David Haig

David Haig Collum Ward, MBE (born 20 September 1955) is an Olivier Award-winning English actor and FIPA Award-winning writer. He is known for playing dramatic, serio-comic and comedic roles, and playing characters of varied social classes. He has appeared in stage productions in the West End and done numerous TV and film roles over the past 25 years.

Career

Film and television

He appeared in the 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral^[1] and had a secondary lead in the BBC television sitcom The Thin Blue Line playing Inspector Grim, the inept foil to Rowan Atkinson's Inspector Fowler. In 2002 he played the brother of Four Weddings' co-star Hugh Grant in the romantic comedy Two Weeks Notice, alongside Sandra Bullock. In 2007, He appeared in a Comic Relief sketch called "Mr. Bean's Wedding" as the bride's father, reuniting with his Thin Blue Line co-star Rowan Atkinson.

Other TV work includes Doctor Who story The Leisure Hive (1980); Blake's 7 episode "Rumours of Death" (1980); Campion story Sweet Danger (1990); Inspector Morse episode "Dead On Time" (1992); and Cracker. In the 1990s he appeared in season 1 of the TV series Soldier Soldier.

He appears in the Richard Fell adaptation of the 1960s science fiction series A for Andromeda, on the UK digital television station BBC Four. Haig wrote the play My Boy Jack and later appeared in the television adaptation^[1] as Rudyard Kipling, with Daniel Radcliffe playing Kipling's son, John.

In 2008, he appeared in the BBC film Dustbin Baby and The 39 Steps. He also appeared in the Midsomer Murders episode "The Glitch". In 2009 he appeared as Steve Fleming in BBC TV's The Thick Of It and as Jon, husband to former MP Mo Mowlam in the hugely successful drama Mo opposite Julie Walters. Also in 2009, he appeared in two episodes as the headmaster of Portwenn Primary School, Mr Straine on ITV comedy drama Doc Martin.

In January 2013 Haig started appearing as Jim Hacker in a re-make of classic 1980s comedy series Yes Prime Minister, broadcast on Gold TV in the United Kingdom.^[2]

In 2012 a new sitcom pilot, starring Haig and written by Ben Elton, was filmed for the BBC.^[3] Filming for a full six-part series of the sitcom, The Wright Way (formerly known as Slings and Arrows) was completed in March 2013, and began airing on BBC One on 23 April.^[4]

Radio

In 2008, he played Maurice Haigh-Wood in the BBC Radio adaptation of Michael Hasting's play Tom and Viv, and 2010 he starred as Norman Birkett in Norman Birkett and the Case of the Coleford Poisoner on BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Play series.. He also played Lewis Eliot in C. P. Snow's "Strangers and Brothers" on Radio 4 in 2003, repeated on Radio 4 Extra February 2013.

Stage

He also won an Olivier Award in 1988 for Actor of the Year in a New Play, for his performance in Our Country's Good at the Royal Court in Sloane Square. He toured Britain with the stage version of My Boy Jack, which he wrote, and in which he played Rudyard Kipling and directed a production of Private Lives by Noël Coward, which made a national tour in 2005.

Haig has appeared in several stage productions in London's West End, including Hitchcock Blonde at the Royal Court, Life X 3 at the Savoy Theatre, as the character Osborne in R.C. Sherriff's play Journey's End at the Comedy Theatre, and as Mr George Banks in Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre for which he received an Olivier Award nomination. He was also nominated for playing Christopher Headingley in a revival of Michael Frayn's comedy Donkeys' Years at the Comedy Theatre. Having appeared in the role of Pinchwife in the comedy The Country Wife at the Royal Haymarket Theatre in London, he appeared in The Sea at the same theatre. Haig's next role was Truscott in the Joe Orton black farce Loot at London's Tricycle Theatre from 11 December 2008 to 31 January 2009 and at Theatre Royal, Newcastle, 2 to 7 February 2009.

In 2010 he played the role of Jim Hacker in the stage version of Yes, Prime Minister^[5] at the Chichester Festival Gielgud Theatre, in London's West End from 17 September 2010.^[6]

Personal life

Haig was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, to Francis W. and Shirley R. C. (née Brooks) Ward, an army officer, later director of the Hayward Gallery, and opera singer, respectively, and educated at Rugby School. He currently lives in South London with his wife Julia. The couple have five children. Haig and his wife are patrons of SANDS, a charity which deals with stillbirth and neonatal death.^[7]

Haig was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 Birthday Honours for services to drama.^[8]

Theatre work

TV and filmography

References

External links

• David Haig at the Internet Movie Database
• SANDS website