Tim Brinton

Timothy Denis Brinton (24 December 1929 – 24 March 2009),[1][2] sometimes referred to as Tim Brinton, was a British broadcaster and Conservative Party politician.[1] The son of a neurologist, he was educated at Summer Fields School in Summertown, Oxford, followed by Eton College and the University of Geneva.

Tim Brinton
Member of Parliament for Gravesend
In office
3 May 1979 – 9 June 1983
Preceded byJohn Ovenden
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Member of Parliament for Gravesham
In office
9 June 1983 – 11 June 1987
Personal details
Born
Timothy Denis Brinton

24 December 1929
Died24 March 2009
Political partyConservative until 2003
UKIP 2003-present
Alma materUniversity of Geneva


Career

After national service with the Scots Guards, Brinton studied acting and production at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He then joined the BBC as an announcer and newsreader and moved in 1959 to ITN, where he was a newscaster until 1962. He was also a regular presenter of Roundabout on the BBC Light Programme between 1964 and 1967.[3][4]

Brinton was a Kent County Councillor from 1974 to 1981 and Member of Parliament (MP) for the marginal seat of Gravesend from 1979 (gaining the seat from Labour) to 1983, and, following boundary changes, for the new Gravesham constituency from 1983 until he stood down in 1987. In 2003, he became a member of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).[5]

Alternative 3

Brinton was the presenter and narrator of the mockumentary Alternative 3, and lent it the gravitas it needed to be a successful hoax. The programme had been due to be broadcast on April Fools' Day, 1977, but industrial action meant that it was broadcast in June. Sometimes cited as a British parallel to Orson Welles's radio production of The War of the Worlds, Alternative 3 purported to be an investigation into Britain's contemporary "brain drain". Alternative 3 was supposedly a plan to relocate a cross section of Earth's scientific and philosophical population to Mars in the event of climate change or some other planetary catastrophe. When the DVD was released in October, 2007, it had a 30-minute featurette in the extras, featuring an interview with Brinton, as well as his fellow "conspirators", David Ambrose and Christopher Miles who also directed Alternative 3, alongside a production stills gallery and contemporary press cuttings.

Personal life

He married Jane-Mari Coningham in 1954 (marriage dissolved, one son, three daughters, one of whom is the Liberal Democrat politician Sal Brinton), and in 1965 married Jeanne Frances Wedge (two daughters).[2] After his death it was revealed that he had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for five years.[2]

Filmography

References
  1. "Ex-broadcaster and MP Brinton dies". Bexhill Observer. 24 March 2009. Archived from the original on 28 March 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2009.
  2. "ITN newsreader and TV personality who became a Conservative MP". The Independent. 15 April 2009. Retrieved 16 April 2009.
  3. "BBC Genome Project". Tim Brinton. Retrieved 18 February 2018.
  4. "Picture of Brinton at TV announcers website". Retrieved 28 January 2009.
  5. "Tim Brinton". The Daily Telegraph. 29 March 2009. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
John Ovenden		 Member of Parliament for Gravesend
1979–1983		 Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for Gravesham
1983–1987		 Succeeded by
Jacques Arnold
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