John Howard Davies

Biography

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 Lean's Oliver Twist (1948), The Rocking Horse Winner (1949), Tom Brown's 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 produce…

Directed

1. Mr. Bean (1990) — Director
2. Fawlty Towers (1975) — Director
3. Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969) — Director
4. All in Good Faith (1985) — Director
5. Tales of the Unexpected (1979) — Director
6. The Bill (1984) — Director
7. The Good Life (1975) — Director
8. Steptoe and Son (1962) — Director
9. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976) — Director
10. The Exciting Escapades of Mr. Bean (1991) — Director
11. The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1987) — Director
12. Raffles (1977) — Director
13. Executive Stress (1986) — Director
14. Andy Capp (1988) — Director
15. No Job for a Lady (1990) — Director
16. All Gas and Gaiters (1967) — Director
17. Mr. Palfrey of Westminster (1984) — Director
18. Hope It Rains (1991) — Director
19. Kim (1984) — Director
20. Mr. Bean: Torvill and Bean (1995) — Director
21. Comedy Playhouse (1961) — Director
22. The Other One (1977) — Director
23. Whoops Baghdad (1973) — Director
24. The Paul McCartney Special (1986) — Director
25. The World of Beachcomber (1968) — Director
26. The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1983) — Director
27. Tales of the Unexpected: Lamb to the Slaughter (1979) — Director

Also appeared in

1. Oliver Twist (1948) — Oliver Twist
2. The Rocking Horse Winner (1949) — Paul Grahame
3. The Magic Box (1952) — Maurice Friese-Greene
4. Tom Brown's Schooldays (1951) — Tom Brown
5. Fawlty Towers: Re-Opened (2009) — Self – Series Director
6. The Adventures of William Tell (1958) — Karl
7. Not Again: Not the Nine O'Clock News (2009) — Self
8. About Religion (1956)
9. What the Pythons Did Next... (2007) — Self
10. All About The Good Life (2010)
11. Dors: The Other Diana (1990)
12. The Good Life: Inside Out (2025)