John Howard Davies

John Howard Davies born Paddington London 9 March 1939 22 August 2011 was a British television director producer and former child actor Davies was the son of the scriptwriter Jack Davies His credits as a child actor include the title role in David Leans Oliver Twist 1948 The Rocking Horse Winner 1949 Tom Browns Schooldays 1951 and a few episodes of the television series William Tell 1958 After school at Haileybury further education at Grenoble and National Service in the Royal Navy he started working in the City in a finance company After that he trained as a carpet salesman but quit after six months to travel the world Ending up in Australia he returned to acting and met his wife Leonie when they both appeared in The Sound of Music Back in Britain he tried selling oil to industry in Wembley and then became a production assistant in the BBC at the end of 1968 Davies is best known for his adult career as director and producer of several highly successful British sitcoms including All Gas and Gaiters Fawlty Towers series 1 The Goodies The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin The Good Life No Job for a Lady and Mr Bean Davies was also the producer and director of the sketch show The World of Beachcomber and the earliest episodes of Monty Pythons Flying Circus He also directed several episodes of The Vicar of Dibley He became the BBCs Head of Comedy from 19771982 then head of Light Entertainment and finally Controller Managing Director of EMI Television Productions and the Head of Light Entertainment at ITV broadcaster Thames Television During the last role he was cited by the popular press as the man who sacked comedian Benny Hill when the station decided not to renew his contract after 20 years service Description above from the Wikipedia article John Howard Davies licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia