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Ladybbird · 13-11-23, 04:59

Harry Potters’ Stunt Double: ‘Breaking My Neck Made a Man of Me’

David Holmes: ‘I Did That Job and I Had to Accept The Risks.’

BBC 13 NOV 2023

For David Holmes, doubling for Daniel Radcliffe was a dream come true. He had been on the smash-hit series from the start, thought he’d be there till the end … and then an accident on one of the final films left him paralysed.

This is what happened next....

The routine had already been rehearsed. A fight with the snake Nagini was supposed to send Harry Potter flying. And it certainly did that. David Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double, felt the impact, and it hurt. But that was the nature of stunt work. He was always taking a knock, and showing off another bruise.

The next day the team came back to perfect the routine. It still wasn’t quite as spectacular as hoped. So they did what they’d done hundreds of times before: added more weight to the pulley system that would launch Harry so that he would fly through the air faster.

“I knew straight away,” Holmes says today, 14 years later. “I knew I’d broken my neck. I was fully conscious.” He had hit the wall at pace and with such brutality that he was left flopping, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. His boss, the stunt coordinator Greg Powell, asked if he could feel his legs. He couldn’t.

That day not only changed Holmes’s life for ever, it changed the lives of so many people on the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Powell, who had to live with getting it wrong; best friend Marc Mailley, who had to take over from Holmes as the stunt double; actor Daniel Radcliffe, who had been coached in gymnastics by Holmes and adored him. And on it went.

Later that day, it was reported that there had been an accident in pre-production on the set of Harry Potter. “I remember seeing the news report on TV,” says Dan Hartley, then a junior member of the crew working as the video playback operator. “I got on the phone to one of the crew and he told me he’d heard it was Dave and something bad happened.

For the next few days we were trading messages and we learned that Dave was paralysed.” Hartley had worked with the team for almost a decade. “Within a month we were meeting on the set and adjusting to this new norm, and it was horrific. I’d known Dave for almost 10 years and we were a very tight crew, and now he wasn’t there. Yet the team was still on the production. We’d lost one.”

In the stunt office we’d do judo, boxing, sword fighting. Dan was like my little brother then; now he’s one of my best friends

The Potter crew regarded each other as family. Many of them had worked together since filming began on the first movie in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in 2000. They meant so much to each other, and there was something extra special about Holmes, who’d been there from the start. He was tiny, at 5ft 1in, cheeky, irrepressible and exceptionally talented.

“He was like our mascot,” Hartley says. “He was 17 on the first film. Very cheeky, very confident. Everybody was growing up on set really – the kids were 11 or 12 when it started, Dave was 17, I was only 25. Because he’s larger than life but also small, Dave attracted a lot of attention and affection. Everyone knew him and loved him. He wasn’t the soulful person we now see. He was the young lad from Essex who’d made good.”

After the initial reports about the accident, little was heard about David Holmes. There were no dramatic fallouts, public recriminations, high-profile legal battles. Holmes quietly – and sometimes not so quietly – tried to rebuild his life.

Today, the 40-year-old is paralysed from the chest down and lives with four full-time carers. He is wiser and calmer, but in other ways he is little changed.

Meanwhile, Mailley has gone on to be one of the world’s most prominent stunt coordinators, and Radcliffe is one of the few superstar child actors who has gone on to succeed as an adult. As for Hartley, he is now a film director, and has just made a documentary about Holmes called, appropriately, The Boy Who Lived.

I meet Holmes at his home in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. The house would make the perfect setting for a futuristic sci-fi movie. Doors open and shut, lights switch on and off, a lift rises and descends at his command. “I designed the house in my head when I was on the spinal ward,” he says. “The technology I’ve put in place gives me as much independence as possible.”

Holmes grew up in Essex, the middle of three boys. His father is a deacon at the local Baptist church, his mother worked with disabled children for decades. He smiles. “Then her son goes and breaks his neck!” All three boys were super energetic – great fun, but hard work. At the age of five, an outreach team from British Gymnastics visited his school to check out the children’s potential.

The three Holmes boys were supple and capable. “My mum took us to Havering Gymnastics Club and she discovered that not only was it the world’s best babysitter, it got rid of the excess energy we had.”

Young David was particularly talented, and loved gymnastics: “The greatest sport in the world.” By 13, he was performing in national competitions and hoped to represent Britain at the Olympics. But at school he was bullied for his size: “It’s hard growing up a small bloke. You’re an easy target. I was called ‘titch’ and ‘pipsqueak’, and stuffed in lockers. Gymnastics was my safe space because I was around other gymnasts who were also small.”

A year later he was spotted by Powell, a legend in the stunt business, who hired him to work on Holmes’s first film, Lost in Space, starring household names such as Gary Oldman, William Hurt and Heather Graham. He was signed up on a child performer’s contract and, as a stunt double for the character Will Robinson, he had to dive out of the way of exploding pyrotechnics in a rubber “cryogenics suit”.

He had discovered something even better than gymnastics. “Imagine – I was 14, with all of my energy, allowed a free-for-all at Shepperton Studios for a summer. It was amazing. And what I noticed was as soon as you go on to a film set as a child performer, everybody treats you as an adult.

I knew this was what I wanted to do; I wanted to be a stuntman.”

Daniel Radcliffe (right) with his stunt double David Holmes (left) on the set of a Harry Potter film

13-11-23, 04:59	#1
Ladybbird Join Date: Feb 2011 Posts: 47,647 Thanks: 27,646 Thanked 14,458 Times in 10,262 Posts Awards Showcase Total Awards: 8	Harry Potters’ Stunt Double PARALYSED on Set: 'It Made a Man of Me’ Harry Potters’ Stunt Double: ‘Breaking My Neck Made a Man of Me’ David Holmes: ‘I Did That Job and I Had to Accept The Risks.’ BBC 13 NOV 2023 For David Holmes, doubling for Daniel Radcliffe was a dream come true. He had been on the smash-hit series from the start, thought he’d be there till the end … and then an accident on one of the final films left him paralysed. This is what happened next.... The routine had already been rehearsed. A fight with the snake Nagini was supposed to send Harry Potter flying. And it certainly did that. David Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe’s stunt double, felt the impact, and it hurt. But that was the nature of stunt work. He was always taking a knock, and showing off another bruise. The next day the team came back to perfect the routine. It still wasn’t quite as spectacular as hoped. So they did what they’d done hundreds of times before: added more weight to the pulley system that would launch Harry so that he would fly through the air faster. “I knew straight away,” Holmes says today, 14 years later. “I knew I’d broken my neck. I was fully conscious.” He had hit the wall at pace and with such brutality that he was left flopping, like a puppet whose strings had been cut. His boss, the stunt coordinator Greg Powell, asked if he could feel his legs. He couldn’t. That day not only changed Holmes’s life for ever, it changed the lives of so many people on the set of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. Powell, who had to live with getting it wrong; best friend Marc Mailley, who had to take over from Holmes as the stunt double; actor Daniel Radcliffe, who had been coached in gymnastics by Holmes and adored him. And on it went. Later that day, it was reported that there had been an accident in pre-production on the set of Harry Potter. “I remember seeing the news report on TV,” says Dan Hartley, then a junior member of the crew working as the video playback operator. “I got on the phone to one of the crew and he told me he’d heard it was Dave and something bad happened. For the next few days we were trading messages and we learned that Dave was paralysed.” Hartley had worked with the team for almost a decade. “Within a month we were meeting on the set and adjusting to this new norm, and it was horrific. I’d known Dave for almost 10 years and we were a very tight crew, and now he wasn’t there. Yet the team was still on the production. We’d lost one.” In the stunt office we’d do judo, boxing, sword fighting. Dan was like my little brother then; now he’s one of my best friends The Potter crew regarded each other as family. Many of them had worked together since filming began on the first movie in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, in 2000. They meant so much to each other, and there was something extra special about Holmes, who’d been there from the start. He was tiny, at 5ft 1in, cheeky, irrepressible and exceptionally talented. “He was like our mascot,” Hartley says. “He was 17 on the first film. Very cheeky, very confident. Everybody was growing up on set really – the kids were 11 or 12 when it started, Dave was 17, I was only 25. Because he’s larger than life but also small, Dave attracted a lot of attention and affection. Everyone knew him and loved him. He wasn’t the soulful person we now see. He was the young lad from Essex who’d made good.” After the initial reports about the accident, little was heard about David Holmes. There were no dramatic fallouts, public recriminations, high-profile legal battles. Holmes quietly – and sometimes not so quietly – tried to rebuild his life. *Today, the 40-year-old is paralysed from the chest down and lives with four full-time carers. He is wiser and calmer, but in other ways he is little changed.* Meanwhile, Mailley has gone on to be one of the world’s most prominent stunt coordinators, and Radcliffe is one of the few superstar child actors who has gone on to succeed as an adult. As for Hartley, he is now a film director, and has just made a documentary about Holmes called, appropriately, The Boy Who Lived. I meet Holmes at his home in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. The house would make the perfect setting for a futuristic sci-fi movie. Doors open and shut, lights switch on and off, a lift rises and descends at his command. “I designed the house in my head when I was on the spinal ward,” he says. “The technology I’ve put in place gives me as much independence as possible.” Holmes grew up in Essex, the middle of three boys. His father is a deacon at the local Baptist church, his mother worked with disabled children for decades. He smiles. “Then her son goes and breaks his neck!” All three boys were super energetic – great fun, but hard work. At the age of five, an outreach team from British Gymnastics visited his school to check out the children’s potential. The three Holmes boys were supple and capable. “My mum took us to Havering Gymnastics Club and she discovered that not only was it the world’s best babysitter, it got rid of the excess energy we had.” Young David was particularly talented, and loved gymnastics: “The greatest sport in the world.” By 13, he was performing in national competitions and hoped to represent Britain at the Olympics. But at school he was bullied for his size: “It’s hard growing up a small bloke. You’re an easy target. I was called ‘titch’ and ‘pipsqueak’, and stuffed in lockers. Gymnastics was my safe space because I was around other gymnasts who were also small.” A year later he was spotted by Powell, a legend in the stunt business, who hired him to work on Holmes’s first film, Lost in Space, starring household names such as Gary Oldman, William Hurt and Heather Graham. He was signed up on a child performer’s contract and, as a stunt double for the character Will Robinson, he had to dive out of the way of exploding pyrotechnics in a rubber “cryogenics suit”. He had discovered something even better than gymnastics. “Imagine – I was 14, with all of my energy, allowed a free-for-all at Shepperton Studios for a summer. It was amazing. And what I noticed was as soon as you go on to a film set as a child performer, everybody treats you as an adult. *I knew this was what I wanted to do; I wanted to be a stuntman.”* Daniel Radcliffe (right) with his stunt double David Holmes (left) on the set of a Harry Potter film

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