BEING DAVID ARCHER

by Timothy Bentinck

(Little, Brown, €28) ‘THE moment my mother heard The Archers theme tune she turned off the radio,’ writes Timothy Bentinck, who auditioned for the role of David Archer in blissful ignorance of the goings-on in Ambridge.

He aced the audition and has been David for the past 36 years, during which his character has endured tragedy, infidelity, heartache, the notorious badger in the hedge scandal and the untimely demise of his brother-inlaw, Nigel Pargetter, who plummeted from the roof of his stately home on New Year’s Eve.

When not being David, Bentinck is the Earl of Portland. He was the voice of the Piccadilly Line for 15 years and enjoys a good film cavalry charge.

Tragedies — the suicide of his mother when he was a teenager and the loss of his premature second child — are gently acknowledged, but not dwelt upon in this stylish, very funny memoir.