Dudley Sutton

Photo of actor Dudley Sutton, 1961, by Sandra Lousada, National Portrait Gallery

### Portrays

Tink

**Dudley Sutton** was an English actor. Active in radio, stage, film, and television, he was best known for his role as Tinker in the BBC Television drama series *Lovejoy*.

## Early life

Sutton was born in Kingston upon Thames, and educated at a boys' boarding school at Lifton Park, Devon. He served in the Royal Air Force as a mechanic before enrolling in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he was later expelled for responding to rock-and-roll.

## Career

After early stage work with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, Sutton became known for his unusual roles in two films directed by Sidney J. Furie. He played a frustrated teenager accused with his friends of murder in *The Boys* (1962) and a gay biker in *The Leather Boys* (1964), both parts showing his potential for offbeat screen personae. At a reunion of the three surviving stars of the earlier film in London on 17 September 2017, Sutton related that he felt himself privileged that these movies had dealt with two matters close to his heart: the iniquity of the death penalty, and gay rights.

On stage, he played the title role in the original production of Joe Orton's *Entertaining Mr Sloane* (1964), and transferred with it to Broadway the following year. From 25 May 1966, he appeared in *Tango*, a play by Slawomir Mrozek at the Aldwych Theatre alongside Patience Collier, Peter Jeffrey, Mike Pratt, and Ursula Mohan under director Trevor Nunn.

Sutton appeared in many films during his career, including *Rotten to the Core* (1965), *Crossplot* (1969), *The Devils* (1971), *Madame Sin* (1972), *The Pink Panther Strikes Again* (1976), *Fellini's Casanova* (1976), *Edward II* (1991), and *The Football Factory* (2004).

Among his many television appearances were his roles as Tinker Dill in *Lovejoy* (1986 and 1991–94) – whose friendship with Lovejoy, the title character, and expertise in the antique trade was the backbone of the show – as Mr Carter in the *Beiderbecke Trilogy* and as Oleg Kirov in *Smiley's People* (1982). He also featured in *The Sweeney* episode "Golden Boy" and in a Christmas special episode of *Porridge* (1976) as the somewhat-unstable, prison trustee-turned-hostage-taker Reg Urwin, with Ronnie Barker and Richard Beckinsale.

In 1999, he appeared in the BBC Radio play *Cosmos the Mystic Dog*. In 2004, he made an appearance in the soap opera *EastEnders* for sixteen episodes, playing Wilfred Atkins, a conman.

In 2003, Sutton found inspiration from the internet "where apparently people say that every time you masturbate God kills a kitten." From that statement, he developed a comic piece about "a young man's emotions and feelings, from the moment he's a baby tugging at his cock onwards." In August 2003, he performed the one-man *Killing Kittens* show at Edinburgh's Underbelly.

Sutton followed up *Killing Kittens* with a second autobiographical show *Pandora's Lunchbox* in 2006. Following a performance as William Blake in Peter Ackroyd's BBC television series *The Romantics*, Sutton joined the cast of *Albion Rising* at St Giles in the Fields Church, London, in April 2007. He reprised the role in the film of the same name in 2009.[*citation needed*]

Sutton had a small role in the British teenage drama *Skins* as Freddie's granddad. He also appeared in the episode of *Holby City* broadcast on 15 March 2011 as a patient who fell down an escalator in a shopping centre. In 2012, he featured in the video "Once And For All" by Clock Opera.

Sutton also appeared in episode three of the BBC comedy series *Family Tree* ("The Austerity Games"), which was first broadcast in July 2013, and was a guest star in episode three of the BBC series *Boomers* in 2014. He played William Makepeace in *Emmerdale* in 2014.

In 2015 he appeared as a Roman Catholic rector in the BBC TV series *Father Brown* episode 3.6 "The Upcott Fraternity". He also appeared in two episodes of the BBC's day time show, *Doctors*, in August 2015. He narrated the 2016 documentary *The Future of Work and Death*. In November 2017 he played the lead role in a video for the Tom Chaplin song "Midnight Mass".