David Banks (British actor)
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David Banks (born 24 September 1951 in Hull,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
) is an English actor, writer and author. He is best known for playing the Cyber Leader in the '' Doctor Who'' stories ''
Earthshock ''Earthshock'' is the sixth serial of the 19th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 to 16 March 1982. This serial marks the final regular appe ...
'' (1982), ''
The Five Doctors ''The Five Doctors'' is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', produced in celebration of the programme's 20th anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago ...
'' (1983), '' Attack of the Cybermen'' (1985) and '' Silver Nemesis'' (1988). As a theatre actor, he has played many leading roles in London and throughout the UK. He is also the author of several published books.


Career


Acting

His numerous TV appearances include long-running portrayals in ''
Brookside Brookside may refer to: Geography Canada * Brookside, Edmonton * Brookside, Newfoundland and Labrador * Brookside, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Brookside, Berkshire, England * Brookside, Telford, an area of Telford, England United States * Br ...
'', playing the wrongly convicted murderer Graeme Curtis, and 181 episodes of L!ve TV’s drama series ''
Canary Wharf Canary Wharf is an area of London, England, located near the Isle of Dogs in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Canary Wharf is defined by the Greater London Authority as being part of London's central business district, alongside Central Lon ...
'' as Max Armstrong, head of news, who was finally abducted by aliens. He also appeared in '' EastEnders'' in 1992, playing the photographer, Gavin, at
Michelle Fowler Michelle Fowler (also Holloway) is a fictional character from the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'', played by Susan Tully from the show's first episode on 19 February 1985 up until the character's departure on 26 October 1995. She returned on 24 De ...
's graduation ceremony. During the 1980s, he was the Cyber Leader in the
science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
series '' Doctor Who'' in all stories featuring the Cybermen: ''
Earthshock ''Earthshock'' is the sixth serial of the 19th season of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 to 16 March 1982. This serial marks the final regular appe ...
'' (1982), ''
The Five Doctors ''The Five Doctors'' is a special feature-length episode of the British science fiction television series ''Doctor Who'', produced in celebration of the programme's 20th anniversary. It had its world premiere in the United States, on the Chicago ...
'' (1983), '' Attack of the Cybermen'' (1985) and '' Silver Nemesis'' (1988). In 1989, he played the part of Karl the Mercenary in the stage play ''
Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...
'', except for two performances when he appeared as The Doctor, replacing Jon Pertwee who had fallen ill. He writes and directs and has worked extensively as a voice artist, recording over 100 audiobooks – including an unabridged version of
J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...
's ''
The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's b ...
'' (Talking Books, 2006). In 2007, he revived his portrayal of Karl the Mercenary in a Big Finish Productions audio adaptation of ''
Doctor Who - The Ultimate Adventure ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series depicts the adventures of a Time Lord called the Doctor, an extraterrestrial being who appears to be human. The Doctor explores the ...
'' with
Colin Baker Colin Baker (born 8 June 1943) is an English actor who played Paul Merroney in the BBC drama series '' The Brothers'' from 1974 to 1976 and the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series ''Docto ...
as The Doctor. In 2018, he reprised his role as the Cyber Leader for the Big Finish audio story Hour of the Cybermen and again in 2019 for the audio story Conversion.


Writing

Banks is the author of several published books. In 1988, he wrote ''Doctor Who – Cybermen'', illustrated by Andrew Skilleter (Who Dares Publishing, 1988), which encompasses the history and conceptual origins of cybermen. He adapted the book into four audio cassettes, The ArcHive Tapes, which he also narrated. (These were re-released on CD in 2013 with bonus material by Explore Multimedia.) He later wrote the novel '' Iceberg'' (Virgin, 1993) for the
Virgin New Adventures The ''Virgin New Adventures'' (NA series, or NAs) are a series of novels from Virgin Publishing based on the British science-fiction television series ''Doctor Who''. They continued the story of the Doctor from the point at which the televisio ...
range of ''Doctor Who'' spin-off novels, which was set in 2006, when an inversion of the Earth's magnetic field is threatening to destroy human civilization, and featured the Cybermen and the investigative journalist Ruby Duvall. His play ''Severance'', about the 12th century lovers
Abelard Peter Abelard (; french: link=no, Pierre Abélard; la, Petrus Abaelardus or ''Abailardus''; 21 April 1142) was a Middle Ages, medieval French Scholasticism, scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician. This ...
and Heloise, was first performed in 2002. In 2008, he was invited to deliver a paper about cyber emotions entitled "Life as an emotionless killing machine: Cybermen in a Strange State"The paper was first presented at the Centre for Time and the Russellian Society on 28 March 2008 at the invitation of Huw Price, Challis Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sydne

/ref> by the Universities of Sydney and Melbourne. This paper references the recent reappearance of Cybermen on television after a long absence.


Filmography


Television


Notes


External links


David Banks: Spotlight entry

David Banks Dr Who Image Archive
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Banks, David 1951 births English male soap opera actors Living people Male actors from Kingston upon Hull