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| Peter's
current and upcoming activities continue to
reflect his versatility and breadth of experience. |
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| Another year and a
busy one in prospect. |
| 2009 has started very
strangely. On January 1st I had no idea what I would be doing at Cruft’s Dog Show at the NEC in
Birmingham. The BBC in its great wisdom had decided not to cover the
prestigious show in March, so for the first time in 31 years I didn’t
know whether I would be involved with the show or not. As it happens,
the Kennel Club is keen for some “live” coverage of the world’s biggest
and best dog show, and so have engaged the production company, Sunset
and Vine, to produce On-line streaming of the activities in the Main
Arena from early morning until the end of each days activities. That
means that for the first time ever, people logging on to the coverage
will see the entire Group Judging
every day as it actually happens. It looks as though I, Frank Kane and Jessica Holm
will be doing the “live” commentary (and that will include Best in Show) and we are all really
looking forward to it. We will also be adding commentary to the action
events from the Arena, which includes all of the Agility events, Flyball quarter Finals,
semis and final, and Heelwork to Music, together with events
previously unseen such as the Junior
Warrant Finals, International Junior Handlers competition,
various displays, and, of course the wonderful Friends For Life competition. I
can’t wait. |
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The Book Launch
 The launch of
my autobiography, “Here’s one I wrote Earlier” was held
at the Kennel Club in Mayfair on my 70th birthday, February 10th 2009.
It was a wonderful occasion hosted by the Kennel Club who graciously
loaned me the Gallery for three hours or so, and plied my guests and
the Press with a delightful Buffet and excellent Champagne. I am a
member of the club, but had no idea that it held me in such regard, and
I am flattered and thrilled by their generosity. Friends came from far
and near – all the mates came from
Suffolk, and three couples in particular, Ashleigh and Geoff (who came up from
Truro in
Cornwall) who are responsible for getting me interested in Wire
Haired Dachshunds; Michael and Jenny
McStay (who came up from Lymington
in Hampshire), and are amongst my most long-standing friends;
and my oldest friend with whose band I used to sing a lot of Jazz long
before I ever made it on to TV, Les
Bull and his wife Maxine, who drove up from Kendal in Cumbria. It was wonderful
to have them there to give me support. And I was also thrilled to have
the man who responsible for my career ever taking off, director Richard Martin, and his wife actress Suzanne Neve, in attendance.
Together with family and other work colleagues including Valerie Singleton, and many members
of the press, it was a day I will always remember. I was disappointed
that Biddy Baxter, Edward Barnes and
Rosemary Gill couldn’t attend, but that apart, it was a perfect
day.
The
book itself is published by a lovely company, Green
Umbrella in
Swindon, who have
been a delight to work with, and is offered with RRP of £18.99, but is also on Amazon,
Waterstones,
W.H.Smith
and all good bookshops.
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| Me, and my wife Kathryn,
together with two of our Pekingese dogs, Holly and Tillie, at the event |
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Me with my birthday cake before the launch. |
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| As I’ve
said, 2008
was wonderfully busy, with numerous
TV appearances, and a venture in to presenting for a newish channel, Horse and
Country TV, for whom I
presented the CLA Game Fair Gundog
Challenge at Blenheim. And
that collaboration continued with the
production of four programmes from Discover
Dogs at Earl’s Court
in London. I am looking
forward to completing further work with
them
later in 2009. |
| One of the big events
of 2008
was the celebration of the 50th
Anniversary of Blue Peter,
the iconic children’s’
programme
which is still running on the BBC. I can’t believe I left it
in
1978, when it was 20 years old. There were a number of events
surrounding the anniversary, and the most exciting of those was to be
invited to take tea with HM the Queen
at Buckingham Palace. Two
Presenters from each decade took part; John
Noakes and Valerie
Singleton from the
‘60’s, whilst Lesley Judd and I
represented the ‘70’s. It really was a great honour
to take
part, and meant a good number of TV
appearances from Breakfast
to This
morning to Paul O’Grady,
naming just a few. |
| Doctor Who
has once
again come strongly back into my life. I
have now completed every serial in which I took part, as an audio
production for the BBC Audio
Collection, and all those
CD’s are
readily available online from the BBC shop. I also completed, in 2007,
an original story involving my character Steven Taylor,
for Big
Finish
Productions, and another is
planned for 2009. Stellanstar
Productions
has also engaged me to take part in new DVD’s of two early
serials from the programme – The Space
Museum (4 episodes) and The
Chase
(six episodes). These DVD’s are fascinating. We provide
an alternative audio track throughout the episodes, and joining me on
the Space
Museum were William Russell
(Ian)
and Maureen
O’Brien
(Vicki), together with Glyn
Jones who was the credited
writer. We had a
wonderful discussion, which included Glyn’s disillusion with Story Editor
Dennis Spooner’s
treatment of the script. On The
Chase, Maureen, Russ and I
were joined by its director, the fabulous
Richard Martin, one of the
people responsible for my career
taking off
in 1965. There is so much insight into the workings of the programme in
those discussions, and they cover a wide range of topics – I
have
to say Richard is hugely critical of his own direction, and it is
fascinating stuff. We recorded them in mid January this year, and I
urge you not to miss them when they are released. |
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Dog events
continue to be prominent in my work, and I hope
that the credit crunch doesn’t cause too many to be
cancelled. All
About Dogs, though, has gone
from the schedules as the Burghers
of
Brentwood in Essex decided that they didn’t want Roy
Dyer’s
hugely successful Dog Show again this year. Why do these councillors
change things that are not broken? It’s a sad day for the dog
world. On a happier note I made many appearances at other excellent dog
events in 2008,
including Wag
and Bone, The Cold Wet Nose
Show, Notcutts
Garden Centres All About Dogs (4),
several events for the Guide
Dogs for the Blind Association, Tails
of Achievement for James
Wellbeloved, and the Your Dog/Your
Cat awards. |
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| And I must not miss
out mentioning a
couple of award winning films, for which I did the commentaries, on
waste management for AVP, a production company in Swindon. |
| So
as I start off into the unknown of 2009, I am looking forward to my
book launch, and will be making a number of appearances in bookstores
where I will be signing copies. I hope some of you may come to meet me
there. I
am appearing on BBC
Breakfast on Feb 10th; on
Libby
Purves’ show on Radio 4 on the 11th
(she’s no
relation
honestly); Channel
5 news on
the same day, and on Simon
Mayo’s
show on Radio
5 that
afternoon; and numerous local radio stations from
Feb 8th onwards. And then I am going to be on Paul
O’Grady’s
TV show again with transmission planned
for March
19th, Richard & Judy, and The Wright Stuff. |
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Book Signing timetable
3 signings have been arranged at
Crufts Dog Show at the
NEC Birmingham. I shall be on the OUR
DOGS stand at the top of Hall2
at the following times:-
Thursday 5th March. 11.00am till 12 Noon
Friday 6th March 11.00am till 12.30pm
Saturday 7th March 11.00am till 12.30pm
Saturday 14thMarch Waterstones Bookshop, Coventry 12 Noon until 13.30pm
Friday
20th March Waterstones Bookshop Colchester Noon till 2pm
Thursday 26th March The TV and Movie store, The Strand, London. Noon
till 2pm
Saturday 28th March The TV and Movie Store, Millennium Plain, Norwich.
Noon till 2pm
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| I must also mention the fact that my lovely wife, Kathryn Evans is playing the leading
role in a limited season production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard at
the Comedy Theatre in London’s West End to huge critical
acclaim. I am thrilled that Kathryn
has been nominated for an Olivier
Award for her performance as Norma
Desmond. The awards are announced on March 8th. Sunset opened in
December, and continues to April, but could go on until June. |
| So, credit crunch or
not, we both look
to 2009 with great optimism. |
Many
of you will know
that I direct large commercial pantomimes each year, and Paul Elliott
and Qdos asked me to direct Snow
White and the Seven Dwarfs in Hull
for
the Xmas
season 2008/9. It
starred The
Grumbleweeds, Vicki Michelle,
(‘Allo, ‘Allo) and James
Mackenzie (Raven from CBBC),
and
was received very well. The New
Theatre is a great venue, and
I was
there last when I directed Cannon and
Ball in a record-breaking
production of Dick Whittington in 1991.
It was a pleasure to return. I
wait with interest to see where I will direct in 2009/10.
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| I
continue to teach a Foundation
course
in TV Presentation at the London
Academy of Radio, Film and television
(LARFT). These courses
normally run over three days at the
beginning of
each month, and I can recommend for anyone wanting to find out what TV
Presenting is all about. |
| I remain President of the Canine
Supporters Charity, and am Vice
Patron of Dogs for the Disabled,
and
the Bella
Moss Foundation. I
was a founder member of the board of the New Wolsey
Theatre in Ipswich, and as a
board we were responsible for
getting the theatre up and running again after a disastrous collapse of
the previous company in 1998. During my two-year chairmanship we were
able to get a new roof on the building and various upgrades have
continued. I stood down from the board in 2006, but the current board
continue to help the theatre make great strides forward under the
brilliant supervision of CE Sarah
Holmes, and Artistic Director
Peter
Rowe. Long may it continue. |
| There is
a full updated chronology of my
work from the fifties to the present day on another page of this site.
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My
agent remains my friend Wendy Downes.
Should you have any enquiries about my availability, please contact her
at
Downes
Presenters,
96 Broadway,
Bexleyheath,
Kent DA6 7DE
Telephone 020
8304 0541
Fax 020 8304
5591
info@presentersagency.com
www.presentersagency.com
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