John Nettleton (actor)

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John Nettleton (actor) bigraphy, stories - Film

John Nettleton (actor) : biography

5 February 1929 –

John Nettleton (born 5 February 1929, London) is an English actor best known for playing Sir Arnold Robinson, Cabinet Secretary in Yes Minister (1980–84) and President of the Campaign for Freedom of Information in the follow-up Yes, Prime Minister (1985–88). Another political role for Nettleton was a Conservative Party Member of Parliament in the sitcom The New Statesman.

Other roles were in A Man for All Seasons (1966), a police sergeant in Please Sir! in 1969, the Brian Clemens thriller And Soon the Darkness (1970), Francis Bacon in Elizabeth R (1971), Black Beauty (1971), a Detective Superintendent in Doctor at Large in 1971, Upstairs, Downstairs (1972), The Country Wife (1977), The Flame Trees of Thika (1981), The Citadel (1983), Martin Luther, Heretic (1983), Brass (1983), East of Ipswich (1987), Reverend Ernest Matthews in the Doctor Who serial Ghost Light (1989), Jinnah (1998), Longitude (2000), Midsomer Murders (2005) and Kingdom (2008).

On stage, he has appeared in the Lyttelton Theatre of the Royal National Theatre in the 2006 productions of Harley Granville Barker’s The Voysey Inheritance, directed by Peter Gill. He also voices Grandpa in the PC Game, "The Scruffs".

To a generation who grew up as children in the 1960s and 1970s, who were viewers of the long-running B.B.C. television programme, Blue Peter, John Nettleton’s voice is immediately recognised as the reader of various illustrated stories, often about historical figures, such as Florence Nightingale.

He is married to actress Deirdre Doone.

Selected filmography

  • All Creatures Great and Small (1975)
  • The Tempest (BBC & Time-Life Shakespeare series, as Gonzalo) (1979)
  • Anyone for Denis? (1982, TV version)
  • Martin Luther, Heretic (1983)