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Director and producer of top TV comedy shows passes away

Director and producer of top TV comedy shows passes away

JOHN Howard Davies, who has passed away aged 72, played a key role in bringing some of the most famous comedy shows, including Fawlty Towers and Monty Python’s Flying Circus, to television.

Mr. Davies was a gifted producer and director who had an unerring feel for shows, which sometimes did not initially enjoy widespread support among TV bosses but which were to go on, in some cases, to occupy cherished places in the history of TV comedy.

An example of this was Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Mr. Davies was the series producer and also directed the first four episodes. The show’s surreal humour was not to everyone’s taste at the top of the BBC but went on to be a major success with the viewing public.

He had already worked on such shows as All Gas and Gaiters, Steptoe and Son and The Goodies which he produced between 1970 and 1972.

When John Cleese and Connie Booth brought Fawlty Towers to the BBC, it was John Howard Davies who suggested Prunella Scales for the part of Sybil Fawlty.

Mr. Davies directed the first series of the show which won the Bafta for Best Sitcom in 1975.

He also had a long association with another highly successful sitcom, The Good Life, which he produced for it entire run from 1975 to 1979.

After being appointed Head of Comedy at the BBC in 1978, Mr. Davies help launch shows such as Yes Minister, Not the Nine O’Clock News and Only Fools and Horses.

After the BBC, Mr. Davies went to Thames Television where he was involved in shows which included Mr. Bean and After Henry.

Before beginning his career in television, he had enjoyed success as a child actor.

He had played Oliver Twist in David Lean’s film of the Dicken’s novel in 1948 (see below), and had also appeared in Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1951) as well in the TV series William Tell.

To see John Howard Davies in a scene from the film Oliver Twist click here.

 

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