Brittenden attended Leeds grammar school until the age of 16, where he joined the Yorkshire Post where he remained for ten years, with a break for national service.
[1][2] Brittenden married three times, first to Sylvia Penelope Cadman in 1953, then in 1966 to Ann Patricia Kenny, the royal correspondent for The Daily Telegraph.
[3] Upon leaving the Post, Brittenden spent six years at News Chronicle before joining Sunday Express, rising first to chief reporter then foreign editor in 1959.
[6] He worked with Larry Lamb and Bernard Shrimsley on making The Sun the UK's highest circulating daily newspaper.
Rupert Murdoch, owner of The Sun, would put Brittenden in charge of corporate relations for News International during the Wapping dispute in 1981, before moving him to editorial manager for Times Newspapers until his retirement in 1987.