Before becoming a director, David had been an actor and an associate of Rex Tucker, who was involved in pre-production on Doctor Who in 1963. In this capacity, Tucker offered David the opportunity to play the First Doctor, but David declined. Furthermore, the series' original producer, Verity Lambert, deemed the then thirty-eight-year-old David too young for the part. This fact was mentioned in the 2013 docudrama An Adventure in Space and Time. He was married to Wendy Williams.