Tim Bentinck

The son of the non-conformist intellectual Henry Bentinck, he was born on a sheep station in Tasmania, Australia, but moved to Berkhamsted in the UK when aged two. He attended a local prep school, Harrow School, and the University of East Anglia, where he spent most of his time at its drama society[1] before receiving a BA degree in the History of Art. After graduation he trained in acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Bentinck has been an actor since 1978 and is known for the roles of David Archer in the BBC Radio 4 series The Archers and Tom Lacey in the BBC TV drama series By the Sword Divided (1983–85). He is also a voice-over artist, having provided the voice of James Bond for the video-game The World Is Not Enough (Nintendo 64 and PlayStation),[2] and the voice of Roger Radcliffe in 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure, and for 15 years between 1990 and 2006 was the voice of "Mind The Gap" on the London Underground Piccadilly line. Bentinck has a long list of theatre, television and film credits.[3] He appeared in The Thick of It in 2005 and 2007 and starred with David Jason in The Royal Bodyguard in 2012.

As himself, Bentinck has appeared on Call My Bluff, won a round of University Challenge,[4] Celebrity Mastermind,[5] Pointless Celebrities and beaten Judith Keppel on science in Celebrity Eggheads.[6]

Bentinck has revoiced Gérard Depardieu in the film Nouvelle France,[7] and Chow Yung Fat in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.[8] He has provided post-production voices for dozens of major US and UK film and television productions since helping provide the voices of both Scottish and English armies alongside Mel Gibson in Braveheart.

His first film role was as 'Harris', Roger Moore's lieutenant in North Sea Hijack; other film roles include William Goldman's The Year of the Comet, the western, The Pride of Wade Ellison as well as the short film, Locked Up by Bugsy Riverbank Steel – winner of Best Foreign Short Film at the Lanzarote Film Festival in 2013. Also Fast Girls, The Redistributors, Rule Number Three with Nicholas Hoult, The Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline, Trevor Nunn's Twelfth Night, Vanity Fair, the U-boat commander in Enigma, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and many short and student films. In 2018 he starred with Jack Roth as Conrad in the Netflix movie, Us And Them. He played the role of Frederick Forsyth in the BBC television film Reg (2016).[9]

On stage, after many London fringe theatre appearances, Bentinck starred as the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in 1982, as Captain Brice in Arcadia at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket, and as Hubert Laurie in Night Must Fall, also at the Haymarket. Bentinck toured a one-man show, Love Your Chocolates,[10] – a mixture of stories, comedy songs and multi-media, and played Frank in Educating Rita[11] at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, Berkshire, in 2009. In 2018 he played the new Prime Minister, Adam Masters, in the comedy Brexit at the Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh, and the King's Head, Islington.

Bentinck regularly writes travel articles for The Mail on Sunday[12] and his book, 'Avant Garde A Clue, co-written with Albert Welling, is published on Kindle. In March 2015, his children's book, Colin The Campervan, was published by FBS Publishing.

Bentinck's autobiography, Being David Archer - And Other Unusual Ways of Earning a Living was published by Constable in 2017. Radio Wiltshire's Book of the Year.

Bentinck has made many guest appearances in Big Finish audio dramas, including versions of Doctor Who,[13] Torchwood, Blake's 7[14] and Space 1999.[15]

In the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to drama.[16]

Bentinck is also an inventor with several patents to his name,[17] as well as a programmer/web site designer,[18] musician[19] and writer.[20]

On the death of the 9th Duke of Portland in 1990, Bentinck's father Henry, his sixth cousin succeeded to the earldom of Portland. In 1997 Tim succeeded his father. He took a seat in certain sittings of the House of Lords but made no speeches (nor questions) before losing the right and not standing for selective internal election, under the House of Lords Act 1999.

On 29 December 1732, the Hon. William Bentinck, Baron Bentinck of the Duchy of Guelders (second surviving son of Hans Willem Bentinck), was made a Count of the Holy Roman Empire as Count (Graf) Bentinck,[25] by Imperial Letters Patent. This title also vests in him. Under the Royal Warrant of 27 April 1932 on Foreign Titles the dispensation granted by Queen Victoria to use the title and daughters' styles socially in Great Britain was rescinded beyond any living heirs, the last of which were Bentinck's late father and aunt.

Bentinck married the milliner Judith Emerson in 1979. They have two sons: William Jack Henry Bentinck, Viscount Woodstock (born 19 May 1984) and The Hon. Jasper James Mellowes Bentinck (born 12 June 1988). They reside in London.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Portland
• Tim Bentinck's website - official website of the actor
• Tim Bentinck at IMDb
• Actor Tim Bentinck - Who's who The Archers, BBC Radio 4