Timothy Brinton

Timothy Denis Brinton (24 December 1929 – 24 March 2009), sometimes referred to as Tim Brinton, was a British broadcaster and Conservative Party politician. The son of a neurologist, he was educated at Summer Fields School in Summertown in Oxford, followed by Eton College , and at the University 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 presenter on the BBC Light Programme in 1965.

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).

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). After his death it was revealed that he had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease for five years.

References

• The Times Guide to the House of Commons, Times Newspapers Ltd, 1983 & 1987
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Timothy Brinton
• Timothy Brinton at the Internet Movie Database

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