David Rogerson Wheatley (20 December 1949 – 5 April 2009) was a British film and television director.^[1]

His Royal College of Art graduation film was on the Belgian surrealist artist René Magritte, after his tutor Gavin Millar showed him a book on the artist. The film was screened as part of the BBC's arts' programmes Omnibus in 1979. From that year, he contributed films to the Omnibus and Arena series,^[1] before branching out into other areas in the mid 1980s.

He directed The Magic Toyshop (1987), a fantasy film based on the Angela Carter novel, which Carter adapted herself, and several social dramas set in the north of England. In the early 1990s he directed a series of Catherine Cookson adaptations for Tyne Tees which gained audiences of 14 million. He also directed episodes of Fat Friends and Dalziel and Pascoe.^[1]

He died after a long illness on 5 April 2009, aged 59. He was survived by his mother, Ellen, his father, Fred, a son Alexander from his marriage to Melanie Pringle, and a daughter Francesca from his relationship with Camilla Tress.