David Morrissey, actor
Desert Island Discs
BBC
4.3 • 14.3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 June 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
David Morrissey is an actor who grew up in Liverpool.
His screen work ranges from playing a ruthless survivor of the zombie apocalypse in The Walking Dead to a troubled police officer in James Graham’s Sherwood.
His television debut performance came playing a teenager in the Channel 4 series One Summer. Since then his career has seen him win awards including the Royal Television Society award for Best Male Actor for his role as Gordon Brown in The Deal.
Morrissey’s interest in acting started in primary school, when he was cast as the Scarecrow in a production of The Wizard of Oz. As a teenager, he developed his passion further at the Everyman Youth Theatre in Liverpool, where he took guidance from professional actors.
After his first TV role, he went on to train at RADA. He is best known for portraying complex and troubled characters, and in more recent years has also demonstrated a flair for comedy in series such as Daddy Issues.
David lives in London.
Presenter Lauren Laverne Producer Sarah Taylor
Desert Island Discs has cast other actors away over the years including David’s fellow actors in Sherwood, Monica Dolan and Lesley Manville. The writer, James Graham is in there too. You can hear their programmes if you search through BBC Sounds or our own Desert Island Discs website.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.5 | From that crazy viral video to bizarre trends that are taking over our social feeds. |
| 0:12.7 | We investigate the stuff you're scrolling through in our brand new podcast, top comment. |
| 0:17.9 | I'm BBC correspondent, Mariana Spring. |
| 0:20.2 | And I'm investigative reporter Matt Shea. |
| 0:22.0 | Every week we look at the stories spilling out from our screens and into real life. |
| 0:26.0 | To work out what's actually real. |
| 0:27.9 | And what's not. |
| 0:29.2 | Top comment. |
| 0:30.4 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.7 | Hello, I'm Lauren Levern, and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:38.8 | Every week, I ask my guests to choose the eight tracks, book and luxury that they'd want to take with them if they were cast away to a desert island. |
| 0:46.2 | For rights reasons, the music's shorter than on the original broadcast, but you can find a version with longer music tracks on BBC sounds. |
| 0:53.7 | Listeners will also get access to episodes 28 days earlier than everyone else. |
| 0:58.1 | I hope you enjoy listening. |
| 1:22.1 | Music My castaway this week is the actor David Morrissey. |
| 1:25.7 | For over 40 years he's been a welcome presence on our screens, |
| 1:32.5 | playing everything from a ruthless survivor of the zombie apocalypse in The Walking Dead to former Prime Minister Gordon Brown in The Deal. |
| 1:38.4 | He starred in stories set everywhere from Britannia's Roman Empire to James Graham's Sherwood. |
| 1:42.8 | If there is a common thread in his work, it may be an examination of masculinity. |
| 1:46.0 | His characters are often men struggling to maintain the façade they present to the world as they wrestle with inner turmoil, whether it's a |
| 1:51.3 | buttoned-up headmaster in recent murder mystery gone or hapless grandfather-to-be Malcolm in the BBC |
... |
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