Peter Duncan

Actor, presenter, documentary maker, Peter Duncan, former Chief Scout and two time Blue Peter man has a TV, film and theatre career that spans four decades. A self confessed adventurer he is never happier than when in the thick of it such as competing last year in BBC1's acrobatic extravaganza Tumble or filming racing the rapids in the Balkans. He became best known for his daredevil approach to life when he joined the Blue Peter team in 1980 as their new action man. He ran the first London Marathon in just over three hours and his last one in 2012 only much slower. He fought a sumo wrestler in Japan, cleaned the clock face of Big Ben and escaped from a forest fire in Canada as well as a lot of cooking, gardening and fund raising. Peter began his career on stage joining Olivier's National Theatre and spent the 70's working exclusively as actor. After his Blue Peter days he began to appear in musical theatre roles such as Barnum, Bill Snibson in Me and my Girl and as Charlie Chaplin in The Little Tramp. In 1995 he was nominated for an Olivier award as Best Actor in a musical playing Denry Machin in The Card. Over the last few years he has played Charlie Peace at Nottingham Playhouse and Jack Firebrace in the tour of Birdsong. He took on the roles of Macduff in Macbeth and Fantastic Mr Fox at the Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park. Every year he writes and directs his own Pantomime following in his parents footsteps. Back in 1985 in his own series Duncan Dares he entertained with stunts such driving across the Irish Sea in a VW Beetle, walking the high wire and lying on a bed of nails with a tarantula and a python on his chest. In 2001 he produced a six part documentary series called Travel Bug for the BBC in which he, his partner Annie and their four children backpacked their way around the world. In the two follow up series their adventure travels took them to China and India. Other recent TV credits include the 26 part slapstick comedy series Demolition Dad for Five, Channel 4's The Games and Celebrity Total Wipeout in which he lost the final by one second. His work as an actor on TV has included The Childhood Friend, Sons and Lovers, Renoir My Father, Warship, Fathers and Families, Sam, Fallen Hero, Survivors, King Cinder, Oranges and Lemons, The Flockton Flyer, Space 1999. His feature film credits include Stardust, Quilp, and a famous cameo in Flash Gordon when he was bitten by a tree monster and died. He is patron of Neighbourhood Midwives - a social enterprise, Youth Music Theatre and Action for Children's Arts. He was awarded a Gold Blue Peter badge for his volunteer work as leader of the UK's half a million scouts.