David Bradley

Acting

David Bradley

Born

1953-09-27 (73)

Place of birth

Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

18 titles

Born to a miner father and a seamstress mother in Barnsley, South Yorkshire in 1953, David Bradley is best known for playing Billy Casper in Ken Loach's 1969 film, Kes. Prior to this starring role, Bradley had only ever acted in school pantomimes and secured the lead in an open audition against thousands of children. Following the success of Kes, Bradley had to change his name to Dai Bradley on account of the actor David Bradley already having an Equity card in that name. Bradley turned to television appearing as the lead in two children's series The Flaxton Boys and The Jensen Code and guest roles in Z Cars, Nearest and Dearest and A Family at War. He appeared in several other movies as a …

Known for

Hummingbird poster
6.2

Homeless and on the run from a military court martial, a damaged ex-special forces soldier navigating London's criminal underworld seizes an opportunity to assume another man's identity, transforming into an avenging angel in the process.

Hummingbird

2013

Hallmark Hall of Fame poster
8.8

Long-running anthology program sponsored by Hallmark Cards. Beginning in 1951 and continuing into 2019, the series received 80 Emmy Awards, 24 Christopher Awards, 11 Peabody Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 4 Humanitas Prizes. Early seasons were a weekly live drama, eventually transitioning to videotaped and then filmed productions broadcast as occasional specials.

Hallmark Hall of Fame

1951

The Flaxton Boys poster
6.0

The Flaxton Boys is a British historical children's television series produced by Yorkshire Television for ITV, created by Sid Waddell. Four seasons—covering a specific period: 1854, during the Crimean War (series 1), 1890 (series 2), 1928 (series 3), and 1945, in the aftermath of WWII (series 4)—explore four generations of young men and their experiences at Flaxton Hall in Yorkshire.

The Flaxton Boys

1969

Bedtime Stories poster
NR

An anthology of six plays, contemporary twists on well-loved tales with dark endings.

Bedtime Stories

1974

All Quiet on the Western Front poster
6.7

At the start of World War I, Paul Baumer is a young German patriot, eager to fight. Indoctrinated with propaganda at school, he and his friends eagerly sign up for the army soon after graduation. But when the horrors of war soon become too much to bear, and as his friends die or become gravely wounded, Paul questions the sanity of fighting over a few hundreds yards of war-torn countryside.

All Quiet on the Western Front

1979

Kes poster
7.4

Bullied at school and ignored and abused at home by his indifferent mother and older brother, Billy Casper, a 15-year-old working-class Yorkshire boy, tames and trains his pet kestrel falcon whom he names Kes. Helped and encouraged by his English teacher and his fellow students, Billy finally finds a positive purpose to his unhappy existence.

Kes

1970

Film credits

2010s · 5 titles

Hummingbird poster
6.2

Homeless and on the run from a military court martial, a damaged ex-special forces soldier navigating London's criminal underworld seizes an opportunity to assume another man's identity, transforming into an avenging angel in the process.

Hummingbird

2013

Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach poster
6.6

A surprisingly candid behind-the-scenes account of the career of Ken Loach, one of Britain’s most celebrated and controversial filmmakers, as he prepares to release his final major film I, Daniel Blake.

Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach

2016

Macbeth poster
6.8

Entirely shot on green screen, Shakespeare’s Macbeth has been reinvented by director Kit Monkman (The Knife That Killed Me) in an exciting new film adaptation. Starring Mark Rowley, (The Last Kingdom, Luther). Monkman’s unique adaptation successfully bridges the gap between theatre and film to create a wholly new type of imaginative space. This radical new adaptation puts the audience’s engagement with the story centre-stage, amplifying the theatrical context of the original and creating truly innovative and thrilling cinematic vistas, whilst maintaining the language and themes of Shakespeare’s original play. Using background matte painting and computer modelling to generate the world in which the action plays out, the green screen allows Monkman to create his vision of a multi-tiered globe in which the characters play out their various fates.

Macbeth

2018

Greg Davies: Looking for Kes poster
7.0

Comedian, actor and ex-English teacher Greg Davies is a lifelong fan of Barry Hines's classic novel A Kestrel for a Knave, the story of Billy Casper training a kestrel as an escape from his troubled home and school life. In this documentary, Greg goes in search of the book's enduring appeal, travelling to Barnsley, where the book was set and where Ken Loach's famous adaptation, Kes, was filmed.

Greg Davies: Looking for Kes

2019

Making Kes poster
NR

A documentary on the making of Kes, produced by the Criterion Collection.

Making Kes

2010

1970s · 5 titles

Series credits