[1] He is best remembered as the Reverend Donald Hinton, in the soap opera Emmerdale Farm, a role he played from 1977 until 1989.

He also starred in the tv series Mrs Thursday, alongside Kathleen Harrison in 1966, playing a suave and imperturbable business adviser, which also carried over into popular tv commercials where his character endorsed the qualities of Robinsons barley water.

He regularly played Inspector Vosper in the BBC radio detective series, Paul Temple.

Hugh Gardner Manning was born in Birmingham, Warwickshire in 1920 and educated at Moseley Grammar School.

He began his career as a trainee accountant, before joining the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and becoming an actor.