THE MOVING PICTURE BOY ARCHIVE

DAVID BRADLEY

Name: David Bradley
Date of Birth: 27 September 1953
Place of Birth: Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England

Filmography

1969   Kes (Bradley was 14 at the time of filming)
1970   Z Cars (TV series episodes, 'A Quiet Sort of Lad', 2 parts)
           A Family at War (TV series episode, 'The Night They Hit No. 8')
           The Flaxton Boys (Series 2)

After Kes, Bradley starred in a two episode story of Z Cars ('A Quiet Sort of Lad') and an episode of A Family at War ('The Night They Hit No. 8'), before getting a central role in the second series of The Flaxton Boys in 1970, and in The Jensen Code in 1973. In 1978 he starred in Absolution, acting alongside Richard Burton and Dominic Guard. He also took to the stage playing Alan Strang in Peter Shaffer's Equus in 1974. His initial role as Billy Casper in Kes, however, has completely overshadowed all his subsequent roles.

At the beginning of the 70s, Bradley applied for membership of the actors' union Equity (who operated a closed shop) but discovered that there was already a 'David Bradley' on their books, and Equity would not admit two actors with the same name. Rather cheekily, he phoned the other David Bradley, and suggested that the latter should change his name, on the ground that everyone was going to remember the David Bradley who played in Kes. From the other end of the phone he received the reply "Bugger off, you pillock!". Thus it was that, sometime between A Family at War and The Flaxton Boys, Bradley changed his Christian name to Dai.

Below: entry in John Holmstrom's The Moving Picture Boy
(though in fact Bradley doesn't exactly murder Dominic Guard in Absolution, as Holmstrom claims; that honour falls to Richard Burton, though Bradley does manipulate Burton in order to bring about that end).
(Click on image to open full size scan in a new tab.)

Some production and publicity photos for Kes.
(Clicking on the images will open the full size pictures in a new tab.)
The two photos in the first row both show Bradley with director Ken Loach.

Production photo, Bradley with Freddie Fletcher as Jud
(Editor's personal collection)

Below, screenshots from Bradley's appearance in A Family at War (1970)

Bradley in series 2 of The Flaxton Boys (1970). Screenshots from episode 1.

Bradley in Peter Shaffer's Equus (1974), from a contemporary programme
(Editor's personal collection)
Raynor Bourton (sliver on far left of photo) played the horse, Michael Jayston (left) was Martin Dysart, Bradley (right) played Alan Strang.