John Howard Davies was an English child actor, famous for appearing in the 1948 film adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. In the 1960's, he became a television director and producer. By 1975, he was the producer on the BBC comedy series The Good Life.
Known to his friends as JHD, his credits as a child actor include the title role at the age of nine in David Lean's production Oliver Twist, followed by The Rocking Horse Winner, Tom Brown's Schooldays and a few episodes of the TV series William Tell. After a basic education at Haileybury School, he gained further education in Grenoble, France, followed by national servicein the Navy.
Adult career
After being discharged from the Navy, Davies worked in the City of Londonfinancial sector, and then as a carpet salesman. He relocated to Melbourne, Australia, where he returned to acting and met his first wife, Leonie, when they both appeared in The Sound of Music. He was stage manager for The Sound of Music for two years touring Australia and New Zealand. He is best known for his adult career as a director and producer of several highly successful British sitcoms. Returning to the UK, Davies became a BBC production assistant during 1966, and was promoted to producer in 1968. During this early period Davies worked on sketch shows such as The World of Beachcomber, the earliest episodes of Monty Python'sFlying Circus and The Goodies. He also directed the young Anthony Hopkins in the first episode of the Biography series in "Danton", written by Arden Winch. He also worked on All Gas and Gaiters and the seventh series of Steptoe and Son in 1972. He briefly left the BBC to become managing director of EMI Television Productions in 1973, but soon returned to the corporation. From this time came Fawlty Towers. Casting Prunella Scales as Sybil Fawlty was Davies' idea, as the actress the producers wanted to cast turned down the part. Davies was producer for all four series of The Good Life. He was the BBC's Head of Comedy from 1977 to 1982, then Head of Light Entertainment, before joining Thames Television in 1985. Thames was then an ITV contractor, for which Davies was head of light entertainment from 1988. During the last role he was cited by the popular press as the man who fired comedian Benny Hill when the company decided not to renew his contract after a connection lasting 20 years. He told Hill's biographer Mark Lewisohn, "It's very dangerous to have a show on ITV that doesn't appeal to women, because they hold the purse strings, in a sense." He was later appointed a controller of BBC. During this period he worked on No Job for a Lady and Mr. Bean, returning to the BBC later in the 1990s.
