Stormy Weather

[Stillhomewardbound]

With such lovely talk of Spring in the air I'm sorry to come along with a cloud over my head.

After five very difficult months in hospital my hero of a father died peacefully in his sleep on Sunday evening at the Royal Free Hospital.

He leaves behind a family heartbroken, but whose burden is now light in the knowledge he will sleep sound forevermore.

T.P. McKenna
1929-2011
Rest In Peace

[salymap]

SHB I know I shall be the first of many to express my sadness and send you and your wider family my sincere sympathy. Please leave your wonderful website for us to read. saly

[greenilex]

Sympathy also from me. The loss of a parent is a great blow. I hope you'll have a chance to remember the good times.

[marthe]

Stillhomewardbound, please accept my sympathy also. The loss of a father leaves a huge hole in one's life. Sympathy to your family also.

[amateur51]

Shb, I'm very sorry to hear your sad news and I send condolences to you and yours.

Your father is admired by several generations of connoisseurs of fine acting and I am certain that his memory will be held fondly by millions who saw and admired his work but who never met him.

Your website is indeed a labour of love and a fine memorial.

[Chris Newman]

Stillhomewardbound,
I am saddened to see the passing of a great man who has brought so much pleasure and excitement to millions of people. My deepest condolences are with you and your family. Chris

[antongould]

Stillhomewardbound
Very sorry to hear of your sad loss, he was a very great actor.

[Serial_Apologist]

I never realised Thomas McKenna was your dad. We have lost many loved ones in these past years; my thoughts go with you, SHB.



S-A

[Eudaimonia]

SHB: I'm so sorry. Here's hoping you'll take at least a little comfort knowing he lives on through his work--and will continue to move people in generations to come, long after we're all gone. We're all sending good thoughts, positive energy, and much love your way, ~E.

[Stillhomewardbound]

Hello Friends,

Well, what can I say?! It has been the toughest of weeks and yet one of the grandest.

We always believed in our father and his unique talent, however fame, fortune and critics are fickle things, so one learns to be wary. That is to say, we hoped his passing on Sunday would be, at least, noted.

However, not in our wildest of dreams would we have anticpated that in Ireland his passing would be marked in every bulletin and major news programme throughout the day.

Nor could we have imagined fulsome obituaries in the Independent, the Daily Telegraph, the Times and the Guardian.

Then there was the website (tpmckenna.com) created by myself. This, I was delighted was getting some twenty regular hits a day, so when I saw that that number had swelled, over the last two days, to 20,000 hits ... well, my jaw is still heavy on the floor.

Mind you, 'tis all nought, when set alongside the kind messages from individuals such as yourselves and the personal texts and emails we have been privileged and honoured to receive.

I will return now to the wings, but my final thanks has to be to veteran critic Michael Coveney who is responsible for the Guardian Obit which stands out as all but definitive.

He is that most reliable of witnesses, a man who knew the man. To briefly quote from his piece:

"For an actor, McKenna was an unusually modest and self-effacing man, and this trait lent a profound transparency and poignancy to those performances that touched on failure and disappointment, notably in Chekhov. You never saw the joins. His default mode was an imposing, authoritative geniality, and when he played a Nazi engaging in the casual slaughter of Jews in the TV mini-series Holocaust (1978), it was as hard to watch as it was to credit that this was the same actor who was so delightful as Harold Skimpole ("no idea of time, no idea of money") in Charles Dickens's Bleak House (1985) on BBC television."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2011/feb/16/tp-mckenna-obituary

[Nick Armstrong]

Good Lord, I'd forgotten Holocaust! Yes.... Spot on review!

I can only echo again what's said in the previous few messages, coupled with thanks for your very sweet PM just received.

[salymap]

Morning all, hope today brings some good news rather than sad news.

SHB What a wonderful obit. that is. I am going to be 'brave' and watch 'The Remorseful Day' soon.I really enjoyed all the Morses and never watched it after John Thaw died so soon after filming it. Now I shall watch it in memory of your father as well as John Thaw.

[antongould]

Morning all
Very grey and cold here.
Putting aside the sadness that has to be associated with it Remorseful Day is IMHO up there with the best.

[salymap]

Morning Anton, Grey and cold here too but I agree about the last Morse. 'Lewis' made a brave effort and I admire Kevin Wateley but it was 'Hamlet without the Prince' in my VHO.

[antongould]

I agree you have a way with words as well as with music! My twin daughters have met Kevin Whately and described him as a "lovely man". However on these wonderful boards at least I suspect that does not trump your Richard Strauss "card". Elder twin daughter also, blissfully unaware, wandered onto a Lewis set in Oxford and was shouted at by the Director!