Within a couple of minutes, one senior journo acted dumb (5)

I believe the answer is:

mimed

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'acted dumb' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.

'within a couple of minutes one senior journo' is the wordplay.
'within' indicates putting letters inside.
'a couple of' shows that letters should be duplicated.
'minutes' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'senior journo' becomes 'ed' (I've seen this in other clues. I am not sure about the 'senior' bit.).
'm' doubled is 'mm'.
'mm' placed around 'i' is 'mim'.
'mim'+'ed'='MIMED'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for mimed that I've seen before include "Took off <" , "made a charade" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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