The series' final episode on December 28, 1978, garnered its highest ratings of 19 million viewers. But British fans could not get enough of their newly-found heroes on the small screen, as the Sweeney made the jump to the big screen in two feature films: "Sweeney!" (1977) which won John the Evening Standard Best Film Actor of the Year Award, and "Sweeney II" in 1978. It also spawned a series of cheap pulp paperback novels based on the show, and all sorts of licensed tie-ins. Following this hectic shooting schedule of sqealing tires and shootouts, John returned to the stage and appeared in a series of plays both in London and Toronto, Canada. He appeared opposite Diana Rigg in "Night And Day" (1976) and drew rave reviews for "Absurd Person Singular" (1976). Other appearances included "The Sensible Action Of Mr.Horst" (1976), "The Two Of Us" (1977) opposite wife Sheila Hancock, "Sgt. Musgrave's Dance" (1978), "Pygmalion" (1984), Arthur Miller's "All My Sons" in the part of Joe Keller (1985), "Stainheads" (1986), and as "Kieran Flynn" opposite Glenda Jackson in "Business As Usual" (1988). For a rare glimpse at the theatrical trailer for this film that includes John, CLICK HERE. Not forgetting his classical training, he also gained favorable reviews for his performance in Shakespeare's "Henry VII" (1989) and "Twelfth Night" (1990). John seems at home on both the stage and in front of the television cameras, and easily switches from one medium to another in an effort to balance out his projects with a satisfying degree of variety. It is a talent few actors seem able to master. Though John enjoys the immediate response of performing in front of a live audience, "keeping you sharp at your craft" as he puts it, it is television which is his first love and where he is the most comfortable.

An uneasy John is surprised, however, in 1981 with an unexpected episode of "This Is Your Life" featuring him at home. Always intensely private about his personal life, John warms up when, among the parade of friends and relatives that are brought out, his father and brother appear. This particular episode becomes the most popular of the show for that year. For an exclusive 2-part Thames Television clip of John being surprised on "This Is Your Life" CLICK HERE for Part 1 (3 minutes, 30 seconds) and CLICK HERE for Part 2 (1 minute, 45 seconds.) They are a wonderful look back at John Thaw just being himself, not in character as an actor. John next appears in "The Grass is Singing" (1981, also released as "Killing Heat") opposite Karen Black, a searing saga in which Black plays an unstable white South African woman who marries a well-meaning but failing farmer (Thaw) whose marriage and life disintegrates into poverty while losing her sanity in the process. For a rare look at the theatrical trailer to this film which includes scenes of John's part, CLICK HERE.

During this period of his life John also performed in what he later described as the "most gratifying role of his career," as a father trying to find out how his son has died in Northern Ireland in a remarkable one-man play by Douglas Livingstone, called "We'll Support You Evermore" (1985). According to Livingstone, "Though the quest for truth was the mainspring of the plot, it was never going to be settled; what mattered, in the end, was an uncomplicated man's grief and puzzlement, both conveyed so subtlty by the formidable Mr. Thaw." John also makes one of his rare overseas ventures in 1985, appearing in Toronto, Canada, in the Ray Cooney farce "Two Into One" with fellow actor Daniel Massey.