David Swift
Birthday: Born in 1931-04-03 in Liverpool, Lancashire, England, UK
Deathday: 2016-04-08
TV Credits
The Professionals
Character: Sir Kenneth
The lives of Bodie and Doyle, top agents for Britain's CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5), and their controller, George Cowley. The mandate of CI5 was to fight terrorism and similar high-profile crimes. Cowley, a hard ex-MI5 operative, hand-picked each of his men. Bodie is a cynical ex-SAS paratrooper and mercenary whose nature ran to controlled violence, while his partner, Doyle, comes to CI5 from the regular police force, and is more of an open minded liberal. Their relationship is often contenti...
Bloomers
Character:
Bloomers was a short-lived British sitcom starring Richard Beckinsale that was aired in 1979. It was in production in 1979 but only five episodes were made before Beckinsale died suddenly from a heart attack just before a planned rehearsal for the sixth and final episode of the first series. Bloomers was immediately shelved, though the five completed episodes were broadcast later in the same year....
Drop the Dead Donkey
Character: Henry Davenport
Drop the Dead Donkey is a situation comedy that first aired on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom between 1990 and 1998. It is set in the offices of “GlobeLink News”, a fictional TV news company. Recorded close to transmission, it made use of contemporary news events to give the programme a greater sense of realism. It was created by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin. The series had an ensemble cast, making stars of Haydn Gwynne, Stephen Tompkinson and Neil Pearson. The series began with the acquisitio...
Timewatch
Character:
Timewatch is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29 September 1982 and is produced by the BBC, the Timewatch brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual documentaries can be found on US cable channels without the branding....
The BBC Television Shakespeare
Character: Duke of Northumberland
The BBC Television Shakespeare is a series of British television adaptations of the plays of William Shakespeare, created by Cedric Messina and produced by BBC Television. It was transmitted in the UK from 3 December 1978 to 27 April 1985 and spanned seven series. Development of the series began in 1975 when Messina saw that Glamis Castle would make a perfect location for an adaptation of Shakespeare's play As You Like It. On returning to London, he envisioned an entire series devoted exclusivel...
Play for Today
Character: Councillor Bass
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration....
Vanity Fair
Character: Mr. Sedley
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Oscar Charlie
Character: Oscar Spinner
Oscar Charlie was a 13-episode CBBC children's television series that aired for the first time on 26 September 2001. The series is about a boy, Charlie Spinner, who discovers that his grandfather, Oscar Spinner, is actually a secret agent. He acts senile but it is just a cover so that nobody would notice. After Charlie confronts Oscar with this they work together on a dangerous assignment....
Agatha Christie's Poirot
Character: Henry Reedburn
From England to Egypt, accompanied by his elegant and trustworthy sidekicks, the intelligent yet eccentrically-refined Belgian detective Hercule Poirot pits his wits against a collection of first class deceptions....
Bergerac
Character: Dr. Barnard
Bergerac is a British television show set on Jersey. Produced by the BBC in association with the Seven Network, and first screened on BBC1, it stars John Nettles as the title character Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, a detective in Le Bureau des Étrangers, part of the States of Jersey Police....
The Paradise Club
Character: Max Wartbug
The Paradise Club is a BBC television drama starring Don Henderson and Leslie Grantham as Frank & Danny Kane. Two series were produced and were broadcast between 1989 and 1990. The show focuses upon two brothers, Frank & Danny Kane. Their mother, Ma Kane, is the matriarch of a criminal gang in South London, helped by her son Danny. Frank has become a priest but leaves the church; he inherits The Paradise Club on the death of their mother and returns to London to try and steer Danny away from cr...
Going Straight
Character: Mr McEwan
Going Straight is a BBC sitcom which was a direct spin-off from Porridge, starring Ronnie Barker as Norman Stanley Fletcher, newly released from the fictional Slade Prison where the earlier series had been set. It sees Fletcher trying to become an honest member of society, having vowed to stay away from crime on his release. The title refers to his attempt, 'straight' being a slang term meaning being honest, in contrast to 'bent', i.e., dishonest. Also re-appearing was Richard Beckinsale as Le...
War & Peace
Character: Napoleon Bonaparte
The classic BBC dramatisation of Tolstoy's epic story of love and loss set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Anthony Hopkins heads the cast as Pierre Bezuhov (a role for which he won the 1972 Best Actor BAFTA); Morag Hood is the impulsive and beautiful Natasha Rostova; Alan Dobie is the dour but heroic Andrei Bolkonsky; and David Swift is Napoleon, whose decision to invade Russia in 1812 has far-reaching consequences for Pierre and the Rostov and Bolkonsky families. The twenty-part se...
Turtle's Progress
Character: Inspector Rafferty
Turtle's Progress is a British television series broadcast between 1979 and 1980. The offbeat humour of the show attracted a small but cult audience, and the show only ran for two series....
NOVA
Character: Nikolai Vavilov
PBS' premier science series helps viewers of all ages explore the science behind the headlines. Along the way, NOVA demystifies science and technology, and highlights the people involved in scientific pursuits....
Dalgliesh
Character: Sir Marcus Cohen
Centred on the cases of P. D. James' gentleman detective Adam Dalgliesh. In addition to his career as a policeman, Dalgliesh is also a published poet and an intensely private man....
Rising Damp
Character: Gray
Set in a seedy bedsit, the cowardly landlord Rigsby has his conceits debunked by his long suffering tenants....
War & Peace
Character: Napoleon
The classic BBC dramatisation of Tolstoy's epic story of love and loss set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars. Anthony Hopkins heads the cast as Pierre Bezuhov (a role for which he won the 1972 Best Actor BAFTA); Morag Hood is the impulsive and beautiful Natasha Rostova; Alan Dobie is the dour but heroic Andrei Bolkonsky; and David Swift is Napoleon, whose decision to invade Russia in 1812 has far-reaching consequences for Pierre and the Rostov and Bolkonsky families. The twenty-part se...
The Day of the Triffids
Character: Beadley
Following mysterious bright lights in the sky, the human race is rendered blind and helpless. The survivors find themselves stalked by sentient flesh-eating plants....
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years
Character: Professor Lindemann
Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years is an 8-part 1981 drama serial based on the life of Winston Churchill, and particularly his years in enforced exile from political position during the 1920s and 30s. It was written and directed by Ferdinand Fairfax and Churchill was played by Robert Hardy. Hardy's brilliant performance as Churchill won critical acclaim and a BAFTA award in 1982. He reprised the role in The Sittaford Mystery, Bomber Harris and War and Remembrance and at the 50th anniversar...
Movie Credits
Jack & Sarah
Character: Michael
Jack always lands on his feet. He lands on his feet when he marries the beautiful Sarah. He lands on his feet when he buys a luxurious new home. However, when Sarah goes into labour, he takes a tumble down the stairs and lands on his head. When he comes around he discovers he is the proud father of a baby girl, but deficient in the spouse department to the tune of 1....
The Day of the Jackal
Character: Montclair
An international assassin known as ‘The Jackal’ is employed by disgruntled French generals to kill President Charles de Gaulle, with a dedicated gendarme on the assassin’s trail....
Travels with My Aunt
Character: John Sparrow
At his mother's funeral, stuffy bank clerk Henry Pulling meets his Aunt Augusta, an elderly eccentric with more-than-shady dealings who pulls him along on a whirlwind adventure as she attempts to rescue an old lover....
Operation Julie
Character: Det. Supt. David Gosling
A TV movie directed by Bob Mahoney. Based on the book by Dick Lee & Colin Pratt it tells the true story of a long running Police investigation which resulted in the arrests of 120 people and jail sentences of 170 years for the manufacture and distribution of £100M of LSD....
An Audience with Bob Monkhouse
Character: Self
The late, great comedian Bob Monkhouse entertains a celebrity audience that includes Stephen Fry, Mandy Smith and Eamonn Holmes in this 1994 special. Watch him answer questions, tell funny tales and crack jokes....
The Dybbuk
Character: Sender
A young bride is possessed by a dybbuk, a malicious possessing spirit, believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person, on the eve of her wedding....
Les Misérables
Character: Troufiat
In 19th century France, Jean Valjean, a man imprisoned for stealing bread, must flee a relentless policeman named Javert. The pursuit consumes both men's lives, and soon Valjean finds himself in the midst of the student revolutions in France....
The Black Panther
Character: Det. Chief Superintendent
A gung-ho ex-military man pursues a secret life of crime, culminating in the kidnapping of a teenage heiress....
The Assignment
Character:
A Swedish diplomat travels to a civil war in a Latin American country. His mission is to mediate between the two extremist groups....
Another Sunday and Sweet F.A.
Character: Mr Armistead
Mr. Armistead is the referee for an amateur league Sunday Football match. Disliked and abused by all the players he tries to play fair and ensure they follow the rules. By the end of the match he's had enough and really uses his head to show them that he's not as useless as they all think....
Amnesty International's Big 30
Character: Henry Davenport
In the tradition of the acclaimed series of British concerts known as The Secret Policemen's Ball, Amnesty International celebrates its 50th Anniversary live at Radio City Music Hall....
Arthur's Hallowed Ground
Character: Lionel
Arthur is the groundsman. He's a perfectionist who has lovingly tended the cricket pitch for 45 years. Now he is given a new assistant....
Give Us a Break: Hustle Bustle Toil and Muscle
Character: Joe Morris
Mickey and Mo head to Liverpool for the chance of a big score...
Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher
Character: Harold McEwan
Spoof documentary looking at the life of Normal Stanley Fletcher, the star of 1970s sitcom Porridge played by Ronnie Barker. Featuring fictional footage and interviews with the character's family, friends and associates, the film documents Fletcher's chequered career....
Highway Robbery
Character: Councillor Bass
Terry and his family fight against a planned eviction when the council decides on a road building programme and their house is in its path....
No Sex Please: We're British
Character: Inspector Paul
A porn-store owner orders some new stuff from his supplier, but the delivery address gets mixed with the address of the local Barclays Bank. Here, David (the bank's assistant manager) and his new wife are shocked when photos, then films and finally two girls are sent to them in their bank-supplied flat. They and the banks' head cashier then hatch a plan to get rid of the porn—without letting their boss, the local police and David's mother in on what is happening....
The Bunker
Character: Gen. Rattenhuber
Dramatization depicting the events surrounding Adolf Hitler's last weeks in and around his underground bunker in Berlin before and during the battle for the city....
Richard II
Character: Duke of Northumberland
Richard II, who ascended the throne as a child, is a regal and stately monarch. He believes he is the rightful ruler of England, ordained by God, yet he is a weak and ineffective king - wasteful in his spending habits, unwise in his choise of chansellors, and detached from his country and its people. When he seizes the land of his cousin Henry Bolingbroke, both the commoners and the barons decide that their king has gone too far......
We Think the World of You
Character: Bill
An aimless young man, Johnny, is sent prison. He entrusts his beloved dog, Evie, to the care of his former lover and best friend, Frank. When he gets out of prison, he has to face difficulties at home. Added to this, is the fact that he may have to give up Evie to Frank....
Countdown to War
Character: Daladier
Based on a play, the story details the dramatic negotiations between UK, France, Poland, Nazi-Germany and USSR from the day Czechoslovakia fell, until Britain's declaration of war on Germany caused by Hitler's invasion of Poland....
The Internecine Project
Character: Chester Drake
Offered a job as a presidential adviser, a professor is forced to dispose of those who knew him when he was a spy....
The Crystal Spirit: Orwell on Jura
Character: Richard Rees
A remote farmhouse on an isolated island. Strangers with English accents. Quarrels and a lonely child. The year is 1946. The man is George Orwell. The book he has come to write is Nineteen Eighty-four....
Who Killed Lamb?
Character: Insp. Havelock
A popular member of the Oxford community is killed and nobody figure out why. A police inspector is called in from Scotland Yard and discovers there may be more to the victim than anyone knows....