From Ockendon to Poldark

WHEN you say the name of actor, Phil Davis. Many people say: "Who?" and then they see his face and they say: "Oh, him! He was in…"

Our blogger, Neil Davis spoke to Mr Davis about his career

“People ask me what I hope for. I answer for more of the same; to carry on, keep working, extend my range and get better. I still haven’t made it. Maybe next year.”

These are not the words you would expect to roll off the tongue of one of the finest

character actors in the business, but coming from Phil Davis, star of monumental hits such as Quadrophenia, Vera Drake and Whitechapel, it belies a sense of reality which has underpinned performances throughout his career. It is a reality which may well be rooted in his childhood. Growing up in the 1960s on the Essex council estate of South Ockendon, the path to every TV screen in the land was by no means certain.

“It was a curious ambition to have growing up on a council estate in the 60s. I think most of the teachers, and most of my mates thought I was kidding myself. But I clung on. I had a few champions at school, teachers who believed in me, but a lot of the time I wondered myself if it was all a sort of an impossible dream. I wasn’t thinking of fame or stardom, just, you know, doing it as a job. Maybe getting into a repertory theatre, making a living at it. I determined that if I did ever have any opportunities I would make the best of them.”

South Ockendon, then, as now, was surrounded by industry – employment was largely provided by local factories and prospects for those wishing to forge a career within the arts were not bright, but a young Master Davis harboured the dream of acting from early in his childhood.

“I got it into my head that I was going to be an actor very early. Before I left primary school, before I had ever seen a play. We didn’t go to the theatre, except for the occasional end of pier show on holiday. How this happened is something of a mystery really. There wasn’t an actor I particularly admired or wanted to emulate. I could read out loud – the one thing I could do well. I have a vague memory of being asked in the classroom to read a story out.

"It was little comic morality tale set in a market place and I remember giving different voices to the characters in it. The traders, a couple of dodgy geezers, a posh gentleman, a policeman, and while I was reading it something happened to me. It felt as if, instead of me doing the story, the story was somehow doing me, passing through me, it took off. It was a sort of epiphany. The teacher said later to my mum at a parents meeting that he thought I was a born actor, and when she told me what he’d said it was as if a light had been turned on. I stuck with it. It lodged in my head. I never wanted to do anything else. There was no plan B.”

It was in 1979 when Davis really got going as an actor, landing the part of Chalky in the cult classic, Quadrophenia. The film famously charts the tumultuous life of Jimmy, played by Phil Daniels, against the backdrop of the London Mod scene of 1965.

“I was a bit disappointed because I’d screen tested for Jimmy,” says Davis. “But Chalky was a good part and I was able to let it go.”

Such a near miss, Davis reflects, may have been for the greater good of his career – early notoriety may have taken his career off course before it had even taken off.

“There was never one big sensational hit that rocketed me up there overnight. I’m glad of this. I would have slid off the rails. My career has been a slow incremental build up to the reputation I enjoy now.”

Following its release, Quadrophenia was well received but it wasn’t initially a life changer – cult films tend to grow in stature over time rather than reach immediate, meteoric heights. Up until its release, Davis had been learning his trade in theatre and was happy to return to it, knowing that he had to keep working, knowing that he could never relax into thinking he would always get parts.

“The film is greatly loved and this, of course, is enormously gratifying.” He continues. “Every few years it seems to gather new fans and new generations of kids get into it – it gives me a bit of cred with the youngsters.”

Over the years, it has been the angry, evil roles which have become something of a speciality. “Maybe it’s my face”, quips Davis, but there is certainly method in the madness of the parts.

“I play a lot of angry and evil characters – something of a speciality of mine; psychopaths, serial killers, nut cases. God knows why? Maybe it’s my face! People love the bad guy. I try to play them gleefully. I don’t waste time looking for redeeming features. I go all out BAD! Sometimes the good guys can seem a bit grey compared to the villains.”

Indeed, one of the most colourful and notable of those roles was as the deliciously twisted King John in the classic 1980’s take on the Robin Hood legend, Robin of Sherwood, in which Davis starred alongside Ray Winstone.

“I loved playing King John! They took a chance on me really. It was mould breaking casting letting me loose on a king of England. I didn’t do very many episodes, four I think, they wheeled me out when the actor playing the Sherriff was off doing something else.”

As well as Davis can convey the evil and the angry, however, it is those roles which layer grit, reality and complexity which have seen him grow towards national treasure status.

Starring as the sometimes abrasive DS Miles in ITV’s crime drama, Whitechapel, alongside Rupert Penry-Jones’s obsessively scrupulous DI Chandler, viewers saw how two personalities grew to absolutely depend upon one another. Over the all too short life-span of the show, Miles’s character evolved from the hard-nosed, old school, no-nonsense cop to a heavily layered, often fragile and loveable star of the piece. Fans of the show were left screaming for more and desperate for answers when ITV

“I miss it. Of course it was a disappointment when we were not re-commissioned. I felt the last series was the best, the supernatural elements making it more interesting. Whitechapel was where the cop show met the horror movie and was unique in that respect. But, you know, nothing lasts for ever we had four good seasons. Mustn’t complain.”


Viewers may have been hoping for a Ripper Street style regeneration after the Victorian crime drama, starring Matthew MacFadyen and Jerome Flynn was snapped up by Amazon prime following its own, equally mysterious chop from ITV’s roster. There is, sadly, no such return in the pipeline and Whitechapel’s army of followers will be left to forever ponder the imponderables – what was the supernatural presence? Was there one at all? What would happen to DS Miles and his colleagues?


“There’s no hope of any of the extra-terrestrial channels taking it up now. It’s gone. Don’t know what would have happened to DC Miles, perhaps he and Chandler might have fallen in love and settled down together.”

And so to the present and future for Phil Davis – where will his career take him next? What ambitions remain unfulfilled?
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“I’ve always done new work,” he says. “I’ve never been in a Shakespeare play, or Checkov or Ibsen. So it’s down to the writers. From literature I wouldn’t mind having a bash at Fagin before I’m too old. Don’t mind about the co-stars – I’ll work with anyone. I did a nice part in Notes on a Scandal and had a lovely scene with Judy Dench. I’d very much like to do something else with her. She’s amazing.”

Phil Davis can currently be seen on Sunday evenings on ITV, playing the typically angry Jud Paynter in a modern, lavish remake of the 1970’s hit, Poldark. Meanwhile, filming is underway for a film which, if the plot is anything to go by, has the makings of a British comedy farce classic. Golden Years, filming in Bristol tells the tale of a group of pensioners who rob a bank – perhaps Britain’s answer to Ocean’s Eleven?


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