the punk and Thatcher years, folk audiences had lost interest in contemporary song and, in the days of alternative comedy, his bawdy humour was deemed sexist and outdated. He ultimately gave up performing in the early 1990s and turned to journalism: for four years he wrote a weekly column for the Yorkshire Post. Retirement and death In the 1990s, Thackray withdrew to his home in Monmouth, South Wales, where he had settled with his family in the late 1960s. Beset by health and financial problems: he had become an alcoholic and was declared bankrupt in 2000. He had always been an observant Roman Catholic and became increasingly religious in his later years, limiting his musical activities to performing the Angelus at his local church. He died of heart failure on 24 December 2002, at the age of 64, leaving his widow, Sheila, from whom he was separated, and three sons: Bill, Sam and Tom. Revival in interest In May 2002, a group of fans formed the Jake Thackray Project with the intention of making more of Thackray's work available to the public. With Thackray's cooperation, the project team, led by record producer David Harris, received permission from EMI to produce a double CD of 42 songs not on any then-available release, limited to 200 copies, which was released in November 2002 with cover art by Bill Tidy. After Thackray's death the following month, EMI consented to a further edition of 100 copies. This revival of interest led to the release of two mass market CDs the following year: The Very Best of Jake Thackray on EMI, and The Jake Thackray Collection on HMV. The Jake Thackray Project went on to release a remastered live recording (the CD Live in Germany), and two DVDs: the privately recorded Live at the Unicorn (2009) and the BBC-licensed Jake Thackray and Songs (2014). A musical written by Barnsley-born poet Ian McMillan based on Thackray's songs and their characters, Sister Josephine Kicks the Habit, premiered in 2005 and toured the north of England. A rewrite by Alan Plater was due to tour the UK in 2007, but was put on hold following the death of executive producer Ian Watson. In 2014 Jake Thackray was featured on the BBC Radio Four 'Great Lives' Series. 2006 saw a major retrospective. EMI released an expanded, 29-song double CD edition of Live Performance, and Jake in a Box, a