Ben Miles

Benjamin Charles Miles (born 29 September 1966) is an English actor, best known for his starring role as Patrick Maitland in the British television comedy Coupling, from 2000 to 2004 and as Peter Townsend in the Netflix drama The Crown (2017). 2Life and career Miles was born in Wimbledon, London, but lived as a young man in Ashover, Derbyshire, attending Tupton Hall School. He began acting in school productions, which he pursued mainly because it allowed him to miss classes. In an interview, Miles stated how he would spend his spare time in a now-defunct record shop (Hudsons) in Chesterfield, Derbyshire while "thinking about 'finding the one'". He trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He moved into television roles in the 1990s, playing supporting roles in such series as Zorro, Soldier Soldier, Is It Legal?, The Bill, Peak Practice and Wonderful You. Miles played a very small part as a journalist, with just a few words of dialogue, in the 1997 motion picture The Wings of the Dove. In 2000, he was cast as the womanizing Patrick Maitland in the comedy series Coupling, a role which he played until the series ended in 2004. He continued other television work during his tenure in Coupling, appearing in The Forsyte Saga as Montague Dartie (this was the first time Miles acted with Amanda Root) and in Prime Suspect. In 2004, Miles portrayed Charles Ryder in the BBC Radio 4 production of Brideshead Revisite