’m far from sure of how legit that it is. However it reveals a Labour Party and labour movement of 50 years ago, facing many of the same questions present in 2025 but rather different in composition and appearance. For those not around at the time (i.e large numbers) it is well worth a google.
Shepherd also wrote a play about the Chartists, Holding Fire produced at the Globe in 2007 and In Lambeth a play imagining a conversation between William Blake and Tom Paine produced at the Donmar Warehouse in 1989.
I doubt his Wiki entry is comprehensive but it gives a flavour
Jack Shepherd (actor) – Wikipedia
The Wiki entry for Bill Brand is functional but then you can check out the series for yourself
I met Jack once, at the NFT in the mid nineties. He was there as part of an evening looking at the Brand series. Afterwards Jack was in the bar chatting, and then played the old piano there – he was a great jazz pianist. He will be missed.