Peter Duncan (actor): Difference between revisions

{{Short description|English actor and presenter (born 1954)}}

He joined ''[[Blue Peter]]'' in 1980, and shortly afterwards it was revealed in a tabloid newspaper that Duncan had appeared nude in the [[Michael Papas]] [[psychological thriller]] film ''[[Michael Papas#The Lifetaker (1975)|The Lifetaker]]''. In ''The Times''<ref>{{cite news| url= http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article4943149.ece |title= 50 years of Blue Peter| website= timesonline.co.uk[[The Times]]| publisher= | date= | first= | last= | access-date= }}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> the BBC denied that he was ever a porn star. As late as 2007, the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'' was still mis-describing the film as a "skin flick".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/blue-peter-the-dark-side-459011|title = Blue Peter: The Dark Side|website = [[Daily Mirror]] |date = 16 March 2007 | via= mirror.co.uk}}</ref>

Unusually, Duncan had two periods with ''Blue Peter'', being on the team from 1980 to 1984, and again from 1985 to 1986. During his stay with the programmeprogram me, he became associated with the kind of daredevil stunts previously popularised by [[John Noakes]], and these continued in his own spin-off series, ''[[Duncan Dares]]''. One of his most remembered such stunts occurred in 1980 when the ''Blue Peter'' crew put him out on a rope swing to clean the face of Clock Tower ([[Big Ben]]) without a [[safety harness]], thus creating much trouble for the BBC. It is documented in [[Richard Marson]]'s book ''Blue Peter 50th Anniversary''.

After leaving ''Blue Peter'' permanently in 1986, he returned to the stage, most notably in Mike Stott's ''Funny Peculiar'' and in the musicals ''[[Barnum (musical)|Barnum]]'', ''[[Me and My Girl (TV series)|Me and My Girl]]'' and ''[[The Card]]'' for which he was nominated for an [[Olivier Award]] for Best Actor in a Musical. In the 1990s he appeared in numerous [[pantomime]]s, some of which he also produced through his company Here's One I Made Earlier, including ''Robin Hood'' at the Lewisham (now Broadway) Theatre in South East London. He wrote and directed the Oxford Playhouse pantomime from 2006 to 2013 <ref>{{cite web|title=Oxford Playhouse {{!}} About Us| website= oxfordplayhouse.com| url= http://www.oxfordplayhouse.com/aboutus/|access-date=4 December 2013}}</ref> He played Charlie Peace at Nottingham Playhouse in 2013 and Jack Firebrace in Birdsong in 2014 and 2015. He played Wilbur Turnblad in the touring production of Hairspray in 2015/16.<ref>{{cite web |website= hairsprayuktour.com |publisher= Official Hairspray UK Tour Website |title= Cast - Peter Duncan| url= http://www.hairsprayuktour.com/cast/peter-duncan| access-date=18 June 2016}}</ref>

Peter is currently playing the part of John Blondel in a two -man ghostly play When Darkness Falls, set in Guernsey.

In 2007, Duncan took part in the [[Channel 4]] series ''[[The Games (UKBritish TV series)|The Games]]''.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://observer.guardian.co.uk/ethicalawards/story/0,,1983641,00.html |title=Observer Ethical Awards |date=14 January 2007 |publisher=The Observer | website= observer.guardian.co.uk| access-date= 26 December 2012}}</ref> He has written and directed pantomimes for Oxford Playhouse and the Cheltenham Everyman. Until 2019, he produced the pantomime for the Lighthouse theatre in Dorset.<ref>{{cite web

[[Category:BritishEnglish children's television presenters]]