Alan Davies was once the darling of TV, appearing in the very popular murder mystery series Jonathan Creek, which went on to win a BAFTA.
After quitting the show in 2016, he’s acted less, instead appearing on multiple comedy panel shows, most notably QI. But why did the primetime BBC drama come to a premature end?
As Alan makes a guest appearance on Blankety Blank this weekend – alongside fellow panellists Lawrence Chaney, Jermaine Jenas, Desiree Burch, Roman Kemp and Scarlett Moffatt – ED! looks at his life and career over the years. Including a very public fallout with his girlfriend’s sister – a Loose Women lynchpin no less – and his infamous attack on a ‘tramp’…
What is Alan Davies famous for?
Actor Alan Davies recently portrayed George Gillian in the cast of McDonald & Dodds series 3 episode 1 called Belvedere. But it was his first TV acting role for a few years…
As an actor, Alan is best known for his role of Jonathan Creek, a part he played from 1997 to 2016. In the popular TV series, Alan played the titular Jonathan Creek, a magician with a natural ability for solving puzzles. He worked from his home in a converted windmill, and used his abilities to solve impossible crimes and mysterious murders.
Alan starred opposite Caroline Quentin in the TV show, but his former girlfriend Julia Sawalha also appeared in multiple episodes.
Before that, he’d been in lots of TV shows as an actor, too, but it was Jonathan Creek that drenched him in TV glory. Other notable TV roles included Simon Treat in One for the Road, Russell Boyd in A Many Splintered Thing, and Robert Gossage in Bob & Rose – in which he played the love interest of Lesley Sharp.
In 2004, he portrayed criminal law barrister Henry Farmer in The Brief. He later starred as Otto Clark in Hotel Babylon, and Roland White in Whites.
From 2016 to 2018, he starred in the Jo Brand sitcom Damned, set in the social services department of a local authority.
Nowadays, however, Alan acts less, and sticks to comedy appearances. Once a stand-up comedian, Alan now is a regular panelist on QI, hosted by Sandi Toksvig. He is also a team captain on the quiz Guessable, and a regular on Taskmaster.
Why did Jonathan Creek end?
Jonathan Creek fans were pretty gutted when they learnt that Alan Davies would not be returning after nine years playing the character.
The show had been so well-received, it won a BAFTA for Best Drama in 1998. It also brought Alan Davies to mainstream attention. The series ran semi-regularly between 1997 and 2004, and even aired a New Year’s Day special on 2009.
Further specials were aired in 2010 with The Judas Tree, and in 2013 with The Clue of the Savant’s Thumb.
However, it wasn’t Alan Davies’ decision. In 2016, writer David Renwick revealed he wouldn’t be penning any more scripts for the show. He blamed his age, and no longer feeling “tempted” to work on television shows.
He told the Daily Star Sunday newspaper: “Jonathan Creek has always been hard to write and construct. After 30-odd stories, I feel burned out on it.
“And age is catching up with me. That’s the deciding factor. I did fall ill during the last series. I directed half of it and then a bone marrow condition popped up and I had to hand it over to someone else.”
He added: “I feel like I’ve had a fairly good run and I feel like I had the best of it during that generation of comedy. The landscape has changed – I’m not tempted to be part of what television is now.”
The 70-year-old writer praised Alan for not pressuring him to return to the show. He said: “Alan Davies is very loyal to the show and was very happy to do it if I resurfaced. He’s very proud of what he did. But he has been very good about me deciding not to write any more.”
When did Alan Davies date Julia Sawalha?
Alan Davies dated Absolutely Fabulous actress Julia Sawalha in the early noughties. Despite appearing together in Jonathan Creek between 2001 and 2004, and attending several red carpet events together, they were notoriously private.
In 2002, Julia fell out with her famous sister Nadia after attending her wedding. Julia and her boyfriend Alan were livid when pictures of Nadia’s wedding to TV executive Mark Adderley appeared in OK! magazine. The pictures featured Julia with comedian boyfriend Alan Davies, who did not want to appear in the mag.
At the time, Alan said: “She sold these pictures of Julia and me without consulting us. I was furious.”
Julia insisted she “had no idea they were doing an OK! spread”, adding: “I wouldn’t speak to her.” In fact, the sisters didn’t speak for two years, eventually reconciling when Julia and Alan split up.
Later, in January 2004, tabloid newspapers reported that Julia and Alan had married. However, both parties denied this, and took legal action against the reports. They split not long after.
Who is the wife of Alan Davies?
Alan is now happily married to his wife Katie Maskell. The pair wed in 2007, several years after he’d split up with Julia Sawalha. This time, Alan avoided becoming romantically involved with someone in the public eye.
Katie Maskell is an author and former literary agent. The now 46-year-old won the £5,000 Waterstone’s Children’s Book Prize in 2010 for her book, The Great Hamster Massacre.
The couple met backstage at a taping of QI in 2005, and were engaged six months later. After their 2007 wedding, in which Bill Bailey was the best man, the pair have been married for 17 years.
Does he have children?
Alan and wife Katie have three children.
Their first child Suzie was born in 2009, followed two years later by their son Robert in 2011.
Their last child Francis was born in 2016.
Alan describes sexual abuse by dad
TV star Alan Davies was written several books, including two autobiographies. The second, entitled Just Ignore Him (published in 2020) detailed the sexual abuse that he suffered as a boy.
In shocking passages from the book, Alan reveals he was abused by his own father between the ages of 8 and 13. Tragically his mum died of leukaemia when he was just six, leaving him alone with his paedophile father.
Roy Davies would visit his son in his bedroom when his other two children were asleep, and ask him to take off his pyjamas. It was, says Davies, “a quiet, librarial molestation”. The first time it happened, his father issued a warning, saying: “This is our special cuddle. You must never tell anyone about this cuddle.”
Alan Davies also revealed how his father would print out pictures of young boys and hide them in his wardrobe. It took Alan until he was 51 to go to the police.
After making the claims public as an adult, the police and the CPS accepted his abuse accusations. However, they did not prosecute his father Roy Davies, due to his age and his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.
Reflecting on this later, he wrote: “I had what I needed. The document from the CPS said they believed me, not him.”
Did Alan Davies attack a tramp?
In late 2007, The Times and The Daily Telegraph both reported that Alan Davies had bitten the ear of a homeless man. The report said that the comedian had just left the wake of BBC producer Verity Lambert at the famous Groucho Club at 2am.
In an interview with The Times two years after the incident, Alan said: “He wasn’t a tramp. He was a raging, horrendous arsehole. He called me a [bleep] several times. Or if it wasn’t him, it was his mate. And, yes, I went for him and, yes, I did it in what turned out to be an amusing way.”
Following the incident, the Groucho Club banned him from the venue. Alan later admitted he had had too much to drink. As reported in the Evening Standard, he said: “I was very upset and emotional. I had a lot to drink over many hours. Far too much really and a lot more than normal but it was an upsetting day.”
The man in question, a Mr Paul McElfatrick, said Alan bit down for a whole 13 seconds. The attack was allegedly provoked after Paul tried to shake Alan’s hand, and called him ‘Jonathan Creek’.
Paul said he walked up to Alan Davies, calling him by his TV character’s name, which appeared to anger him. He explained: “He almost spat the words, ‘My name’s Alan. You know my name – Alan. What’s my name? It’s Alan’. Then he suddenly went for my left ear.
“It was incredibly painful. I shrieked and my eyes were watering. He hung on and drew blood.”
He said the biting continued for about 13 seconds: “I was shaking with shock afterwards. I still can’t sleep on that side of my head.”
Paul McElfatrick, a former shop worker, did not press charges against the actor.
How old is Alan? Where is he from?
Alan Roger Davies was born on March 06 1966 in Loughton, England.
He is currently 58 years of age.
Alan spent his childhood years in Chingford. He attended Staples Road School in Loughton and was privately educated at Bancroft’s School in Woodford Green. After studying his A-Levels at Loughton College of Further Education, he went on to graduate in Drama & Theatre Studies from the University of Kent at Canterbury.
In 2016, he pursued a Master of Arts degree in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London.
Read more: As Blankety Blank returns with Bradley Walsh, these old game shows also deserve a comeback
Alan Davies appears on Blankety Blank on Saturday, June 29, 2024 at 8.20pm on BBC One.
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