Tim Preece

Tim Preece is an English actor born on 5 August 1938 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. He received his early education at the Priory Grammar School for Boys in Shrewsbury before training at the Bristol Old Vic.

Preece's stage career gained significant momentum in 1965 when he was cast as Nipple in David Halliwell's Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs. He performed the role that year at the Dublin Theatre Festival, then moved with the production to its West End premiere in 1966, where he appeared alongside John Hurt. That autumn, he made his Broadway debut in the same production, retitled Hail Scrawdyke!, which was directed by Alan Arkin. Preece was the sole member of the original cast to carry the role through to the Broadway premiere.

On British television, Preece built a substantial body of work across several decades. In 1973, he played Codal in the six-part Doctor Who serial Planet of the Daleks. He portrayed Tom Patterson across the first two series of The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, which aired from 1976 to 1977, and reprised the character in The Legacy of Reginald Perrin in 1996. From 1992 to 1994, he held the recurring role of Rev. Sparrow in Waiting for God. His other television credits include the role of a local newspaper editor in the People Like Us episode "The Journalist" in 2001, James Philby in the Foyle's War episode "War Games" in 2003, a careers guidance counsellor and therapist in the Peep Show episode "Dream Job" in 2003, and a pilot in the Casualty episode "Cascade" in 1992.

Preece's film appearances include Crossplot in 1969, Brimstone and Treacle in 1982, Vanity Fair in 2004, Elizabeth: The Golden Age in 2007, and The Ghost Writer in 2010. In 2017, he appeared in a Royal National Theatre production of the improvised play Lost Without Words.