The father of actress Liza Goddard, whose first major television role was as Clancy Merrick in Skippy , David Goddard was born in Winchester, Hampshire (England). He began his television career as a writer and quickly moved to the position of director and later producer for the BBC during the early years of the UK television industry. Among the series he produced and/or director were: Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School (1959), Three Golden Nobles (1959), The Splendor Spur (1960), Detective (1964), The Indian Tales of Rudyard Kipling (1964), and Sherlock Holmes (1964-1965).
Goddard was brought to Australia in 1965 by the Australian Broadcasting Commission and employed as Assistant Director for Television in the Drama and Features department (then operating as both a television and radio production arm of the ABC). When the Commission decided to separate radio production from television in 1965 it elevated Goddard to Head of the newly formed Television Drama department.
Drama output became more prolific under Goddard's management, and was channelled into three main genres: series (self-contained episodes), serials (continuing narrative) and the traditional one-off play. Under his management the ABC developed the long-running TV soap Bellbird, the critically acclaimed series Contrabandits and Australian Playhouse (1966-1967), which featured works by such people as Tony Morphett, Pat Flowers, John Warwick and Peter Finnane. Goddard also took on dual roles as producer/director for a number of episodes in the Delta series.
David Goddard returned to England in the early 1970s, and soon afterwards produced Emmerdale Farm (1972-1973) for the BBC.
