David Spears joins the Harchester backroom staff in the season of 2001/2002, with his wife Dawn in tow, as the Assistant Manager to Alan Rothman having been his sidekick at many other clubs. David is the good cop to Alan's bad cop. He takes what Alan says and puts his own spin on it, thereby getting the players onside. He tells them if he was the gaffer, things would be different and the players believe him. David has a hidden agenda. He holds a burning desire deep inside to one-day manage a club at a high level and realises that without the expert guidance of Rothman this is very unlikely – yet when he finds out a shocking home truth about Alan he seeks revenge and wrecks his mentor's career in the process. David was in the limelight during his playing career when he wed Dawn but now that they are less popular and less youthful she begins to be insecure about herself leading to an affair with the ever-so confident gaffer Alan Rothman.

His arrival in Harchester as the lackey of Rothman shows promise, with United in the Champions League and his Managerial CV getting bigger and bigger with every passing match. With Rothman staying in Harchester in the eve of the Mallorca Champions League Qualifier he was alone in the attempts to prevent the United playboys from taking advantage – he succeeds with the exception of the card school. While the cats away Dawn will play… she takes advantage of her husband in another country by shacking up with Alan once again. However when David finds out he immediately goes about wrecking the prospects of his mentor both personally and professionally. David is given a chance to expose Rothman as the unprofessional playboy that he is - when Alan is offered the Manager's job at AC Milan and he accepts in response to backroom upheaval. Alan is adamant that he wants David beside him at the helm in the San Siro, along with Stevie Shaw on the pitch. However, Spears is very certain that he won't be going to Italy and goes about exposing Alan as a cheat by taking backhanders in transfer deals. With the help of Paul Hankin the local journalist, they set him up with a fake representative from Milan, who Alan discusses the transfer with, and his backhander! The media have a field day when Alan is exposed, the Milan offer is withdrawn and Harchester sacks Alan Rothman.

With the Mangers slot vacant, David Spears sees a chance to seize what he has dreamt of since he stopped player - Premiership Management! Although he does have a struggle for the role from the elder statesman of the changing room Monday Bandele. With the crucial second leg with Mallorca on the agenda, Harchester need the win to progress although the management tussle makes this impossible - Monday and David disagree on tactics for the match. Whilst David tells the team to do things one-way, Monday is arranging them another. The first half of the match is chaos! David pulls the team together at half time, but it's too little, too late! The team play brilliantly in the second half but not enough to win the game. Harchester have to make do with second best and a UEFA cup place. After the role being originally offered to Bandele, David takes up the reins as gaffer although his personal life is in dire straights as he tells Dawn he cannot trust her anymore. After an incident at the training ground that results in Claudia getting covered in mud, she makes use of the showers whilst the team are out training, but not everyone is out on the training field and David catches a glimpse of Claudia's flesh in the shower. Claudia wants some fun... with David! Their fun continues until the Christmas party when David and Claudia are caught in a compromising position by her father and his wife, David is sacked with immediate effect and after learning some home truths about his affair with Claudia was nothing more than fun he leaves Harchester, leaving Dawn behind.

Statistics

First Appearance: Episode 5.01
Final Appearance: Episode 5.12

Season 5 Character Popularity: 0.19% (16th)

Filmography

Family Affairs (1997) TV Series .... Conrad Williams (2004-2005)
Heartbeat - House Rules (2003) TV Episode .... Greg Matthews
Mersey Beat (2002) TV Episode .... Chris Traynor
Doctors - Numb (2003) TV Episode .... Richard Simpson
Casualty - Breaking the Spell (2001) TV Episode .... Ed Jamieson
London's Burning (1988) TV Series .... D.O. Griggs (2000-2001)
Small Time Obsession (2000) .... Racing Manager
The New Adventures of Robin Hood - A Price on His Soul (1997) TV Episode .... Baragon

Last updated June 2006. For more up-to-date information, please visit IMDb.