David Collings

David Collings (4 June 1940 – 23 March 2020) was an English actor born in Brighton who built a career spanning stage, television, film, and radio over several decades. His work extended to audiobooks, voiceovers, and concert readings, and he appeared on Broadway in 1986 in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby.

Collings first attracted significant screen attention playing Raskolnikov in a live broadcast of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment for Associated-Rediffusion Television in 1964. He went on to portray a series of historical figures across British television productions: Percy Grainger in Ken Russell's Song of Summer (1968), Richard Simmons in The Shadow of the Tower (1972), Sir Anthony Babington in Elizabeth R, John Ruskin in the BBC Pre-Raphaelite series The Love School (1975), William Wilberforce in The Fight Against Slavery (1975), and William Pitt in Prince Regent (1979). His film credits include the 1970 musical Scrooge, in which he played Bob Cratchit opposite Albert Finney, Dame Edith Evans, Sir Alec Guinness, Kenneth More, and Anton Rodgers.

Collings accumulated a devoted following through appearances in cult British science fiction. He played three distinct characters across the long-running series Doctor Who: Vorus in Revenge of the Cybermen, Poul in The Robots of Death, and Mawdryn in Mawdryn Undead. He later reprised the role of Poul, under the name Paulus, in the audio drama series Kaldor City, and returned to the character again under the original name in Big Finish Productions' The Robots series. Big Finish also cast him as an alternate Doctor in the Doctor Who Unbound audio play Full Fathom Five. In the 2010s he narrated four Doctor Who audiobooks, including Corpse Marker, The Witch Hunters, and novelisations of Mawdryn Undead and Scream of the Shalka. Beyond Doctor Who, he appeared as Silver in multiple Sapphire and Steel television adventures and as Deva in the final episode of Blake's 7. His television credits also include Danger Man, Mystery and Imagination, UFO, and Gideon's Way.

Among his most widely seen work was voicing the title character in the English-language version of the Japanese television series Journey to the West, broadcast as Monkey, which attracted a large following particularly among younger audiences. He also portrayed Lord Dark and The Friendly Ghost in the children's series Dark Towers (1981), part of the BBC's Look and Read strand, played Julian Oakapple in Midnight is a Place (1977), appeared as the villain Charn in Through the Dragon's Eye (1989), and held a recurring role as the headmaster in Press Gang from 1989 to 1993.

On radio, Collings voiced Legolas in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and played Mr Carlyle in a seven-episode Radio 4 dramatisation of East Lynne by Mrs Henry Wood, first broadcast in June 1987.

His stage career, which The Stage described as that of a stalwart of the National and RSC, began with seasons at the Liverpool Rep and subsequently encompassed productions with companies including Cheek by Jowl, BAM, and the Lincoln Center in New York. His repertoire ranged from Shakespeare and Restoration drama to contemporary plays. At the Royal Exchange in Manchester he played Mortimer the Elder and Matrevis in Edward II, a production that also featured his son, the actor Samuel Collings, as well as the King of France in Henry V and Giles Corey in The Crucible. Collings died on 23 March 2020 at the age of 79.