Just Listen

Tim Bentinck has done so much and experienced so many things it’s hard to know where to start.

Do we begin with his part of David Archer in Radio 4’s long-running soap opera The Archers, or dwell on his other title Earl of Portland?

Perhaps you’d rather discuss his voiceover work which includes the ‘mind the gap’ instruction on London’s Underground, or dig a bit deeper to discover why an aristocrat is a jobbing actor at all.

All will become clear during his evening at Chipping Norton he promises, which includes all of the above and more.

“It was my agent’s idea so I wrote the show in three months and now here we are,” Tim says, as bemused as anyone else about his recent success.

“It’s a mixed bag I guess. Everyone keeps saying they’ve never come across a one-man show like it, and I worried that I had bitten off more than I could chew. But it’s like having lots of people round to dinner every night,” he smiles.

So who will the audience be then, hard core Archers fans? “Yes, the ones who’ve listened since episode one and haven’t missed one since. But also the odd person who’s never heard The Archers and has been dragged along.”

Tim was born in 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 Tim was two, the family moved back to England and Tim was sent to prep school, Harrow and then the University of East Anglia, although he says much of his time there was spent in the drama society – and water skiing!

So did his father mind when Tim went into acting? “Oh not at all. He said something once that I didn’t understand at the time, about being very brave to be a freelancer and that he wouldn’t have the courage, because in this industry there isn’t the slightest bit of security.

“Besides, it’s hard being rebellious when you’re the son of a rebel. And we were always the toffs without any money – the classic impoverished aristos, so we never fitted into any boxes and I like it like that.”

So why not use his title Earl Of Portland then or use the House Of Lords while he could?

“Can you see the headlines ‘David Archer in House Of Lords’. And I’m a jobbing actor who relies on the money and I didn’t want people to hear me making speeches and thinking I was as rich as Croesus. So no, my title does not define me although I’m very humbled by it, and financially we have a very middle-class life and an old-fashioned work ethic. I’m a Jack of All Trades,” he says proudly.

Instead, The Archers, and Tim’s numerous voiceovers have provided the necessary bread-and-butter over the years, something he is very grateful for.

“Today I did three voiceovers and made a lot of money, so I might be able to pay off a credit card or two,” he laughs. “But then if I don’t work for two or three weeks I get worried.”

The Archers, which Tim’s been in for 27 years, takes up a week of his month, four episodes recorded per day in Birmingham.

And at the moment Tim’s character David has a challenging part because he’s dealing with his 16-year-old daughter going out with a 28-year-old man.

“No I don’t care if people like David or not,” Tim tells me.

“If David is behavingly appallingly then people are meant to think badly of him and at the moment he’s bloody angry, which is fantastic. It’s about doing the job right. But most of the time The Archers just plods along, just like life, which make the storylines more believable.”

As for the ‘mind the gap’ story, you can hear Tim on all stations between Kings Cross and Earls Court. “It does make me laugh when I’m on the Tube that there are all those people obeying me,” Tim says.

But his anonymity is about to be sacrificed for the new show Loved Your Chocolates. So tell me about the title then.

“Oh, I can’t or it will ruin my punchline,” he laughs. You’ll have to go to Chippy and find out for yourself then.

Tim Bentinck appears at Chipping Norton Theatre in Spring Street on Wednesday. Call the box office on 01608 642350.