David Cobham
British film director and producer (1930-2018)
Michael David Cobham (11 May 1930 – 25 March 2018) was a British film and TV producer and director, best known for the film Tarka the Otter. He was also a first-class cricketer.
Early life
Cobham was educated at Stowe School, where he played for the school cricket team, before going up to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge to read natural sciences.
Cricket career
He played minor counties cricket for Berkshire in the 1948 Minor Counties Championship, making five appearances. He later made an appearance in first-class cricket for the Free Foresters against Cambridge University at Fenner's in 1953. He bowled ten wicket-less overs in Cambridge University's first-innings, before taking the wickets of Mike Bushby and Dennis Silk in their second-innings to finish with figures of 2 for 21 from seven overs. He failed to score while batting, being dismissed in the Free Foresters' first-innings by Myles Arkell and Raman Subba Row in their second-innings.
Filmmaking career
Cobham directed the BBC's first wildlife film The Vanishing Hedgerows in 1972 with Henry Williamson noting changes brought about by new farming methods. At the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, it won a silver nymph in the category for documentaries.
Tarka the Otter is a 1979 British adventure film directed by Cobham, based on the 1927 novel of the same name by Williamson.
“David Cobham” enters the record as british film director and producer (1930-2018). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what David, Cobham and British can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“David Cobham” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, David, Cobham and British provides the most credible route into that argument.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5232440. VIAF identifies the subject as 88481993. The Library of Congress control number is no2009070234. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1930, 2018, 1948 and 1953.
A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “David Cobham”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow David Cobham primary sources, David Cobham archive and David research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “David Cobham”?
- Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “David Cobham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.