![Tim Pigott-Smith during a performance of <i>King Charles III</i>, at the Music Box Theatre in New York, 2015.](/web/20170409120653im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/g/y/d/h/image.related.wideLandscape.460x259.gvgycp.png/1491728837369.jpg)
Character actor who achieved television stardom
Tim Pigott-Smith, who has died aged 70, was a seasoned Shakespearean stage actor before achieving television stardom as the sadistic police superintendent turned Army colonel Ronald Merrick in The Jewel in the Crown.