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 in Oxford, followed by Eton College in the small town of Eton in Berkshire, and at the University of Geneva.
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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 presenter on the BBC Light Programme in 1965.[3]
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. An inveterate Eurosceptic, he became a supporter of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in 2003.
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 uncovered a plan to make the moon and Mars habitable in the event of climate change and a terminal environmental catastrophe on Earth. 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.
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]
| 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 |