Occupied with
The Onedin Line
for much of the decade, it isn’t surprising that Peter’s other TV
acting appearances during the 1970s were few and far between.
Prior to filming commencing on
the first series of Onedin, he was seen in several episodes of the
twice weekly BBC drama The Doctors as Jack Stockton. In addition, he
had a couple of one-off roles, firstly in The Persuaders with Tony
Curtis and Roger Moore, and two separate ones in The Main Chance.
Probably owing something to
his popularity as James, Peter made appearances as a singer on
entertainment programmes such as Cilla and Moira Anderson.
In March 1973 he followed
closely in the footsteps of his Onedin co-stars, Anne Stallybrass and
Jessica Benton, by appearing on the word quiz Call My Bluff. Eighteen
months later he read Enid Blyton’s The Island Of Adventures for the
BBC children’s series Jackanory.
Peter’s fame also led to a number of
appearances on European television. Notably he was filmed by Dutch TV
singing all the songs from his first solo LP, Songs of the Sea (see
Recordings). In addition, he turned up in a
scene for an Austrian programme called Mad In Austria (a rather apt
title) which went on to win the Bronze Rose at the Montreux Festival
in 1975. Peter’s role in this was very short but somewhat of an eye
opener.
It wasn’t until A Man Called
Intrepid, broadcast in 1980, in which he played opposite David Niven,
that Peter had another major acting role on television.
DR,
March 2004