Obituaries

John Nettleton obituary: Actor best known for his role in Yes Minister

Nettleton and his wife teamed up to take Raymond Briggs’s stage version of his anti-nuclear story When the Wind Blows on tour

John Nettleton as King James I sounds a warning against the use of tobacco in a scene from the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of the royal revue, The Hollow Crown, in Denver, 1964. Photograph: Duane Howell/The Denver Post via Getty

Sat Jul 22 2023 - 00:50

Born February 5th, 1929

Died July 12th, 2023

John Nettleton, who has died aged 94, was a prolific character actor for more than half a century. He was admired for the dozens of classical supporting roles he took on stage, but he gained his greatest recognition on screen. His comic flair was best exploited as the cold, calculating Sir Arnold Robinson in the TV sitcom Yes Minister (1980-84), set in the corridors of Whitehall.

Although his presence and resonant voice invested authority in the characters he played, Nettleton was shy and totally unstarry. He described himself as a “workman” actor, adding: “I’ve got a pipe-smoking image. I’m typed as a senior civil servant, a soldier, a judge, a Harley Street doctor.”

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Yes Minister, the biting political satire created by Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, cast him to type as the cabinet secretary, a scheming bureaucrat who manipulates Jim Hacker (played by Paul Eddington), the minister in the fictional Department of Administrative Affairs, through his permanent under-secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne). By the time Hacker has risen to the top job in government in the sequel, Yes, Prime Minister (1986-1988), Sir Arnold has retired and become president of the Campaign for Freedom of Information.

Television fame came to Nettleton after three decades on stage that began with Shakespeare performances in Stratford-upon-Avon, followed by a string of West End roles and plays with the National Theatre company.

Nettleton was born in Sydenham, south London, to Alfred Nettleton, a factory supervisor, and his wife, Dorothy (nee Pratt). On leaving St Dunstan’s college, Catford, he trained at Rada, graduating in 1951.

He married the actor Deirdre Doone (born Anne Cooper) in 1954 after appearing with her on an Elizabethan Theatre tour. He then broke into the West End, worked as a contract player with the Royal Shakespeare Company, followed by a decade with the National Theatre company.

Nettleton and his wife teamed up to take Raymond Briggs’s stage version of his anti-nuclear story When the Wind Blows on tour (1984-1985). Both CND members themselves, they played the elderly couple Jim and Hilda Bloggs, based on the writer’s own parents, who trust in “the authorities” in the aftermath of a nuclear attack.

When he performed in John Hale’s play The Noise Stopped for ITV’s Armchair Theatre series in 1966, one critic remarked on his similarity to Alec Guinness – “the deliberate speech, the apparent under-playing, the suggestion of fire beneath the ice”. Nettleton continued popping up in character roles on TV, and the talent for comedy he demonstrated in Yes Minister led him to be cast in a string of sitcoms.

He is survived by his wife and their three daughters, Sarah, Joanna and Jessica.