Actor

Born May 13, 1946;

Died April 7, 2017

TIM Piggott-Smith, who died suddenly aged 70, played one of the nastiest men in British television – the sadistic, racist police superintendent in the landmark drama series The Jewel in the Crown (1984).

It brought him fame and the chance of other roles he would not otherwise have been offered. But it was a mixed blessing, as so many of the offers were to play identikit sadistic villains, often with scars on their faces or a false arm. “I got typecast,” he said. “In one week I was offered three disabled parts because Merrick had lost his arm.”

His first love was the stage and he could use healthy pay cheques from supporting roles in films such as the James Bond movie Quantum of Solace (2008) and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland (2010) to subsidise his theatre work.

He played the title role in King Charles III (2014-16) in both the London West End and on Broadway, securing Olivier and Tony Award nominations. He reprised the role for a BBC television adaptation due to be broadcast later this year.

And he was preparing to play the lead in a touring production of Arthur Miller’s classic Death of a Salesman, including a week at Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre.

The son of a journalist, Timothy Peter Piggott Smith (no hyphen) was born in Rugby in Warwickshire in 1946; he studied English, French and drama at Bristol University and trained as an actor and stage manager with Bristol Old Vic theatre school.

Most of his early work was in theatre, often in Shakespearean roles – he was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. But he also landed fairly regular parts on television. His manner and voice suited establishment and authority roles.

At the end of the famous Milk Tray commercial that appeared to have been inspired by James Bond, it was Piggott-Smith who declared “And all because the lady loves Milk Tray.”

The Jewel in the Crown was set during the last days of British rule in India and was one of the most ambitious and expensive projects ever undertaken by a British TV company. A 14-part adaptation of Paul Scott’s Raj Quartet of novels, it was effectively Granada Television’s follow-up to Brideshead Revisited (1981).

Cast and crew spent six months in India and many more in England working on the series, with Piggott-Smith as Ronald Merrick, a rather pathetic figure, with a lot of power locally and a huge chip on his shoulder.

Coming from a lower-class background, he resents both his aristocratic superiors and also the new class of well-educated, pro-independence Indians. He is rebuffed by the character Daphne Manners (Susan Wooldridge) who has a relationship with local man Hari Kumar (Art Malik). Merrick then arrests, tortures and sexually humiliates Kumar.

The Jewel in the Crown won the Bafta award for best drama series and Piggott-Smith won the award for best actor, pipping co-stars Art Malik and Charles Dance.

After that he juggled theatre, film and television. He was artistic director of the Compass touring company, on television he had the title role in the police drama The Chief (1990-93) and on film he played a Calvinist minister in Gangs of New York (2002) and appeared in V for Vendetta (2005) and the remake of Whisky Galore! (2016).

A big fan of Sherlock Holmes, he played Dr Watson in the RSC’s 1973 production of William Gillette’s play Sherlock Holmes in the West End and on Broadway, he played Holmes in a 1986 BBC radio adaptation of The Valley of Fear and he even wrote two children’s books featuring the Baker Street Irregulars, The Dragon Tattoo (2008) and Shadow of Evil (2009).

He was made an OBE in the 2017 New Year honours. He is survived by his wife, the actress Pamela Miles, his son Tom and two grandchildren.

BRIAN PENDREIGH