Christopher Timothy

Timothy was born in Bala, Wales in 1940.^[1] He is the son of Anglican priest and BBC announcer Andrew Timothy and his first wife, Gwladys Marian nee Hailstone.^[2][3]

When aged five Timothy moved with his family to south London, and at thirteen to Shrewsbury, where he attended Kingsland Grange Preparatory School and Priory Grammar School for Boys,^[4] and trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.^[1] After leaving school and until his first paid acting engagements he worked in a Shrewsbury hat shop.^[4]

Timothy's first professional stage engagement was in the play Chips with Everything in London and New York, in the role of a RAF military policeman for more than six months.^[4] In the 1960s, Timothy was part of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre company and appeared in such productions as The Master Builder, Juno and the Paycock and Olivier's Othello.^[5] Timothy's television career started with the 1969 series Take Three Girls, and he went on to appear in UFO (1970 episode "The Psychobombs"), Doctor at Large in 1971, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em in 1973 and Murder Most English: A Flaxborough Chronicle in 1977 before winning the role of Herriot.

He played the role of James Herriot in All Creatures Great and Small for the full 90 episodes, from 1978 until 1990.^[6] Timothy later recalled meeting the author, Alf Wight, who had "a soft, lilting Scottish accent – though I was told to keep my speech neutral to retain the universality of the part. Which I thought was complete bollocks".^[7]

His film career included roles in Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush (1967), Alfred The Great (1969), The Virgin Soldiers (1969), Spring and Port Wine (1970), The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970), Up the Chastity Belt (1971), and the sex comedy Eskimo Nell (1975).

In 1980, he played Jesus Christ in the York Mystery Plays.

In 2000, he was cast as Mac McGuire in the BBC soap opera Doctors staying in the series for six years, and directing some of the episodes.

In 2004, he made an appearance in Casualty as the murderer of long-standing character Finlay Newton. He also appeared as a special guest on ITV1 drama The Bill, which was aired on New Years Day 2009. More recently he has appeared in Lewis (ITV1) in the episode "Wild Justice", The Grapes of Wrath, All the Fun of the Fair, Haunting Julia and Casualty (2014).

He is the son of BBC announcer Andrew Timothy, and has done regular voice work himself including taking his father's place as the announcer for the Goon Again Show in 2001 marking the 50th anniversary of The Goon Show (Andrew had been the announcer for the show back in the early 1950s). He played the announcer role on The Kinks' 1974 double album, Preservation Act 2.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 2000 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel on the set of Doctors at the BBC's Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham.^[8]

He voiced and appeared in numerous television commercials for The Sun newspaper in the 1970s when Rupert Murdoch had entered British newspaper publishing; these were extremely unusual commercials for the time in the level of energy and even aggression evident in Timothy's delivery. As the person in these advertisements, he became a character, a role, in the 2017 stage production of Ink, a play about Australian Rupert Murdoch's start on Fleet Street in British newspaper publishing with The Sun. Timothy was played by Jack Holden in the Almeida opening^[9] and by Andrew Durand^[10] in the Broadway production. The play was directed by Rupert Goold, at the Almeida Theatre, London, and later moved to the West End, and then performed on Broadway.^[11]

He appeared in BBC Radio's Just a Minute in 1988 and 1989. He was also used in the marketing material for Dignity plc, primarily for their prepaid funeral plans.

In 2008 Timothy took part in the BBC Wales programme Coming Home about his Welsh family history. In 2011, he played himself in the audio drama We are not the BBC^[12] written by Susan Casanove and produced by the Wireless Theatre Company.

He returned to theatre in March 2013 in The Living Room.^[13] In 2014 he played Inspector Hubbard in the UK tour of the stage thriller Dial M for Murder.^[14]

In April 2017, it was announced that he would be joining the BBC soap opera EastEnders as regular character Ted Murray, in which he made his last appearance on 27 September 2019.^[15] Timothy appeared with Peter Davison in two series of Great British Car Journeys for Channel 4 in 2018 and 2019.^[16] He also appeared in Midsomer Murder S21E1 "The Point of Balance" as Ned Barnaby. In February 2020 Timothy appeared in Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators as Major Terence Benedick episode #3.3 "The Sticking Place".

In April 2020 Timothy appeared in ITV Series Kate & Koji (Series 1, episode 5). When Kate's flashy ex-husband Dennis arrives in town with his much younger wife, Kate feigns an attachment to Koji

Timothy had narrated the first nine series of Channel 5's The Yorkshire Vet, which features veterinarians Julian Norton and Peter Wright. He had hoped to do so for the tenth series as well, but was self-isolating owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020. Peter Davison was asked to take on the role because his home was equipped with a recording studio, allowing him to complete the project in spite of the lockdown. Timothy was gracious in his comments. "I'm so sorry not to be able to do the voiceover for The Yorkshire Vet right now, but I can't tell you all how delighted I am that Peter is taking over. He most definitely would be my first choice while I'm in lockdown!"^[17][18]

Timothy had also narrated the audio books of the James Herriot series.^[19]

Timothy has been married twice; first to Susan Boys, with whom he had four sons and two daughters. During the 1978–1980 first run of All Creatures Great and Small, he had an affair with his screen wife, Carol Drinkwater.^[20] He has been married to Annie Veronica Swatton since 1982, and they have one daughter.^[21] He is a supporter of National League football club Hartlepool United. Timothy learned to play violin whilst at school and plays occasionally in a local amateur orchestra although he described his ability as moderate (Right Notes May 1992).

Film

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1965	Othello	Cypriot Officer
1968	Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush	Spike
1969	Alfred the Great	Cedric
	The Virgin Soldiers	Cpl. Brook
1970	Spring and Port Wine	Joe
	The Mind of Mr. Soames	T.V. Camera Operator
1972	Up the Chastity Belt	Vendor
1975	Eskimo Nell	Harris Tweedle
2003	Hamlet	Gravedigger

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Television

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1967	Boy Meets Girl	Cowper	Episode: "Long After Summer"
1967	Theatre 625	Andreyushkin	Episode: "The Single Passion"
1967	Much Ado About Nothing	Server	TV film
1968	Half Hour Story	Cave	Episode: "The Money Spider"
1969	Thirty-Minute Theatre	Andrea	Episode: "These Men Are Dangerous: Mussolini"
1969	BBC Play of the Month	Cinna	Episode: "Julius Caesar"
1969	Galton and Simpson Comedy	Tony	Episode: "Friends in High Places"
1969	World in Ferment	Various	Episode: #1.6
1970	BBC Play of the Month	Fedotik	Episode: "The Three Sisters"
1970	ITV Sunday Night Theatre	Valentine	Episode: "Twelfth Night"
1970	Take Three Girls	Henley	Episode: "Gloria for First Offence"
1970	Hark at Barker	P.C. Billings	Episode: "Rustless on Law"
1970	ITV Playhouse	Mark	Episode: "A Family and a Fortune"
1970	Hark at Barker	Barry	Episode: "Rustless on Sport"
1970	Menace	David	Episode: "The Straight and the Narrow"
1970	UFO	Skydiver 3 Navigator	Episode: "The Psychobombs"
1971	Six Dates with Barker	Albert	Episode: "1937: The Removals Person"
1971	The Liver Birds	Harry	Episode: "Three's a Crowd"
1971	Z Cars	George Swainson	Episode: "Triangle Squared: Part 1"
1971	The Two Ronnies	Harry	Episode: #1.7
1971	Doctor at Large	Car Salesman	Episode: "A Little Help from My Friends"
1971	Kate	Bob	2 episodes
1971	The Fenn Street Gang	Tony Lawson	Episode: "The Start of Something Big"
1971	ITV Sunday Night Theatre	Tony Abbott	3 episodes
1972	The Pathfinders	Flight Lt. Bill Booth	Episode: "Our Daffodils Are Better Than Your Daffodils"
1973	The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes	Solicitor	Episode: "The Mysterious Death on the Underground Railway"
1973	The Moon Shines Bright on Charlie Chaplin	Corporal	TV film
1973	The Upper Crusts	Parsloe	Episode: "By Endeavour Alone"
1973	ITV Sunday Night Theatre	Tom Palmer	Episode: "Harlequinade"
1973	Crown Court	Richard Quennel	3 episodes
1973	Van der Valk	Ernest	Episode: "The Rainbow Ends Here"
1973	2nd House	L. Cpl. Johnson	Episode: "National Service"
1973	Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em	Roy	Episode: "Frank and Marvin"
1973	Murder Must Advertise	Mr. Willis	All 4 episodes
1975	Rooms	Tim	2 episodes
1975	Goose with Pepper	Sergeant	TV film
1976	Killers	Sidney Harry Fox	Episode: "Murder at the Metropole"
1976	The Dick Emery Show	Various	2 episodes
1977	Murder Most English	Det. Sgt. Love	All 7 episodes
1977	Van der Valk	Policeman	Episode: "The Professor"
1977	BBC2 Play of the Week	Kevin	Episode: "The Kitchen"
1978–1990	All Creatures Great and Small	James Herriot	All 90 episodes
1978	Return of the Saint	The Gent	Episode: "The Poppy Chain"
1982	Take Three Women	Henley	Episode: "Victoria"
1984	All the World's a Stage	Various	2 episodes
1984	See How They Run	Lt. Cpl. Clive Winton
1986–1988	Hot Metal	Voiceover	5 episodes
1987	C.A.T.S. Eyes	Voice on Commercial	Episode: "Carrier Pigeon"
1987–1988	The Kenny Everett Television Show	Various	2 episodes
1998	The Bill	D.S. Duffield	Episode: "Big Day"
2000	Holby City	Chris Collins	Episode: "A Life Worth Saving"
2000–2006, 2024	Doctors	Mac McGuire	Regular role
2004	Casualty	Karl Ackerman	4 episodes
2009	The Bill	Jeff Phelps	Episode: "The Morning After"
2011	Lewis	Barry Winter	Episode: "Wild Justice"
2014	Casualty	Richard Lynd	Episode: "Once in a Lifetime"
2015–2023	The Yorkshire Vet	Narrator	148 episodes
2017–2019	EastEnders	Ted Murray	Regular role
2018-2019	Vintage Roads	Himself	2 seasons
2019	Midsomer Murders	Ned Barnaby	Episode: "The Point of Balance"
2020	Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investigators	Major Terence Benedick	Episode: "The Sticking Place"
2020	Kate & Koji	Dennis	Episode: #1.5

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