Jack Shepherd the actor, playwright and musician died this week aged 85. The Guardian Obituary is here
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2025/nov/26/jack-shepherd-obituary?CMP=share_btn_url
The Times Obituary (otherwise paywalled) is above.
Jack Shepherd came up through a radical and left-wing theatre background at the Royal Court and then with the playwright Trevor Griffiths. He was the left wing Labour MP Bill Brand in the ITV series of the same name (1976) but had also played Gramsci in Griffiths Occupations about Italian factory occupations in 1920 which aired on the BBC in 1974.
Times changed and the opening for left and radical actors diminished, though Shepherd wrote several plays on subjects such as Tom Paine and the Chartists.
He became well known for playing a police inspector in the long running 1990s Wycliffe series
The Guardian obit provides a full account of his work while the Times says a bit more about him as a person (whether accurately as its a Murdoch paper is another matter). His politics are passed over or downplayed.
I have been looking at this and found some relevant material which I will post. I think a conclusion might be that Shepherd was well versed in left politics but did not want this to be part of his public persona…
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