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Tim Bentinck

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The Right Honourable
The Earl of Portland
MBE
Born
Timothy Charles Robert Noel Bentinck

(1953-06-01) 1 June 1953 (age 71)
Barton, Tasmania, Australia
Citizenship
  • Australia
  • United Kingdom
Alma mater
Occupations
Notable workThe Archers
Spouse
​
(m. 1979)​
Children2, including Will Bentinck
FatherHenry Bentinck

Timothy Charles Robert Noel Bentinck, 12th Earl of Portland, Count Bentinck of Waldeck Limpurg, MBE (born 1 June 1953), commonly known as Tim Bentinck, is an Australian-born British actor and writer, known for his long-running role as David Archer in the BBC Radio 4 series, The Archers.

As the Earl of Portland, Bentinck was a member of the House of Lords from 1997 to 1999.[1] He is also Count Bentinck in the peerage of the Holy Roman Empire.

Early life

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The son of the non-conformist intellectual Henry Bentinck, Portland was born on a sheep station in Barton, Tasmania, Australia, but moved with his family to Berkhamsted in England at the age of two. He was educated at a prep school, then Harrow School, and finally at the University of East Anglia, where he spent much of his time on productions of its drama society,[2] before receiving a BA degree in the History of Art. After graduation, he trained in acting at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.

Career

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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 version),[3] and the voice of Roger Radcliffe in 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure. Between 1990 and 2006 he was also the voice of "Mind The Gap" on the London Underground Piccadilly line. Bentinck has a long list of theatre, television and film credits.[4] 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,[5] Celebrity Mastermind,[6] Pointless Celebrities and beaten Judith Keppel on science in Celebrity Eggheads.[7]

Bentinck has revoiced Gérard Depardieu in the film Nouvelle France,[8] and Chow Yun Fat in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.[9] He has provided post-production voices for many major US and UK film and television productions since helping provide the voices of both Scottish and English armies alongside Mel Gibson in Braveheart.[citation needed]

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).[10]

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,[11] – a mixture of stories, comedy songs and multi-media, and played Frank in Educating Rita[12] at the Watermill Theatre, Newbury, Berkshire, in 2009.

Bentinck regularly writes travel articles for The Mail on Sunday[13] 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.[citation needed]

Bentinck's autobiography, Being David Archer – And Other Unusual Ways of Earning a Living was published by Constable in 2017.

Bentinck has made many guest appearances in Big Finish audio dramas, including audio productions based on Doctor Who,[14] Torchwood, Blake's 7[15] and Space 1999.[16] He has also narrated over sixty audiobooks.

In the 2018 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to drama.[17]

Bentinck is also an inventor with several patents to his name,[18] as well as a programmer/web site designer,[19] musician[20] and writer.[21]

Television

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Bentinck's roles on television include:

Video games

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Bentinck has also done voicework for numerous videogame titles:[25]

Titles

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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,[26] by Imperial Letters Patent of Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor. 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.

Personal life

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Bentinck married the milliner Judith "Judy" Ann Emerson (born Newcastle-under-Lyme, 10 October 1952) in London on 8 September 1979. They have two sons: Will Bentinck (born London, 19 May 1984) and The Hon. Jasper James Mellowes Bentinck (born London, 12 June 1988). They reside in London.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Portland, accessed 24 November 2022
  2. ^ "University of East Anglia" (PDF). UEA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 September 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  3. ^ "Tim Bentinck Interview". MI6. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  4. ^ "Tim Bentinck". IMDb.com. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  5. ^ "Tim Bentinck in University Challenge". YouTube. 5 September 2010. Archived from the original on 12 December 2021. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  6. ^ "BBC One – Celebrity Mastermind, 2012/2013, Episode 10". Bbc.co.uk. 5 January 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  7. ^ "BBC Two – Celebrity Eggheads, Series 5, Episode 8". Bbc.co.uk. 19 December 2012. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  8. ^ "Battle of the Brave (2004)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  9. ^ "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)". IMDb.com. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  10. ^ "BBC One: Reg". BBC Online. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  11. ^ "The Watermill Theatre – Love Your Chocolates! – An Evening With Tim Bentinck". Watermill.org.uk. 3 July 2011. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  12. ^ "The Watermill Theatre – EDUCATING RITA". Watermill.org.uk. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  13. ^ Goodwin, Eileen (5 March 2011). "Rugby fans would not be put off: writer". Otago Daily Times. Retrieved 16 March 2021.
  14. ^ "Moonflesh". Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  15. ^ "Battleground". Retrieved 6 May 2015.
  16. ^ "Gerry Anderson's Space 1999 returns – News – Big Finish". bigfinish.com. Retrieved 14 August 2019.
  17. ^ "No. 62310". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 June 2018. p. B15.
  18. ^ "A child support – United Kingdom Patent GB2201083". Patent.ipexl.com. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  19. ^ "Tim Bentinck – Websites". Bentinck.net. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  20. ^ "Tim Bentinck – Music Recordings". Bentinck.net. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  21. ^ "Tim Bentinck – Travel". Bentinck.net. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  22. ^ Tim Bentinck at IMDb
  23. ^ Director: Ian Barber; Executive Producer: Lorraine Newman; Writer: Kim Revill (23 April 2013). "Episode dated 23/04/2013". EastEnders. BBC. BBC One.
  24. ^ "Tim Bentinck". IMDb. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
  25. ^ "IMDb – International Media Database". IMDb.
  26. ^ Ruvigny, Melville H. (2000) [1909]. The Nobilities of Europe. Adamant Media Corporation.
[edit]
Peerage of England
Preceded by Earl of Portland
1997–present
Member of the House of Lords
(1997–1999) 		Incumbent
German nobility
of the Holy Roman Empire
Preceded by Count Bentinck
1997–present 		Incumbent
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