Roger Davenport | |
|---|---|
 Roger Davenport in 2015 | |
| Born | 4 October 1946 London, England |
| Education | LAMDA |
| Spouse | Joanna McCallum |
| Children | 2 |
| Parent | John Davenport |
Roger Davenport (born 4 October 1946)[1][2] is an English author, actor and screenwriter. He is the son of John Davenport, who was for many years a literary critic writing for The Observer newspaper. Graduating from LAMDA in 1967, Davenport worked extensively in British theatre[3] before becoming a writer. He is married to the actress Joanna McCallum.
Davenport's acting career included work in the West End and on tour in regional theatres, performing in plays and musicals. He was a member of several repertory companies including Bristol, Nottingham, Leicester, Derby and Worcester.[4][5][6] He was also a member of George Baker's Company Candida Plays and the Cambridge Theatre Company. He was part of the Lyric Theatre Belfast company from 1971 to 1972.[7] Davenport was King Nicholas in The Sleeping Prince (St Martin's Theatre, 1969), Givola in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui (Lyric Theatre Belfast, 1972),[7] and Siro in the musical Mandrake (Criterion Theatre, 1970), based on Machiavelli's Mandragola.[8] On television he played Martin Bagley in Brassneck (BBC, 1974) by David Hare and Howard Brenton,[9] and In 2007 he played Saki (the writer Hector Hugh Monro) in the BBC production The Double Life of Saki.[10] In 2016 he voiced Harbourmaster Van Zandt and other characters in the video game Nelly Cootalot and the Fowl Fleet.[11]
In the 1980s Davenport worked in the Unilever advertising agency Lintas, and then as a theatre manager with the Stoll Moss group. Since then, he has dedicated most of his time to writing, focussing on fiction and screenplays, with the occasional foray into documentaries. He wrote for the BBC TV detective series Bergerac, and for series 6 and 7 of All Creatures Great and Small.[12][13][14][15][16] He also contributed screenplays for the BBC drama documentary series Indelible Evidence (BBC TV, 1986-1990)[17][18][19] and wrote for the TV series Growing Pains (BBC TV 1992-93),[20] as well as for The Bill (ITV). In 2007, Davenport wrote the script for The Double Life of Saki, produced and directed by Andrew Hutton for the BBC series The Edwardians: the Birth of Now.[10]
Davenport has written a number of original plays for BBC Radio Drama, as well as adapting works by P.G. Wodehouse and Saki, which were directed by Ned Chaillet.[citation needed] In addition, he has written several Young Adult novels, including the dystopian tale Wanderer, which went into paperback in 2016.[21][22]