Actor

Tim can describe himself as a great deal more than just David Archer in The Archers. He is an accomplished stage and television actor and also an inventor, writer, computer programmer and musician.

Tim was born on 1 June 1953 on a sheep station in Tasmania where his father had gone to work after giving up his job as a BBC talks producer. When he was two years old, the family moved back to England to live in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, where Tim was sent to preparatory school. He studied at Harrow School for five years where he kept up the family tradition of excellence in swimming and languages, and then went on to the University of East Anglia. He graduated with a BA (Hons) in the History of Art, although he says much of his time there was spent in the Drama Society - and water skiing!

After time spent helping his father set up an organic smallholding in Devon, driving tourists round America with TrekAmerica, and selling Mercedes cars in Morocco, Tim decided he really wanted to be an actor. To avoid the dole he got an HGV licence and a job delivering lorry loads of chocolate to South Wales.

After three years at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Tim was awarded the Carleton Hobbs radio award, which guaranteed him six months work with the BBC Radio Repertory Company, and an Equity card. During this time he tackled a vast number of plays and began to build his reputation for voice work, taking on the role of David Archer in 1982.

As well as voice-over work, Tim found himself in increasing demand for television; as Tom Lacey in By The Sword Divided; Nigel Barrington in Square Deal; Steve Nicholson in Made in Heaven; Wing Commander Raikes in Strike Force; and Mark Fitzherbert in the sitcom Prince Among Men. While Tim says that acting is “not a job for a grown-up”, and that success is often down to luck rather than any other factor, it does lead him into extraordinary situations, such as facing 30 charging Hussars while filming Sharpe’s Rifles in Russia!

His fascination with drama goes back to his school days where he used to produce sketches for a group of friends. He says his father had a penchant for “silly accents” which helped develop his own ear for music and voices.

In the voice world, Tim’s recent work includes: re-voicing Gérard Dépardieu in a Canadian film, Nouvelle France; dubbing the lead character, Chow Yung Fat, in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and playing James Bond in the computer game of The World Is Not Enough.

On screen he has played Germans in Born and Bred, the BAFTA-nominated D-Day and Vanity Fair, a plastic surgeon in Frances Tuesday, a cockney drug dealer in Silent Witness, a labour minister in Armando Iannucci’s The Thick Of It and Jeremy Paxman in the Stephen Fry/John Bird comedy Absolute Power. So, the accents are proving useful!

Tim says that the character David Archer is nothing like him. He sees David as a bit of a child, rather more straight-laced, and that they would certainly vote differently. Equally, Tim says he has a much greater concern for the environment, though David is coming to realise that agriculture cannot continue using chemicals and pesticides at their present levels.

Away from acting, Tim patented a device called The Hippo which enables a child to be supported on an adult’s hip. He developed software for Psion handhelds, which was used commercially as a unit and currency converter, and AGENT, a program that runs the finances for voice-over agencies. He has designed and developed five commercial websites and his own at www.bentinck.net.

Tim and his wife Judy, a successful milliner and hat designer, live in Islington where they’ve been restoring their house since 1982 - inspired by their success in renovating their previous home in Bristol. What was once a crumbling Victorian semi is now a comfortable modernised home.

They have two sons, William and Jasper.