Background
Britton was born in a room above the Trocadero public house in Temple Street, Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Doris Marguerite (née Jones) and Edward Leslie Britton.
Britton was born in a room above the Trocadero public house in Temple Street, Birmingham, Warwickshire, the son of Doris Marguerite (née Jones) and Edward Leslie Britton.
He attended Edgbaston Collegiate School, Birmingham and Thornbury Grammar School, Gloucestershire.
He is the father of presenter Fern Britton, scriptwriter Cherry Britton and actor Jasper Britton. During the Second World War he served in the Army and he also worked for an estate agents and in an aircraft factory. He joined an amateur dramatics group in Weston-super-Mare and then turned professional, appearing on stage at the Old Vic and with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He has appeared in numerous British films from the 1950s onwards, including such classics as, and
From 1983 to 1990, he starred with Nigel Havers and Dinah Sheridan in the British Broadcasting Corporation sitcom, Don"t Wait Up. In September 2013 Sir Jonathan Miller directed a Gala Performance of William Shakespeare"s King Lear at the Old Vic in London.
Britton played the Earl of Gloucester. Cherry is married to children"s television presenter Brian Cant.
Fern is married to Philosophy Vickery.
They have one son, actor Jasper Britton.
Britton"s second wife is Danish sculptor and member of the wartime Danish resistance Eva Castle Britton (née Skytte Birkfeldt).