At the age of 12 David played Freidrich Von Trapp in The Sound of Music at The Palace Theatre in London's West End.
School performances included Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance and Thomas More
in A Man For All Seasons.
He spent a year as the lead in the West End production of The Mousetrap (at the St Martin's Theatre) and was the original Harry in the National tour of Stephen Sondheim's Company.
Leading roles in the films Count Down To Danger
and Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher while still at St. Georges.
Has appeared in numerous TV series over 20 years including:
The Human Jungle (Bobby in The Quick and the Dead, 1964)
The Secret Army (Navigator in Growing Up, 1977)
[See YouTube clip from 3:30]
Brideshead Revisited (1981)
[See YouTube clip from 7:15, sitting to the right of the C.O.]
Lovejoy (Geoffrey Gooch in Who Dares, Sings, 1991)
Poirot (Inspector Glen in The ABC Murders, 1992)
Pie in the Sky (Chief Constable Derek Willis in Squashed Tomatoes, 1997)
Dennis Richardson in Hollyoaks (1999-2003) - nominated as Best Villain in The British Soap Awards
He recently played Kurt Weill in Ken Russell’s Weill & Lenya, and was last seen in the
London’s West End as Ernest Simpson in Always (the musical biography of Edward and Mrs
Simpson). He played Noel Coward in Sheridan Morley’s Noel & Gertie whilst other West End
shows include The Sound of Music (while at SGC), Peg and A Month in the Country.
He played Horace Vandergelder in the 2008 UK tour
of Hello Dolly and Daddy Warbucks in the 2010 UK tour
of Annie.
Voiceover artist, lived near Guildford. Died 25 June 2015.
The Human Jungle (1964)
David's first screen appearance (according to IMDB) was in a
long-forgotten TV series from the early sixties called The Human Jungle. This was brief and uncredited. It was probably filmed in the
summer of 1964 (there are leaves on the trees) and was transmitted in December 1964.
The whole episode is on YouTube. This clip is near the start
and he also appears in several brief shots towards the end, starting 38 minutes in.
Count Down To Danger (1967)
Based on the children's novel by Charles Ira Coombs (1960). In this Famous Five style story a young boy finds himself stuck in a
warehouse filled with old German mines which could explode at any minute.
The opening few minutes of the 63 minute film has turned up on YouTube.
The cast included Frank Williams (seen in the YouTube clip), who played the vicar in Dad's Army.
A short extract appears below.
Decline and fall ... of a birdwatcher (1969)
From Evelyn Waugh's 1928 novel Decline and Fall, which was based in part on Waugh's undergraduate years at Oxford, and his
experience as a teacher in Wales. It is a social satire that employs the author's characteristic black humour in lampooning
various features of British society in the 1920s.
The film has never been issued on VHS or DVD and is rarely shown on TV. The entire film turned up on YouTube recently,
but has now been removed.
A short extract appears below.
