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Like the character he portrayed in the BBC series To Serve Them All My Days (1980), John Duttine comes from a mining town, though his is in Yorkshire rather than Wales. Born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England, he was raised in Bradford, West Yorkshire, alongside his four brothers and nephew Joe Duttine. He attended Buttershaw High School in Buttershaw, Bradford. Realizing in his teens that "acting was the only thing I did well," he shifted his focus to drama and trained at the Drama Centre in London. His first role after drama school involved playing three characters in "Hamlet" for the Citizens Theatre Company in Glasgow, Scotland. Joining the Glasgow Repertory Company, he took on classic repertory roles such as Antony in "Antony and Cleopatra," Danton in "Danton's Death," and Danforth in "The Crucible."
By the mid-1970s, Duttine had transitioned primarily to television and film. In 1979-80, he landed the lead role in To Serve Them All My Days (1980), one of the most challenging parts in his career. His main concern was mastering the Welsh accent: "I was rather worried that I wouldn't hit the right note. I would be angry as hell if I heard a Yorkshire accent that was wrong." Clearly, he mastered the accent and much more, with The New York Times praising him during the series' first U.S. broadcast in 1982: "Mr. Duttine is, even in this talented company, exceptional."
Following this success, which earned him the TV Times magazine's Best Actor award, Duttine appeared in numerous British television programs throughout the 1980s. He received particular acclaim for The Day of the Triffids (1981), a sci-fi BBC series that has become a cult favorite, and The Outsider (1983), a six-part ITV series about a newspaper editor set in his native Yorkshire. He also returned to the stage occasionally, reuniting in 1989 with Charles Kay, his antagonist from To Serve Them All My Days, for the original cast of "The Woman in Black."
In the early 1990s, Duttine faced personal challenges. His long-term relationship with Carolyn Hutchinson ended; they had a son, Oscar, born in 1981. He then began a relationship with Mel Martin, his co-star in the ITV film Talking to Strange Men (1992), and starred in the comedic BBC series Ain't Misbehavin (1994). In 1997, he and Mel purchased an 18th-century farmhouse with eight acres in Cornwall, England. In 1992, he guest-starred as Paul Melthorn in the ITV drama series Heartbeat before joining as a permanent cast member playing Sergeant George Miller from 2005 to 2009.
Other notable regular roles include DI Eric Temple in the BBC series Out of the Blue (1995), Michael Hawkins in ITV’s Touching Evil (1997), Mark Waters in ITV’s The Jury (2002), Gavin Street in Channel 4’s The Courtroom (2004), Douglas Taylor in BBC’s WPC 56 (2013), and Eric Benton in ITV’s Paranoid (2016).
Today, John Duttine continues to appear frequently in guest roles on British television and on stage. In 2003, he toured in the well-received production of "Art" alongside Les Dennis and Christopher Cazenove. Additionally, he lends his versatile voice to voice-over work for commercials and documentaries, as well as radio plays for the BBC.
