PETER DUNCAN (ACTOR)

'Peter Duncan' (born 3 May 1954) is a British actor and television presenter, best known as a presenter of ''Blue Peter'' and for his recent family travel documentaries.

Contents

Early Career

Blue Peter

Return to the Stage

Family Travel Documentaries

Chief Scout

See also

External links

Early Career

A graduate of the Italia Conti Academy stage school, Duncan began his career as a stage actor, appearing as Jim Hawkins in ''Treasure Island'' followed by two years in Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company. His notable television roles includes ''King Cinder'', ''Play for Today'', ''Warship'', ''Oranges & Lemons'', and season 2 of ''Survivors''. His roles in films include Kit Nubbles in ''Quilp'', Kevin in ''Stardust'' and a brief role in the film ''Flash Gordon'', with his character dying after just eleven seconds on screen.

Blue Peter

He joined ''Blue Peter'' in 1980, and shortly afterwards it was revealed in a tabloid newspaper that Duncan had appeared nude in the British film ''The Lifetaker'' (1975). Although this revelation was an apparent embarrassment to the BBC, they accepted that as he had done this before ''Blue Peter'', it would not - and did not - affect his tenure on ''Blue Peter''.
Unusually, Duncan did two stints with ''Blue Peter'', being on the team from 1980 to 1984, and again from 1985 to 1986. During his stay with the programme, 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''.
On 20 February 2007 Duncan was awarded the highest Blue Peter Award - The Golden Badge.

Return to the Stage

After leaving Blue Peter permanently in 1986, he returned to the stage, most notably in the musicals ''Barnum'', ''Me and My Girl'' and ''The Card'' for which he was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical.

Family Travel Documentaries

Between 1999 and 2005, Duncan filmed and produced three (six-part) tavelog documentary series that feature his family emarking on extend backpacking trips around the world. The family consist of Duncan's wife Annie, and their four chilren: Lucy, Katie, Georgia and Arthur.
The first series, Travel Bug, shows the families 6-month tour of the world. Filmed in 1999 when the children were aged 7 to 13, the series was shown on children's television on BBC1.
The next series, Chinese Breakaway, charted the families 2-month backpacking trip across China in 2002. The series was aired on Five and Sky Travel.
In the third series, Arthur's trip to India (also aired on Five), Duncan's 13 year old son is featured as the chief presenter. A one-off additional episode (Arthurs trip to Jordan) follows his son to the heart of the middle east.

Chief Scout

Duncan was appointed as the 9th Chief Scout for The Scout Association in the UK, for a five year tenure from 5 September 2004. There is some controversy over this appointment due to his only ever having been a Cub Scout before rejoining the organisation as an adult, and also his nude appearance in "The Lifetaker".
Most recently, he starred in and directed ''Cinderella'' at New Wimbledon Theatre in South London. He appeared on BBC1's ''Through the Keyhole'' on 15 March 2006, and took part in the Channel 4 series ''The Games'', that same year.

See also

External links

★

★ Profile as a BBC presenter

★ Duncan's personal website