He then embarked on a career as a businessman with his father-in-law, J.P. Jacobs, whose company supplied all the elastic to Marks & Spencer.

Prior to this he had made a guest appearance, again with Beckinsale, in the Yorkshire Television comedy Rising Damp in which he played a suicidal tenant in the episode "Good Samaritans".

But it was the role of irascible newsreader Henry Davenport in the topical comedy Drop the Dead Donkey, written by Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin, for which Swift became best known.

He also made occasional appearances as God in the Radio 4 comedy Old Harry's Game, also written by Hamilton.

Alongside his acting career, Swift had an active interest in the behind-the-scenes aspects of media production, running the sound recording and post-production businesses Preview 1 and Preview 2 in the 1960s, before co-founding and managing Tempest Films in 1969 along with film-makers Charles Denton, Richard Marquand, Paul Watson and John Pilger.