Haig, David

David Haig was born in Hampshire in 1955. His mother was an opera singer and his father was an army officer, later running the Hayward Gallery in London. Haig was expelled from Rugby School, the public school, for what he describes as, ‘very small things by modern standards’.

During his 20s, Haig spent two years in Denmark (he speaks fluent Danish!), where he learned to plumb drains, before returning to the UK to attend drama school. He looked very different as a drama student from what he does today. He says, ‘I had very long hair and very long beard and hundreds of beads on wrists, the whole 70s hippy thing’.

When Haig was 26, his only sister, then aged 22, died of a brain aneurysm. Haig says, ‘Nothing ever surprised me again. Ever since, I've never felt shock from people dying early. It doesn't mean I don't feel it greatly – I do – but it never shocks. I think my sister's death matured me in a way I wasn't expecting.’

Haig is married to Jane Galloway, an actress, and a professional cook after making the final on the TV programme MasterChef. Haig says he’s ‘an upbeat person with a melancholy streak’ and that his wife brings out the upbeat side of his personality. In 1996, Haig and his wife lost a baby at birth. Since then they have worked for Sands, a charity which supports bereaved families. Haig has also worked on the phone lines at his local Samaritans office (the Samaritans work to prevent suicide – find out more about the charity here: Samaritans | Every life lost to suicide is a tragedy | Here to listen). Haig says, ‘there is something about grabbing your experiences in life and turning them into something positive. We've tried to do that. I know it isn't always possible, some things are too crippling, but what is the alternative? I do believe life is about gaining wisdom of some sort’. Haig and his wife have five children and have lived in the same house in London for 30 years.

As well as being a playwright, Haig is a prolific film, TV and stage actor, appearing in TV programmes such as Doctor Who, Soldier Soldier, The Thin Blue Line, Killing Eve and Downton Abbey; films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Dustbin Baby and The 39 Steps; and plays such as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Guys and Dolls, The Madness of King George and Mary Poppins. Haig has been nominated for five Olivier Awards and won one for Best Actor in a New Play for Our Country’s Good in 1988. He was made MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in 2013 for his services to drama.

Haig’s play My Boy Jack premiered in 1997 (watch a scene from the play here: My Boy Jack - YouTube). It is based on Rudyard Kipling’s poem of the same name, written in 1915 about his son (Rudyard Kipling is also known for writing The Jungle Book and the famous poem ‘If’). Kipling’s son, John, died in WWI and the poem is about Kipling’s grief at his loss. Although Kipling searched for the body of his son, he was unsuccessful in his quest. The Imperial War Museum held an exhibition of John Kipling’s life in 2007. The same year, on Remembrance Day, Haig’s My Boy Jack was broadcast on ITV, starring Haig as Rudyard Kipling (Haig actually looks a little bit like the real-life Kipling!) and Daniel Radcliffe (also known as Harry Potter!) as Jack. Rather than a historical retelling of Kipling’s experience, the TV version aimed to tell the story of all of the lost sons during WWI. In the United States, My Boy Jack is titled My Son Jack. Learn more about John ‘Jack’ Kipling here: John 'Jack' Kipling - WWI - ITV News - 18th January 2016 - YouTube

Of his writing, Haig says, ‘I started writing because I didn’t want only to be a component part of a much bigger thing but to have more intellectual control. It did at least feel as if I was contributing to the whole picture. I think the effect, though, has been to make me enjoy acting more. Because that desire to be completely stimulated by it isn’t as great, so it’s freer.’ That being said, Haig says himself that he would like to focus on his writing for the remainder of his career: ‘I would like to write more and more.’

Watch an interview with Haig here: David Haig | Full Q&A at The Oxford Union - YouTube