Dame Sheila Hancock, the 93-year-old actress and national treasure, has revealed her fear of dying with Nigel Farage as Prime Minister. She made the comment during an appearance on the popular BBC panel show Have I Got News For You, which was recorded before the local election results were announced.
Panel Discussion on Local Elections
Hosted by Steph McGovern, the episode featured Dame Sheila alongside comedian and Waterloo Road star John Richardson. During the first round, Dame Sheila and team captain Ian Hislop were shown footage from the local elections, including an image of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage, 62, who previously appeared on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!
As the panel discussed the growing popularity of the controversial right-wing party, Dame Sheila admitted she is 'frightened' that she might live long enough to see Farage in power. 'I've got to the age now that I probably won't be here much longer,' she said. 'And I'm so frightened [that] I'm going to die when he's Prime Minister. I can't die when Farage is Prime Minister!' she exclaimed.
Ian Hislop jokingly replied, 'OK, well that's something to look forward to,' before reassuring her: 'And he's not going to be Prime Minister just because they win seats in a local election.'
Concerns for the Country
Dame Sheila continued, 'I have a feeling that the country is so bewildered at the moment and so desperate for a change of any sort – and this is always so dangerous. It happened in countries all around the world. I'm not going to mention Germany because… but it did happen there.'
Born in 1933, Dame Sheila rose to fame in the early 1960s after starring as Carole Taylor in the BBC sitcom The Rag Trade. She has since enjoyed a prolific career across stage and screen, appearing in Doctor Who, Inspector Morse, and Jackanory, as well as films like Buster (1988) and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2008). In 2021, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her services to drama and charity.
Her personal life has been marked by tragedy: her first husband, actor Alex Ross, died of oesophageal cancer in 1971, and her second husband, Inspector Morse star John Thaw, died of the same disease in 2002. She has two daughters, including one from her marriage to Ross.
This is not the first time the Great Canal Journeys star has addressed her own mortality. In a 2023 appearance on Good Morning Britain, she spoke about being unafraid of 'cancel culture' due to her age. 'What I say to my grandchildren is, "I don't give a damn what gender people are, it is honestly irrelevant whether they're trans or whatever, I will address them whatever they like, but I've got to be able to express opinions."' When her grandchildren warned she might be 'cancelled,' she replied, 'Quite honestly, when you get to 90, you're going to be cancelled by life. You might as well risk it.'
Have I Got News For You airs Fridays at 9pm on BBC One.
