The TV deal John Thaw took to grave

Hancock, Thaw’s wife of 28 years, said she found the contract on the piano at their home after spending her last evening with the star of Inspector Morse and Kavanagh QC.

The contract is understood to have given the go-ahead for a new episode of Kavanagh, which Carlton had put on hold as the actor’s condition worsened. Filming for the episode was due to begin this spring.

Thaw, 60, who first came to prominence in hit 1970s police drama The Sweeney, died at his home in west London on February 21 after an eight-month battle with throat cancer.

Hancock said: "The night before he died, he went round the garden and we had Lancashire hotpot. He was in good nick, he really was. His death came very suddenly.

"He even signed a contract for ITV, for another year, the day before he died. I found it on the piano."

She added: "John was very strong. But the fact is that John never, ever, took on board the fact he was dying.

"He just didn’t want to know. He absolutely did not want to entertain the possibility that he wasn’t going to get better: right up until the last night."

Hancock, 69, said the entire family were at home when he died, including Joanna, their daughter, Abigail, Thaw’s actress daughter from his first marriage, Melanie, Hancock’s daughter from her first marriage who Thaw adopted, and their three young grandchildren.

Hancock dismissed claims that the three daughters had been squabbling over their father’s will.

She said: "There was no dispute about the will. The will has not even been discussed. My girls have clung together in their grief and there is no way that there is any argument between them."

Hancock described her grief since her husband’s death as "absolute hell".

She said: "The honest truth is that I’m gutted, utterly, utterly, gutted. And I can’t pretend for one moment that I’m finding it easy, because I’m not. It’s absolute hell."

But said she had drawn great strength from people’s kindness. She added: "It restores one’s faith in humanity that people can be so kind. His death has touched something deeply in people, particularly old people who are lonely. It’s stirred up memories of people that they’ve lost because, I think, they feel as though they’ve lost one of their own: a man who they knew."

Hancock revealed that the only big-name actors present at the star’s funeral ceremony were Kevin Whately, who co-starred as Sergeant Lewis beside Thaw in Inspector Morse, and his old friend Richard Briers, who starred in The Good Life.

She said: "He always wanted what he called his scallywags around him, and he had them at the end. He loved them, and they did have the most enormous fun together."

But she confirmed that there would be a public memorial service for her husband later in the year.

She said: "When we have a memorial service, I’m determined it will be something that the general public will be allowed to come to. It won’t just be a ‘luvvie’ thing. He wasn’t a luvvie - absolutely not."

Hancock said she would make her first public appearance since Thaw’s death at the Bafta awards ceremony later this month. But she described how she and John had always felt out of place at award ceremonies.

She said: "We always used to feel like usurpers at those dos. We often used to look at the stars and say, ‘What are we doing here?’ I used to tell him, ‘You’re the biggest star here, mate.’ But he never believed that.

"He believed that he didn’t deserve the acclaim - and he would be flabbergasted if he saw the piles of letters, and the messages on the website. John just regarded himself as a working actor. But he was much more."