David Fenwick

This is distressing to read, actors give us a great deal of pleasure but we do forget that acting is not a profession where everyone makes a good living, it's only a very few that make the millions and life comfortably. There was a program called Mind Your Language many moons ago and the lead actor Barry Evans ended up being a taxi driver and was later found murdered in his house, he'd been a few programs but never really made it. It's very sad.
 
If anyone can bear to watch, the Can't Pay, We'll Take it Away episode is on Daily Motion @
The "Mr. Proctor" a.k.a. David Fenwick segment starts at about 14 minutes 51 seconds. Be forewarned, it's harrowing. It would have been even if I didn't feel that I know him, or at least as though I know young Norman Clegg.
 
I really wanted to include just the URL, not a direct link to the show, but I couldn't figure out how.
 
In early September I asked if anyone knew in which borough of London the flat was located. Having seen the episode, I was able to find the building on Google Earth. It's 50 Upper Clapton Road, probably in the dormer at the rear of the top floor. The lowest rents for larger studios nearby are currently running at £795 pcm. Supposedly, the neighborhood is in the conflict phase of gentrification, so probably not pleasant to live in.
 
A sad reminder of how awful it is for some people. Working but just not enough cash to live. Lot not right.
 
Not to be political but a lot went wrong when they started selling off Council housing:confused2: :25:
 
dick said:
Not to be political but a lot went wrong when they started selling off Council housing:confused2: :25:
Click to expand...

As a single, middle-aged male, would he have been likely to have been assigned council housing anytime soon? He had apparently been working on finding a place, as he had an assigned caseworker in the Housing Authority. In the final scene of that segment, we see him heading into the Hackney Housing Authority building. I wonder what or how much they could do for him given that single males aren't a priority and that the caseworker he had been working with had been out when he had phoned about an hour earlier. I just hope he didn't have to sleep rough that night!

The space he had been renting looked to be no more than 120 sq. ft., possibly even smaller than that. I wish the amount of the rent he was paying had been stated. He says that the landlord isn't renewing the lease in order to triple the rent although the rent was already at the maximum that the place is worth. Estimated market value is probably around £410 pcm, plus utilities and council fees, based on cost per square foot for nearby studios.
 
There are so many David Fenwick's in this profession ,sadly only a few make it big lots have to give up , lots are jobbing actors who make very little money certainly not enough to live on . Most started very early in their life with drama groups and stage schools , then progress to Am dram and finally get that break into either a touring show or play , probably playing a very minor role . They struggle from job to job picking up little money but are dedicated to their craft . Then we have the" fast trackers " to success and money . I refer for example to those cretins who get paid to get drunk and behave in abhorrent manor all in the name of "show business" .

I am embarrassed that these morons come from my beloved city [ Geordie Shore is the show on MTV] . They are guarded by their own permanent Security guards wherever they go , they are shepherded into the top establishments , they get to shoot the show in exotic locations , they get paid a relative fortune [ one of them who is famous for having sex on TV and having won the Celebrity Jungle has now carved out a career in TV and made well over a million pounds ] . The woman apparently has a degree but on the odd occasion I have seen her on a show she has struggled to string together a coherent sentence . My town is not alone we had the same happen in Cardiff and of course Essex, yet we have these people who struggle to know when the next acting job is coming along . They are capable of playing multitudinous roles in different productions compared with these one trick ponies who seem to be able to play only drunk and disorderly which just makes my blood boil . There is just no justice. :mad:
 
I think I'm hearing him say "It's £2100 a month; £1200 a month." I don't understand what those two figures refer to, but either one is over market rate for the neighborhood. If anyone else can make out that bit better than I can, I'd be glad of enlightenment. It's right after 18 min. 27 sec.

I converted the video to a format that Subtitle Workshop can play because I can easily slow down the playback in that software in order to make out indistinct speech. There's a trade-off, though, because at slower than about 70% the pitch drops too far for clarity.
 
Marianna said:
As a single, middle-aged male, would he have been likely to have been assigned council housing anytime soon? He had apparently been working on finding a place, as he had an assigned caseworker in the Housing Authority. .....studios.
Click to expand...


Very low the priority list I am afraid. He would be given shelter but no permanent home possibly for years. I did a check recently and if you have, say, £400 a month available for rent then there is only about 5% of the country where you can live in a medium sized house or flat but only at the cheaper end of the market (probably means less desirable, more likely to be crime or other problems in the area). These areas are in the most depressed parts of the country where there is little or no work available.
 
dick said:
Not to be political but a lot went wrong when they started selling off Council housing:confused2: :25:
Click to expand...


Even council housing is dificult to get into in a single person's state now. Many of the one bedroomed flats built in the 1950s were snapped up with right to buy legislation.

Apaprently you have to bid for a property and it all seems a bit of a gamble to me.
 
One thing about this programme puzzles me - they refer to him as Mr Proctor but Fenwick is his real name - checked on actor's database.

The clip shows him showing a DVD with his name on - surely the bailiffs wouldmhave questioned the different names? Or did they have to ask his permission to film and in doing this they agreed to change his name?
 
barmpot said:
One thing about this programme puzzles me - they refer to him as Mr Proctor but Fenwick is his real name - checked on actor's database.

The clip shows him showing a DVD with his name on - surely the bailiffs wouldmhave questioned the different names? Or did they have to ask his permission to film and in doing this they agreed to change his name?
Click to expand...

I've seen him referred to as Proctor only in the context of that show. I expect that only he and DCBL (Direct Collection Bailiffs Ltd. @ http://www.dcbltd.com/) know the answer. David has a Facebook page, but either most if it is private or he doesn't bother much about updating it. He also has a LinkedIn page, but there's very little on it. Until recently, I had an account there, and came across it while looking for someone else.

There's a testimonial letter on the DCBL website from CMC Estates, that appears to refer to that eviction. The estate agency probably never expected anyone to have the interest and the time to drill down to a connection between their business and the size/rent for that flat. The Wikipedia article referred to early in this thread said that the rent that he was paying when he was evicted was £1200. Of course, Wiki could have gotten it wrong and that could have been the amount that the landlord wanted to triple it to.
 
Marianna said:
The Wikipedia article referred to early in this thread said that the rent that he was paying when he was evicted was £1200. Of course, Wiki could have gotten it wrong and that could have been the amount that the landlord wanted to triple it to.
Click to expand...

Wiki got it wrong. He's saying "It's currently at '[indistinct] seventy-five'. They want 1200 a month." A current amount ending in 75 can't triple to 1200, so I'm guessing that the narrator's scriptwriter got the statement about the landlord wanting to triple the rent wrong. The indistinct syllable preceding the seventy-five sounds as though it ends in "n". If so, it must be either "one" or "nine". The latter makes more sense in the context of other studio rents in the area. That's still about £200 higher than the top of the current market rate, though, and for fewer square feet.

He had lived there for six years, so I wonder if he could have been paying the rent in effect when he first signed the lease. The house was last sold on 7 October 2002, so he wouldn't have been getting a deal due to having been a sitting tenant when the current owner bought the building. Six years ago, gentrification was just beginning to gain a firm foothold in the area, although the rising rent and prices seem to be centered on Chatsworth Road, with "Murder Mile" (Lower Clapton Road) having been left behind. I haven't found any mention of the effect of either gentrification or violent crime on Upper Clapton Road, it's a safe guess that rents have been rising anyway.
 
barmpot said:
One thing about this programme puzzles me - they refer to him as Mr Proctor but Fenwick is his real name - checked on actor's database.

The clip shows him showing a DVD with his name on - surely the bailiffs wouldmhave questioned the different names? Or did they have to ask his permission to film and in doing this they agreed to change his name?
Click to expand...

Perhaps his full name is David Fenwick Proctor, similar to William Owen Rowbotham. Having a middle name that can double as a surname would be a handy way to keep the performing identity separate from the personal one.

There's a web site http://www.adammorris.co.uk/biog/cssd1.html, belonging to one of his classmates at the Central School of Speech and Drama, that contains a couple of photos of the entire class, starting at the top of the CCSD1 page and continuing by clicking the "Stage 84" link in the first sentence. David is variously identified as David Proctor (Fenwick), David Proctor and David Fenwick (Proctor). It looks as though he might have settled on his professional name while he was at drama school.
 
This just in. Transcript of a Facebook conversation with Simon Copley, who has been interviewing FOTSW actors.
  • Marianna Stewart
    Very much enjoyed your interviews with the First of the Summer Wine cast members. Do you have any idea whether or not David Fenwick landed on his feet after having been evicted from his tiny studio flat? The eviction was shown as a segment of Can't Pay, We'll Take it Away, Series 04 Episode 11,, possibly filmed in spring or early summer of 2016. It was very concerning to those of us on Summerwine.net who were aware of it.

  • Simon Copley
    Hi Marianna Thanks for your message and pleased you have enjoyed the interviews, it has been great talking to the cast about making a show I have always adored. I saw the TV programme you mention and I understand from David that he is getting on well, so that's good news. I am hoping to be able to keep adding to my site from time to time so keep an eye out! Best wishes Simon

  • Marianna Stewart
    Thanks! That's reassuring news about David. May I pass it along to the Summerwine.net thread "David Fenwick", where all the concern for him has been simmering?

  • Simon Copley
    Yes, please do!
 
Thank you Marianna for the update and for making the enquiry in the first place. It is great to hear that David has overcome such adversity and seems to be making progress with his life . The experience could have easily driven things in a far darker direction .
 
To contribute to this very old thread...

After seeing David on stage at one of the events, I googled him having not seen First Of The Summer Wine (yet!) Sadly one of the first things that comes up is about this appearance on Can't Pay We'll Take It Away. I mentioned this to Simon who is involved with the FOTSW forum and he told me that David was disappointed to learn they didn't have to have his consent to put out the programme. Also to add insult to injury someone added the 'credit' under his IMDB entry and he has no way to remove it.

As people have said previously it's a reminder of just how precarious acting can be, imagine earning multiples of your annual salary one year, then earning less than minimum wage the next. That is the harsh reality of the industry and inevitably people will fall through the cracks...
 
I feel very sad that this has to be brought up, I can imagine how distressing this must be for him and the fact he can't remove his name from being associated with it is very annoying. I can't imagine having the lowest point of your life being wide spread " entertainment " for anyone with access to the internet. There really does have to limits.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top