He worked for Radio Luxembourg in the late 1930s as an announcer, and in 1940 made his West End stage debut in the variety show New Faces at the Comedy Theatre with Judy Campbell and Charles Hawtrey (of Carry On... fame).

In 1950 he had a supporting role in the main feature comedy The Happiest Days of Your Life playing schoolteacher Richard Tassell alongside Alistair Sim, Margaret Rutherford and Joyce Grenfell.

However he hated Hollywood, saying people were judged on how much they earned rather than their ability and subsequently returned to the UK, where he was offered the lead role of "Inspector Paul Derek" in the TV series African Patrol filmed entirely on location in Kenya.

In 1961 he acted alongside Dirk Bogarde and John Mills in The Singer Not the Song, and in 1962 in one of his last films he starred as Mike Andrews in the thriller The Fur Collar.

[6][2] In the later 1960s and 1970s Bentley featured in soap opera Crossroads as Hugh Mortimer, third husband of the motel owner Meg Richardson, played by Noele Gordon.

There was a previous connection with Gordon, who had presented the daytime TV magazine programme Lunch Box, popular in the 1950s, in which Bentley regularly appeared as a guest singer.

When Hugh's wife died, he renewed his interest in Meg and gave Crossroads one of its biggest audiences, for 1975's television wedding of the year.