The river of entrapment

Timothy spall is a national living treasure. I think he is a brilliant actor. Don't know much about his wife though

Googled Shane Spall and came up with the following from http://www.ma-agency.com/authors/shane_spall

Hope it helps-she sounds an absolute delight and I'm surprised she didn't have an identity crisis due to her parents' naming technique, bless her

''Shane Spall is from a large Midlands family. Her mother called her Number Five and her father after a character in a Western, played by Alan Ladd.

As a teenager in the 70s she worked in a Quaker hotel in Birmingham and on her day off would sit in New Street station and wonder where everyone was going. She now knows they were mostly going to work or coming home. The day that the young actor Timothy Spall arrived at New Street in 1981 she was in a council flat a few miles away. They could have been ships that had passed in the night but he sought her out because he had fallen passionately in love with her when he had accidentally touched her arm one night. The young actor now gets to play parts called 'old man' but is considered to be a 'national treasure'. He's a bit of a show off, but his wife doesn't mind, she keeps his feet on the ground. They have three children and used to have a bulldog that couldn't swim and a goldfish but they fostered it out as it got lonely staying home on its own.''

I think Timothy Spall is one of our `unsung` great actors and everything that he does just makes you want to sit there and see everything through to the end and more.Some years ago I joined an agency and did 12 episodes in the `Doctor` series with Christopher Timothy from Pebble Mill in Birmingham and a crowd scene in a production called `In a land of plenty`but it takes a lot out of you being an actor so I never persued it,and Timothy Spall and I are neighbours for he hails from West Bromwich in WM and I live in Burntwood so I am waiting for his next production ...so hurry up Timothy.

We are watching the DVD of Shane and Tim's maritime adventures.
As we spend most of our holidays on a narrowboat on the English canals, there are many resonances, expecially when Tim messes up some vital part of the navigation process and Shane gets the blame!
Will go into Waterstone's tomorrow when I go to town and get Shane's book

They both sound like treasures to me. I will watch the DVD as DH and I want to go on a narrow boat for a month or 2. When, and if he retires.

Don't let the Spalls' various mishaps and horrors put you off narrowboating Grannyeggs
It's really relaxing and a fabulous way to see parts of the country you would just otherwise never go to.
I'd be hard pushed to say which has been my favourite expedition, but leaving the Thames at Limehouse Basin at 5.45 in the morning (because of the tide), travelling upstream through the awakening city to Teddington Lock, then up the Thames to Oxford has to be one of the best.
Yes I know the Thames isn't a canal

Can't wait, it's something I've always wanted to do. And yes, I would like to do parts of the Thames as well as the canals.

You may well find, Grannyeggs that when you take to the water, like the Spalls and the Ainsworths, that MrEggs assumes the role of helmsman and you assume the role of crew.
This means heavy work on the locks and as I have said, taking the blame for anything that goes wrong, from bashing the boat into the lock wall or running aground to running out of milk.
I have learned to hold my head high and remember the motto of the Crews' Union:
"It's hard to be humble when you know you're great"
Enjoy!