Peter Purves: an actor's life for me!
By Tony Watts - Editor - 12/03/2009
It’s a couple of days after the official launch of Peter’s autobiography, the aptly entitled ‘Here’s one I wrote earlier’ and, as he explains, he’s not best pleased with the coverage he received in some sections of the media. The book is disarmingly honest – and recalled in a lot of detail. The trouble is, as he points out, the press have been keen to “latch on to things” without quoting the full context.
For instance, his very brief (and tactful) mentions of his “short fling” as he describes it with Valerie Singleton gets the headlines, as do some of the professional disagreements he had with the editor of Blue Peter (but not the ample praise he also gives). But that, sadly, is the way the media works. Or at least, some of it.
Anyone who has enjoyed Peter’s television work over the years – and there has been plenty of it! – will be interested to read the story behind his multi-faceted career. What comes across very strongly in the book, and in our conversation, is how modest he is, but also what a roller coaster life it can be to work in the media.
“I was very lucky to get such good parts at a time when there were three channels,” he says. “And I kept wondering when people would find me out! But it’s an uncertain career to follow – what I’m selling is myself, and either you like me or you don’t.”
The book gives chapter and verse on all the failed auditions that marked his early attempts to forge an acting career; the contracts that were taken in good faith only to find the plug being pulled on a programme after a short run; or being replaced by a ‘fresh face’ by TV producers chasing ratings.
With that came a lot of financial insecurity, and even being one of the presenters of Blue Peter, a programme commanding devoted audiences of eight million, was never particularly well paid. The presenters, he explains, were on paltry rates that the BBC wouldn’t even negotiate on – but the upside was the fabulous trips abroad! The Beeb paying presenters six million a year was a long way in the future.
Ironically, Blue Peter is now down to audiences of a mere 100,000 – a fact which, he says, saddens and depresses him. And the hugely popular programme that has been his mainstay for the last few years, Crufts, has been taken off the air altogether.
“It’s very disappointing,” he says. “The BBC pushed the Kennel Club into a corner over their decision to exclude certain breeds because of genetic faults. The Kennel Club was happy to try and work on this with breeders, but it will take some time to do that.” Meanwhile, he will still be at Cruft’s – streaming live coverage to dog lovers around the world on the Internet.
Peter, as you can imagine, is a real dog lover – even though his working relationship with Petra wasn’t always a smooth one. She was, apparently, quite a difficult dog to handle at times – despite her media persona! But the genuine affection he had for her has led to a long string of dogs becoming part of the Purves household: mostly Pekingese, Dachshunds and Newfoundlands. But do they all get on together? “Absolutely,” he says. “That’s the noise you can hear in the background!”
As his autobiography lays bare, TV personalities like Peter have to look for a variety of work to keep the mortgage paid. After 10 years on Blue Peter, he kept his profile up with programmes such as Kickstart, Superdogs, Stopwatch and Babble, not forgetting the many years that he presented the world darts championships. He was, he recalls, a good player – good enough to beat all of the major players at the time (“But only ever one game!”) except for the imperious Eric Bristow. “But I had to give that up – all the beer was making me fat!”
However he has never completely lost touch with his first career: acting. “I’ve been acting in and directing pantos for years now,” says Peter. “It takes me right back to the good old variety days at Blackpool – the madness and silliness of it just makes me laugh.“
So how does he feel now about the programme that launched his career: Doctor Who? “I did 44 episodes as the Doctor’s asistant,” he recalls, “but that was in just a year. It was like doing weekly rep! It’s such a shame that so many of the original episodes have been lost – the old 405 lines black and white picture was horrible, but the episodes still stand up because they were so well written.
“I really enjoy the modern Doctor Who – David Tennant is excellent and so was Christopher Ecclestone. But I still think Bill Hartnell was the definitive Doctor. And I think the programme has lost some of its charm because they can control where they go now. It was such a wonderful idea to have this magnificent machine that could travel through time and space – but you couldn’t control it!”
His career has come a long way since his early days as a rep actor and ‘hoofer’ – but an ‘actor’s life’ was never a steady one. And, as he says, he’s had so much fun along the way that it more than makes up for the insecurity.
That joy of looking forward to the next challenge – whatever it is – comes across strongly in the book and in our talk. And what also comes across is just what a nice bloke he is.