Peter Duncan

Actor, presenter, filmmaker, 80’s Blue Peter man former Chief Scout man, Peter Duncan has had a TV, film and theatre career that spans over five decades.  

Peter, who was born into a touring theatrical family, joined Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre as a sixteen year old and spent the 1970’s working as an actor. He became a well known face on TV and in films such as Stardust, Quilp, and had a cameo in Flash Gordon where was he killed by a tree monster. As a writer and producer of pantomimes, he recently filmed his own cinema movies, Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalkwhich can be streamed on pantoonline.co.uk

Peter has had a flourishing musical theatre career playing PT Barnum, Charlie Chaplin in the Little Tramp and Bill Snibson in Me And My Girl. He has also appeared in Pump Boys And Dinettes, Hairspray and Million Dollar Quartet. He received an Olivier nomination for his portrayal of Denry Machin in The Card at Regents Park Theatre. His straight theatre roles include Charlie Peace at Nottingham Playhouse, Jack Firebrace in Birdsong. He appeared in Fantastic Mr Fox and also played Ronald Roy Humphrey in The Dame, written by his daughter Katie. His two other daughters are singer/songwriters, Lucy (known as Luki) and Georgia Duncan. You can hear their work on Bandcamp.

He joined the Blue Peter team in 1980 and after cleaning the clock face of Big Ben on his first day, ran the first London Marathon in just over three hours. He competed against a sumo wrestler in Japan, dug for emeralds in Sri Lanka and worked in Indonesia on operation pipeline. He continues to travel, usually with thenaturaladventure.com a walking holiday company which he co-founded in 2009.

The BBC commissioned Duncan Dares, a series that capitalised on his adventurous nature with stunts such driving an amphibious VW beetle across the Irish Sea and walking the high wire in the circus. He still dabbles dangerously in reality TV shows such as The Games and Tumble. All can be seen on his website heresoneimadeearlier.com In 1993 he took part in the Big Race, the original ‘race around the world’ when he drove overland from the UK to New York. At the height of Russia’s ‘glasnost’ (openness and transparency), the team experienced minus 59C in Siberia. Finally crossing the Bering Straits they snow machined 700 miles through Alaska on the final leg of the journey.

At the turn of this century Peter began making his own TV documentaries including a six part series called Travel Bug in which he, his partner Annie and their four children backpacked their way around the world. They trekked in Nepal, went on safari in Africa and into the rainforest in Peru. In the follow up series they toured around China. ‘Arthur’s Trip To India’ was their final family TV adventure series focussing on the youngest member of the Duncan clan.

Peter was appointed Chief Scout in 2004 helping to lead the Scouts through their centenary in 2007. He filmed an expedition on Mount Everest and was able to interview Sir Edmund Hillary in Katmandu.

He is patron for British Youth Music Theatre, Action For Children’s Arts and an Ambassador for SEEd (sustainability and environmental education). He has a Gold Blue Peter badge which he’ll take on tour with Priscilla.