A still youthful Peter Duncan tells Miranda Jessop about his acting role in Birdsong, at Richmond Theatre until July 4, and reflects on his days as a children’s television presenter on Blue Peter
Sometimes you have to wait a long time to meet one of your childhood icons. For me, it’s 35 years since the eighties when I used to tune in to watch Peter Duncan hosting Blue Peter.
When I clap eyes on the now 60 year old actor and presenter, I am struck by how young he looks and how little he has changed in the time that I have made the transition from 10 year old to middle aged mother of three.
When he greets me, his voice is so familiar, that I am transported straight back to my childhood. Casually dressed in a bright green sweater, he is relaxed and friendly and I feel like I am in the company of an old friend.
Peter is in the middle of rehearsals for the 2015 national tour of Rachel Wagstaff’s stage play Birdsong, adapted from the novel by Sebastian Faulks. The five month tour by The Original Theatre Company will see performances in 17 theatres up and down the country, including Richmond Theatre (Jun 29-Jul 4).
The play tells a poignant story of love and courage, before and during the First World War. In pre-war France, a young Englishman, Stephen Wraysford, embarks on a passionate and dangerous affair with the beautiful Isabelle Azaire.
As war breaks out, Stephen must lead his men through the carnage of the Somme and, faced with unprecedented horror, he clings to the memory of Isabelle and the idyll of his former life as the world explodes around him.
Peter plays the role of tunneller Jack Firebrace, always willing to lend a hand, putting the loss and suffering of others before his own. He played the same part in the 2014 tour, which coincided with the 100th anniversary of the First World War.
I wonder how Peter copes with the gruelling touring schedule?
“I enjoy it, although I do get a bit tired of the travelling. It’s exhausting moving from place to place and it gets a harder as you get older but actors are tough old birds. We are emotionally resilient about being away from home and the cast are very supportive of each other. In between rehearsals and performances, I usually try and get everyone to go on healthy walks, but the rest of the crew usually want to go down the pub,” he laughs.
As Peter’s parents were actors in variety shows, his life has always revolved around performing.
“I was born in Chelsea and brought up mostly in South London although we were away a lot. We would go to Brighton, Blackpool or Scarborough for the summer season and then at Christmas we would be off somewhere else for panto.”
Peter was often moving schools and finally left education for good when he was just fifteen. I ask when he made the conscious decision to become an actor.
“I wasn’t a precocious child but, growing up in a creative household where my parents were putting on shows for a living, there was a certain attraction to acting in terms of it being an unconventional lifestyle.”
Peter’s own career began in the early seventies when he joined the National Theatre, and he spent the next 10 years as a jobbing actor with various parts in film, television and theatre. It was in 1980 that Peter became a household name, when he took over from John Noakes as a Blue Peter presenter.
“They were looking for an action man and the idea of live television, travel and adventure really appealed to me,” he explains. Peter loved his time on the programme and has even called his website ‘Here’s One I Made Earlier’, a reference to those classic Blue Peter ‘makes’, usually involving sticky back plastic, that we all used to enjoy.
It seems a good moment for me to retrieve my old Blue Peter annual from my bag. Peter is thrilled to see a picture of himself on the cover, alongside Sarah Greene and Simon Groom, both of whom he is still in touch with.
As we thumb through the book, I am astounded by the photo of Peter cleaning the face of Big Ben, balancing on a swing 97 metres above Westminster Bridge with no safety harness; and we giggle over the sight of him in his tiny swimming trunks, diving off a 10 metre high board under the instruction of the British Diving Team.
This was clearly the part of the job that Peter relished and, after he left Blue Peter in 1986, he went on to make his own television adventure series, Duncan Dares. After his stint as a television presenter, Peter felt it was time for a return to the theatre.
“I really wanted to get back to being an actor, there is more longevity in acting and I love the creativity.” His recent theatre credits include Denry Machin in The Card (for which he received an Olivier nomination for Best Actor in a Musical), Stan Laurel in Laurel and Hardy, Macduff in Macbeth and the title role in Charlie Peace – His Amazing Life And Outstanding Legend at the Nottingham Playhouse and Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre.
At the end of last year, we even saw Peter springing back to our TV screens as the oldest contestant in the BBC1 series, Tumble. Peter manages to combine his busy acting career with a happy family life. He and his wife, Annie have been married for 35 years and they have four children (now all in their twenties). Like his own childhood, his children’s upbringing was, at times, unconventional.
“My mother died in 2001 and we wanted to celebrate her life, and I had this idea that I would follow my children round the world and film their reactions. We were away for six months and then, after the idea became a television documentary series, we did trips to China and India.”
I wonder if Peter worried about his children missing out on their education?
“No, quite the opposite – it had a huge impact on their lives and what they learned. When they went back to school, they were so far ahead of their peers in their way of thinking. I believe that what you do out of school is so much more important; that’s why I became involved with the scouting movement.”
Peter was appointed the UK’s Chief Scout in 2004 and was later awarded a gold Blue Peter badge for his scouting volunteer work. Today, Peter still maintains his love of travel and adventure and is joint founder of The Natural Adventure Company which specialises in arranging walking holidays, special interest tours and active adventures in the Balkans.
Peter is also patron of his wife’s social enterprise, Neighbourhood Midwives, a private independent midwifery service. “It really came about because of the natural way in which we had our own children, the last three were born at home and it was a wonderful experience,” explains Peter.
Annie had been a social worker but retrained as a midwife after she became a mother. Two years ago, she joined forces with three others and Neighbourhood Midwives was born. Peter is clearly passionate about his wife’s relatively new initiative.
“We believe that one of the factors most likely to help make a woman’s journey into motherhood a positive one, is for her to feel well supported and cared for by the same midwife throughout her pregnancy and birth. At the moment, our midwives mainly cover the South London area but the mission is to expand it into a national company and make the service more available on the NHS.”
When he is not away working or travelling, home for the last 28 years has been in Southfields. Peter loves the proximity to the capital.
“London really is your oyster. Earlier this week we were celebrating our anniversary with cocktails up The Shard and afterwards we went to see a fantastic physical theatre company. The city is still a big part of my make up.”
Just before he goes back to his rehearsals, Peter obligingly signs the inside cover of my ancient annual and we both chuckle as he writes ’1980!’ under his name. It would seem that, for Peter Duncan at any rate, time really has stopped still.
Birdsong comes to the Richmond Theatre on June 29 – July 4
You can get an actor’s perspective on the play with Simon Mattack’s review
You can find more from Peter on his website, Here’s One I Made Earlier
