His father had been "emotionally shattered" on his return from the First World War, which led to Eddington being a lifelong pacifist.

Having registered as a conscientious objector, Eddington began his acting career as a teenager with ENSA during the Second World War.

In 1956, he played his first major role on television as the corrupt policeman PC Tom Carr in the Dixon of Dock Green episode The Rotten Apple, [4] and later that year he became a regular cast member of The Adventures of Robin Hood.

He had a leading role in "Liberty Bar", a 1960 episode of the BBC version of Maigret, playing Harry Brown,[5] an Australian entrepreneur.

Eddington was cast as Jerry Leadbetter, a neighbour of the main characters, and Penelope Keith played his wife, Margo.

He was shortlisted four times for the BAFTA award for Best Light Entertainment Performance for the series, but he lost out to his co-star Nigel Hawthorne on each occasion.

[6] His last roles included Guy Wheeler, a corrupt property developer in the Minder episode "The Wrong Goodbye" (1989); as Richard Cuthbertson alongside Good Life co-star Felicity Kendal in the TV dramatisation of The Camomile Lawn (1992); the voice of Badger in The Adventures of Mole and Justice Shallow in Henry IV (1995); a BBC adaptation of Shakespeare's Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV, Part 2.

[8] Eddington read extracts from Sir Winston Churchill's A History of the English-Speaking Peoples for the award-winning BBC Radio series This Sceptred Isle; he died midway through the production, and his place was taken by Peter Jeffrey.

It only became public knowledge in 1994, when Eddington responded to press speculation about his darkening skin and hair loss.