The Official Kes Billy Casper Website by Dai Bradley

David failed his 11+ exam, and was dispatched to St. Helen’s Secondary Modern,

where the Headmaster announced that the school would be holding auditions for an

inaugural Christmas Panto, and any interested pupil should contact one of three

teachers: Audrey Hopkins, Trevor Hesketh or David Dyson. Thus began a fruitful

relationship that lasted six successful years, almost 5,000 attending annually; and it

was following Sinbad The Sailor when David blacked up for the role of lovelorn Ali Ali

that rumours spread about a feature film to be made at the school.

Around 100 youngsters from three sub academic schools met Director Ken Loach,

Producer Tony Garnet and author of the novel A Kestrel For A Knave, Barry Hines;

before a select group of 36 auditioned at the Queen’s Hotel for the role of Billy, or

one of his classmates. Although many of David’s friends thought him a shoe-in for

Casper, he wasn’t so confident - being a year younger than Billy was in real life.

Several boys read for MacDowell and Billy preceding “the fight on the coke,” then Ken

Loach asked three boys to improvise the Library scene – with teacher Trevor Hesketh

playing Librarian.

Shortly afterwards, the Director’s 2nd Assistant delivered a letter to David’s home,

inviting him to play the coveted role and later, after school meet the three kestrel

chicks at Barry Hines’ house. At the time they were just three speckled balls of fluff

named Freeman, Hardy & Willis; after a well known shoe shop in the1960’s.

KES was filmed in sequence, except for climbing the wall to take a chick, as the

kestrels were growing daily and close to gaining their primary feathers used for flight.

The film took around eight weeks to shoot, working six days a week through the

summer holidays. Suffice to say, it was a memorable experience for all involved – cast

and crew.

Post production (editing, post-synching, adding a soundtrack etc) followed, and after

three months Kestrel Films had “the finished article,” yet with no-one keen to release

it onto the big screen. The American backers wanted a happy ending (Billy gets a job

in a local zoo!), and as for the broad Barnsley accent, they felt it would be more

understandable in Hungarian.

Undeterred, Kestrel Films finally got a break when the film was invited to screen (out

of competition) at The Cannes Film Festival in May‘69. It took the press and film

industry by storm, with many suggesting it would have won the Grand Prix had it

been an entry in the competition. And yet the American distributors still remained

unconvinced. Another opportunity arose at The BFI’s London Film Festival held in

November; it was the first UK screening with David in attendance, which evoked a

standing ovation, and an uproar among the British press.

Reluctantly, the distributors agreed to a limited northern release in Spring of 1970,

but rather than honour the town where it was filmed, they chose the ABC cinema at

Doncaster for its official world premiere. A few days later KES was finally released in

Barnsley (to tremendous appreciation) then shortly after at most other northern

towns and cities, breaking box office and attendance records along the way. It was

finally given a southern release in summer, where it continued to break box office

records.

Leaving school prematurely, now known as Dai Bradley, David featured on several well

known TV programmes including Z Cars, A Family At War and the children’s series The

Flaxton Boys, before being offered the opportunity of working at the Old Vic, and

later the new National Theatre, for what would be the first of three twelve month

engagements spanning ten years – where he played featured and leading roles, most

notably Alan Strang in Equus. It was a role he would re-create for an eight month

tour of South Africa, followed by a year long national tour of America; receiving Best

Actor nominations in both countries.

Other stage credits include: “Coriolanus, The Tempest, Danton’s Death, Julius Caesar,

The Fire That Consumes, Macbeth, Night Must Fall, The Lion In Winter (Vienna), two

productions of Billy Liar, and The Wound, which he co-directed.

Film and TV credits of note include leading roles in All Quiet on the Western Front,

Absolution, Zulu Dawn, The Glory Glory Days, The Seaweed People, For King And

Country, The Flame Trees of Thika, The World Cup – A Captain’s Tale, and the yet to

be released, Refuge, playing a priest who gives sanctuary to Kurdish refugees fleeing

Saddam Hussein’s inhumane regime.

Over forty years, David has enjoyed working with many celebrated actors; among

them Anthony Hopkins, Richard Burton, Burt Lancaster, Peter O’Toole, John and

Hayley Mills, Joan Plowright, Bob Hoskins, Derek Jacobi, Nigel Hawthorne, Ernest

Borgnine, Christopher Plummer, Simon Ward – and a prima donna Joan Fontaine.

In his personal life, David competed in the World Backgammon Championships, and

reached the semi final and a quarter final in the intermediate division, and in a team

event against the world’s best, made it to the last eight.

During the 1980’s he bought a church in the West Country, partly converting it into

an ideal home before his so called friend pulled out of the venture; leaving him with a

white elephant during the Thatcher years.

David’s main hobbies are: music (Keith Jarrett, Egberto Gismonti, Ralph Towner and

Oregon, Pat Metheny, and other jazz artists), books (Paul Auster, Jeff Noon, Herman

Hesse, Russell Hoban to name a few), films (his favourite director is Akira Kurosawa,)

the theatre / Fine Arts, TV dramas and documentaries, and all things Mother Nature.

David has been a fervent Barnsley Football Club supporter since a young lad, and

when work allows sits on the terraces with his nephew, Tom cheering on the team.

In the 70’s / 80’s he regularly played charity football for the Entertainers XI alongside

legends like Jimmy Greaves, Ray Crawford, Terry Cooper and Jack Charlton. A gentle

rebel with a cause, he continues to aid charity through his KES – BILLY CASPER web

site.