Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, and educated at Sherborne School in Dorset, England, he trained at RADA.
Brooking specialised in children's programmes, mainly for the BBC, and cast Collingwood in The Raven and the Cross (1974) and The Secret Garden (1975).
He has contributed to the schools' television programme Look and Read (as the voice of 'Wordy') and appears occasionally on BBC Radio 4's Just a Minute.
For four years he was a newsreader on BBC World Service[4] He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 2003 when he was surprised by Michael Aspel while recording an episode of The Archers.
[citation needed] He claimed to be related to Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, second in command to Nelson at Trafalgar (in an appearance on Just a Minute, 24 July 2006).