David Swift obituary
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The actor David Swift, who has died aged 85, found fame as Henry Davenport in the TV sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey, which achieved a sense of authenticity by including real-life topical events in the stories covered in the television studios of the fictional GlobeLink News. Swift revelled in the role of the irascible, vain Henry, a seasoned reporter turned news presenter who wears a toupee and constantly bickers with his fellow anchor, Sally Smedley (played by Victoria Wicks). He is contemptuous of the company’s largely unseen media tycoon owner, Sir Royston Merchant (Roger Hammond) – and away from the studio, he drinks, gambles, chases women and struggles to make alimony payments to his former wives.
Over six series of the Channel 4 newsroom satire (1990-98), written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, Swift drew laughs with Henry’s brusque manner. Once, unable to get a straight answer from an MP, he asked: “Are you personally in favour of Britain joining the European single currency? Twelve words, all English, very often one syllable. I’ll be happy to explain any that are beyond you.”
It seemed appropriate that Swift should make his mark on
screen in a programme about the cut-throat world of television journalism,
because he was also an astute business executive who launched or furthered the
careers of some eminent current affairs and documentary makers in the medium.
During his first decade in acting, he ran Preview 1 and Preview 2, sound-recording and film-editing businesses, in the West End of London. Among those who used his facilities were the BBC documentary directors Charles Denton, Richard Marquand and Paul Watson. In 1969, he formed the independent production company Tempest Films with them, and then approached the Daily Mirror journalist John Pilger to join the co-operative, which he managed.
“We wanted a frontman with a mind of his own, rather like another James Cameron, with whom Richard had worked,” Swift said. “Paul thought John was very charismatic, as well as marketing extremely original, refreshingly radical ideas.”
However, Tempest was an idea before its time, with the BBC and ITV reluctant to commission independents; instead, it “packaged” ideas. One of the first was The Quiet Mutiny, a 1970 documentary for ITV’s World in Action, directed by Denton, with Pilger as the reporter. The programme revealed that thousands of American service personnel in Vietnam were refusing to follow orders – and some were even killing their own officers. It caused a furore with the US embassy in Britain and marked the start of a long screen career for Pilger.
Swift also recruited to Tempest Films the actor-turned-filmmaker Kenneth Griffith, whose anti-establishment documentaries, like Pilger’s, ruffled feathers. With the arrival of Channel 4 in 1982, the company finally found some success as an independent producer. Among its programmes were Pilger’s interview series The Outsiders and Griffith’s Clive of India (both 1983).
Swift was born in Liverpool, the second of four children – two brothers and two sisters – of Lillie (née Greenman) and Abram Swift, who owned a furniture shop in Bootle. He was a keen sportsman at the independent Clifton college, in Bristol, and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge, where he read law.
Although he qualified as a barrister, Swift abandoned his planned career and opted for business management with JP Jacobs, a textile company manufacturing clothes for Marks & Spencer. His younger brother, Clive, went into acting – becoming best known as Hyacinth Bucket’s henpecked husband, Richard, in the sitcom Keeping up Appearances – and Swift, after marrying his boss’s daughter, the actor Paula Jacobs, in 1953, eventually decided that their careers were more interesting than the one he was pursuing.
In 1963, he joined Dundee rep as an assistant stage manager and gained his first professional acting experience. He went on to play Talbot in Henry VI, Part 1 with the Royal Shakespeare Company (Aldwych theatre, 1978) and won acclaim in the West End as Frank Doel in 84 Charing Cross Road (Ambassadors theatre, 1981-82). While with Salisbury rep, he directed Bill Naughton’s Spring and Port Wine (1969).
Swift made his television debut in 1964 as Theo Clay in the magazine soap Compact. His many other small-screen roles included Napoleon in War & Peace (1972-73), the lead role of Alan Taylor in the marriage-guidance serial Couples (1975-76), Dingley, running a florist’s shop with Richard Beckinsale’s Stan, in the sitcom Bloomers (1979), Fagin in The Further Adventures of Oliver Twist (1980), Mr Sedley in Vanity Fair (1987) and Oscar Spinner in the children’s series Oscar Charlie (2001). Among Swift’s rare film roles were Montclair, treasurer of the French underground organisation hiring Edward Fox’s assassin, in The Day of the Jackal (1973).
He is survived by his wife and their two children, Julia and Matthew.
David Bernard Swift,
actor, director and businessman, born 3 April 1931; died 8 April 2016
Actor
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Drop the Dead Donkey
8.0
TV Series
Henry Davenport
1990–2008
66 episodes
Born and Bred (2002)
Born and Bred
7.6
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Euphrates
2004
1 episode
Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher (2003)
Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher
7.6
TV Movie
Harold McEwan
2003
Holby City (1999)
Holby City
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Bill Hoskins
2002
1 episode
Oscar Charlie (2001)
Oscar Charlie
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Oscar Spinner
2001–2002
13 episodes
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(1995)
Jack & Sarah
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1995
Crime Story (1992)
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6.6
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1993
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The Paradise Club (1989)
The Paradise Club
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TV Series
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Screen One (1985)
Screen One
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1989
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1989
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1989
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David Suchet in Poirot (1989)
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1989
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1985
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1984
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1984
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1983
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1981
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1981
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1981
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1980
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1980
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The Further Adventures of Oliver Twist (1980)
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1980
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1978
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1978
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1978
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1976
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1976
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1975
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1975
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1975
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David Fryer
1975
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1974
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Stephen Aylmer
1974
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Microbes and Men (1974)
Microbes and Men
8.7
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Behring
1974
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Eddie Hanson
1974
George Cole, Rod Culbertson, Alan Erasmus, Tom Georgeson,
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Selwyn Stringer
1974
1 episode
Christiane Krüger in The Internecine Project (1974)
The Internecine Project
6.2
Chester Drake
1974
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and Laurence Naismith in Fall of Eagles (1974)
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TV Mini Series
Trepov
1974
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Who Killed Lamb? (1974)
Who Killed Lamb?
6.5
TV Movie
Insp. Havelock
1974
No Sex Please - We're British (1973)
No Sex Please - We're British
5.4
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1973
Edward Fox in The Day of the Jackal (1973)
The Day of the Jackal
7.8
Montclair
1973
Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Paul Scofield, and Anna
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ITV Saturday Night Theatre
5.8
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Fred EvansMr. Armistead
1972–1973
2 episodes
Play for Today (1970)
Play for Today
7.8
TV Series
Councillor Bass
1973
1 episode
Anthony Hopkins in War & Peace (1972)
War & Peace
8.1
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Napoleon
1972–1973
9 episodes
Travels with My Aunt (1972)
Travels with My Aunt
6.3
Detective
1972
Thirty-Minute Theatre (1965)
Thirty-Minute Theatre
7.0
TV Series
Les
1972
1 episode
Softly Softly: Task Force (1969)
Softly Softly: Task Force
7.3
TV Series
Ben Fisher
1972
1 episode
Desmond Llewelyn, Gillian Blake, Arthur English, Steve
Hodson, and Christian Rodska in Follyfoot (1971)
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7.4
TV Series
Mr. Bendiger
1972
1 episode
Frank Finlay and Zienia Merton in Casanova (1971)
Casanova
7.4
TV Mini Series
Valenglart
1971
2 episodes
Budgie (1971)
Budgie
7.6
TV Series
Sergeant Oxley
1971
1 episode
Reginald Barratt, Alfie Bass, Richard Beckinsale, Freddie
Fletcher, Bill Fraser, Bernard Hepton, Arthur Lowe, Brian Miller, Ron Moody,
Jack Rosenthal, Liz Smith, and Paula Wilcox in ITV Playhouse (1967)
ITV Playhouse
7.1
TV Series
Walter
1971
1 episode
A Family at War (1970)
A Family at War
7.8
TV Series
CSM Basset
1970
1 episode
Menace (1970)
Menace
7.2
TV Series
Insp. Dundy
1970
1 episode
Death Happens to Other People
TV Movie
Lt. Rebus
1967
Steve Forrest and Sue Lloyd in The Baron (1966)
The Baron
7.1
TV Series
LonniePhillipe
1966
2 episodes
The Avengers (1961)
The Avengers
8.3
TV Series
Barber
1966
1 episode
Theatre 625 (1964)
Theatre 625
7.1
TV Series
Hymie Kossof
1966
1 episode
Alfred Lynch in Hereward the Wake (1965)
Hereward the Wake
7.2
TV Series
Prior HerluinHerluin
1965
7 episodes
Roger Croucher and Elizabeth Shepherd in Buddenbrooks (1965)
Buddenbrooks
TV Mini Series
Herr Permaneder
1965
2 episodes
Pamela Ann Davy in Pity About the Abbey (1965)
Londoners
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Norman Phipps
1965
1 episode
Undermind (1965)
Undermind
6.8
TV Series
Macridos
1965
1 episode
Compact (1962)
Compact
6.8
TV Series
Theo Clay
1964
7 episodes
Love Story (1963)
Love Story
6.9
TV Series
Charles
1964
1 episode
Call the Gun Expert (1964)
Call the Gun Expert
TV Series
Counsel
1964
1 episode
Hamlet at Elsinore (1964)
Hamlet at Elsinore
7.7
TV Movie
Player King
1964
Self
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Timewatch
7.7
TV Series
Self
2003
1 episode
Eamonn Andrews in This Is Your Life (1955)
This Is Your Life
6.4
TV Series
Self
1996
1 episode
Charter 88 Bad Government Awards
TV Special
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1994
Ken Dodd: An Audience with Ken Dodd (1994)
Ken Dodd: An Audience with Ken Dodd
8.3
TV Special
Self - Audience Member (uncredited)
1994
The Good Sex Guide (1993)
The Good Sex Guide
6.5
TV Series
Self
1994
1 episode
Bob Monkhouse in An Audience with Bob Monkhouse (1994)
An Audience with Bob Monkhouse
7.4
TV Special
Self - Audience Member (uncredited)
1994
The Main Event (1993)
The Main Event
TV Series
Self
1993
1 episode
Amnesty International's Big 30 (1991)
Amnesty International's Big 30
6.2
TV Special
Self - Henry Davenport
1991
Archive Footage
Cinema Komunisto (2010)
Cinema Komunisto
7.8
Self (archive footage)
2010
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