Tim Barlow

Michael John Leigh Barlow (born 18 January 1936), whose stage name is Tim Barlow or sometimes Timothy Barlow, is an English actor who has performed many small roles in a variety of films, television programmes and plays.

Barlow left the army in 1969 to pursue a career in acting, receiving advice from Trevor Nunn and Sir Laurence Olivier. He has recently written and performed a one-man show in which he describes how he came to the decision to go into the acting profession. He had previously had much success with another one man show entitled "My Army" in which he describes his life in the British army in the 1960s. This toured for many years.

One of his most notable roles was playing Mr. Morrow, a blind man allergic to his guide dog in The Tall Guy alongside Jeff Goldblum. He played Tyssan in the Doctor Who serial Destiny of the Daleks. He has also appeared on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Company and as the BFG at the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon, and on screen as Mr Treacher in Hot Fuzz. Also in 2007 he played an Ancient Blind Oracle in the HBO series Rome.

He lost his hearing in the 1950s when testing a high velocity Muzzle Rifle for the British Army, until recently, when surgery to fit a cochlear implant allowed him to recover some of his hearing.[2] His experience of having the cochlear implant fitted was detailed in a BBC Radio 4 programme called "Earfull - From Silence into Sound".[3]

In 2016 he performed in HIM, an autobiographical work about memory, ageing and the art of theatre, created by theatre-maker Sheila Hill, with videographer Hugo Glendinning, and musician Sebastiano Dessanay.[4][5]