David Daker obit

 

David Daker, busy character actor who formed a memorable double act with Michael Elphick in Boon

He was not on the list.

David Daker, who has died aged 90, was a burly, balding character actor who appeared in dozens of television series, most enduringly alongside Michael Elphick in Boon.

Daker's homely features were instantly recognisable, but, although he became a fixture in the nation's living-rooms, many viewers would have struggled to put a name to the face. "A couple of kids came up and asked me for my autograph so I signed my name David Daker. They looked at it and said 'Who's that?'," he told one interviewer.

He specialised in hardmen, and in 1977 appeared in the final episode of Porridge as Jarvis (described in the script as "a tough, unpleasant-looking inmate"), who endangers Godber's (Richard Beckinsale) chances of parole by trying to goad him into a fight. Fletcher (Ronnie Barker) tries to draw Jarvis's ire on himself instead by telling him: "Your old lady's only been unfaithful to you twice... Once with the milkman and once with the Household Cavalry."

Daker gave a masterclass in sneering villainy as Captain Spiker, the corrupt nemesis of Richard O'Sullivan's highwayman in Dick Turpin (1979-82), and was the Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess in the miniseries Holocaust (1978). Between 1981 and 1985 he had a number of stints in Coronation Street as Gordon Lewis, the mini-Hitler relief manager at the Rovers Return.

"Lewis… suspended Fred Gee and made life so impossible for Bet Lynch and Betty Turpin that they both walked out," Daker recalled. "I got vitriolic letters from viewers asking how I dared to behave like that."

He was a more genial presence in the ITV comedy-drama Boon, as the hapless would-be entrepreneur Harry Crawford, constantly getting into scrapes from which his motorcycle-riding fixer Ken Boon (Michael Elphick) has to extract him.

It was Elphick, an old friend of Daker's, who suggested him for the role, and he appeared in all 93 episodes between 1986 and 1995. The Daily Telegraph judged that Harry and Boon had become "a partnership now almost as durable and likeable as Arthur and Terry in Minder".

Colin David Daker was born in Bilston, in the Black Country, on September 29 1935; he was the youngest of five children of Elijah Daker, who worked in a shoe factory, and his wife Olive, née Cutler. At Etheridge Secondary Modern School he was so impressive as Long John Silver in Treasure Island that his parents were persuaded to send him for speech training lessons.

He worked as a draughtsman for two years before deciding that his future lay on the stage, and trained at the Oxford Playhouse Theatre School. He tried to iron out his Black Country accent: "I thought I wouldn't get any good acting parts if I didn't speak posh, but since I became a professional actor, I've used my own accent more than any other."

He played Reg Drummond in the original production of Peter Nichols's Privates on Parade in 1977 during a stint with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and was Chief Inspector Roach, boss of Ray Brooks's Sergeant Brook, in the Radio 4 series Detective. His films included O Lucky Man!, Aces High, Voyage of the Damned and Time Bandits.

Daker admitted to battles with alcoholism, and was devastated by the death of his daughter from multiple sclerosis in 1997; the following year he was convicted of assaulting a female neighbour over a parking dispute, but given a conditional discharge.

He is survived by his second wife, Hilary, née Voisey, and their daughter, as well as a son by his first marriage.

Filmography

Film

Year     Title     Role     Notes

1973    O Lucky Man! Various           

The Optimists of Nine Elms   Bob Ellis        

1974    The Black Windmill    MI5 Man        

Stardust           Ralph Woods  

1976    Aces High       Bennett           

Voyage of the Dammed          First Officer    

1979    That Summer! Pub Landlord 

1981    Time Bandits   Kevin's Father

1982    Britannia Hospital       Guest Workman         

1990    I Bought a Vampire Motorcycle          Desk Sergeant

Television

Year     Title     Role     Notes

1964    Detective         Thomas Yaxley           Episode: "The Loring Mystery"

1966    King of the River        Jack Flynn       Episode: "Keeping the Old Spirit Alive"

1967–1977      Z Cars PC Culshaw

Reg

Sgt. Milne        84 episodes

1968–1985      Coronation Street        Basil Griffin

Gordon Lewis 31 episodes

1969    ITV Sunday Night Theatre     Ken     Episode: "Travelling Where?"

1969–1972      Dixon of Dock Green Headmaster

Jock     2 episodes

1970    Parkin's Patch  Det. Sgt. Milburn        Episode: "The Spider's Web"

1971    UFO    SHADO Guard (uncredited)   Episode: "Flight Path"

Trial     Prior    Episode: "On the Evidence You Will Hear"

1972    Villains            George 6 episodes

1973    Full House      Fedya in On the High Road    Episode: #1.22

General Hospital         Unknown        Episode: #1.63

Hadleigh          Ted Prior         Episode: "Gentleman and Players"

Second City Firsts       Peter    Episode: "If a Man Answers"

1973–1974,

1979

 

Doctor Who    Irongron

Rigg    Serials: "The Time Warrior" and "Nightmare of Eden"

1974    The Carnforth Practice            Tanker Driver  Episode: "The Aristocrat"

Hunter's Walk  Barry Dawes   Episode: "Villain"

Armchair Cinema        Tusser  Episode: "Regan"

Marked Personal         Jack Williams  2 episodes

Dial M for Murder      Tony    Episode: "Recording Angel"

ITV Sunday Night Drama       Sussex Episode: "The Ceremony of Innocence"

1974–1976      Centre Play     Jacky Maddison

Max     2 episodes

1975    Churchill's People       John Bradwater           Episode: "Shouts and Murmurs"

The Hanged Man        Piet Hollander Episode: "The Bridge Maker"

The Main Chance       Jacobson          Episode: "Survival"

The Rough with the Smooth   Rudolph Culpepper     Episode: "The Broom Cupboard"

Daft As a Brush           Jack Baker       Television film

BBC Play of the Month          Cpl. Hill          Episode: "Chips with Everything"

Thriller            Charlie Draper Episode: "Kill Two Birds"

Softly Softly: Task Force        Walters            Episode: "Dorothy's Birthday"

1975–1984      Play for Today Various            8 episodes

1976    Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd    Mr. Holroyd    Television film

Three Days in Szczecin          Workers' spokesman   Television film

1976–1981      When the Boat Comes In        Chater

Sid Meek

 

2 episodes

1977    Eleanor Marx  Will Thorne     2 episodes

Warship           PO Asdale       Episode: "Counter Charge"

Porridge           Jarvis   Episode: "Final Stretch"

Rising Damp   Mr. Brent         Episode: "That's My Boy"

The Dick Emery Show           Unknown        Episode: #16.2

Target  Mike Ansell     Episode: "Vandraggers"

BBC2 Play of the Week          Max     Episode: "The Kitchen"

1978    Hazell  Dave Ryman   Episode: "Hazell and the Rubber-Heel Brigade"

Holocaust        Rudolf Hoess  Episode: "Part 4: 1944–1945"

Strangers         Roy Stephens  Episode: "Right and Wrong"

1979    All Creatures Great and Small            Mr. Barratt       Episode: "Puppy Love"

Charlie Muffin            Bolton Television film

Two People     Len Fletcher    5 episodes

Saint Joan        Poulengey       Television film

1979–1982      Dick Turpin     Captain Nathan Spiker            13 episodes

1980    The Enigma Files        Major Mike Clark       Episode: "The Full Flying Carpet Treatment"

1980–1985      Minder Alex Brompton

Sir Ronald Bates         2 episodes

1981    The Gentle Touch       Sam Taylor      Episode: "Doubt"

BBC2 Playhouse         Alf       Episode: "The Grudge Fight"

1981–1985      Juliet Bravo     Charlie Pendle

Chris Oldham

Colin Bright    3 episodes

1982    Legacy of Murder       Mechanic         Episode: "Who Do You Voodoo?"

ITV Playhouse            'Dogfood' Dan Milton Episode: "Dogfood Dan and the Camarthen Cowboy"

Only Fools and Horses           Tommy Mackay          Episode: "No Greater Love"

1983    BBC Television Shakespeare  Various            Episodes: Henry VI and Richard III

To the Lighthouse       Mr. Trevorrow Television film

Give us a Break           Ron Palmer     7 episodes

1984    Crown Court   Harry Barber   Serial: "There Was an Old Woman"

Moonfleet        Elzevir Block  6 episodes

Hallelujah!       Brother Benjamin

Bob Scratchitt

 

8 episodes

1985    Summer Season          Leo Lyon         Episode: "Urban Jungle"

1986    Sorry!  Byron Hadlee  Episode: "The Primal Scene, So to Speak"

Love and Marriage      Maurice Bannister       Episode: "A Walk Under Ladders"

1986–1995      Boon   Harry Crawford           93 episodes

1987    Up Line           Leon Targett    4 episodes

Screen Two     Mr. Plant         Episode: "The Children of Dynmouth"

1988    Blind Justice    Det. Insp. Gee Episode: "A Death in the Family"

1989    The Woman in Black  Josiah Freston Television film

1995    Crown Prosecutor       Ben Campbell 10 episodes

Resort to Murder         Sam Penny      4 episodes

Pigeon Summer           Uncle Charley TV mini-series

1995–2000      The Bill           Laurie Coleman

Mick Davies    2 episodes

1996    The Vet            Gerry Leadbetter         Episode: "Out of the Past"

Paul Merton in Galton and Simpson's...         Farmer Episode: "Twelve Angry Men"

Casualty          Jim Porteous    Episode: "Waterwings"

1997    Dangerfield     Ken Markham Episode: "Perfect Witness"

1998    Midsomer Murders     Harry Vellacott            Episode: "Faithful unto Death"

1999    The Ruth Rendell Mysteries   Stanley Clayton           Episode: "The Fallen Curtain"

2000    Dalziel and Pascoe      Jack Turton      Episode: "A Sweeter Lazarus"

Heartbeat         Matty Lovell   Episode: "War Stories"

2001    Where the Heart Is      Peter Lampard Episode: "Pound of Flesh"

Hearts and Bones        Mr. Rose         2 episodes

Big Bad World            Ernest  3 episodes

2002–2007      Doctors            Eric Barbar

Jim Young       2 episodes

2004    The Last Detective      Jervis Beauchamp       Episode: "Benefit to Mankind"

Powers Mike Knowles Episode: "The Future Is Yours"

2004–2009      Holby City      Bill Gibbs

Mr Frisby        2 episodes