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Peter Denyer, actor and pantomime scriptwriter, was born on August 20, 1947. He died on September 18, 2009, aged 62.
Peter Denyer is principally remembered for a part he got in his twenties to play a teenager in Please Sir!, the ITV sitcom that starred a bemused and confused John Alderton as the master of a class of unruly teenagers. Denyer played the likeable but dopey Dennis Dunstable who, with his mass of curly locks, was constantly being led astray in the South London comprehensive school.
The writers were John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, who had found great success with BBC’s The Good Life. Along with Alderton, Please Sir! starred Deryck Guyler as the cantankerous caretaker and Joan Sanderson as the domineering assistant head. It ran for 55 episodes and as the pupils got older the sitcom was given a new life as The Fenn Street Gang. The sequel may have somewhat lacked the taut anarchic feel of the original but it was enhanced by the running gag of Denyer’s character trying to get a job.
Denyer made Dunstable his own with a string of controlled performances. He said many years later: “I auditioned for the role in 1967 and got the part because, I suspect, I looked stupider than anyone else at the auditions.” The mop of unruly ginger hair and youthful good looks made him one of the most popular characters on television in the 1970s.
Denyer had a leading part in an episode called Brawl Over a Brewery, in which he was interviewed for a job working with horses in a brewery. Alderton went along to support his pupil and when he got the job they had to cope with Dunstable’s drunken father. Denyer found the right balance between the comedy and the sad, distant relationship with his father. One critic wrote: “This was a fine dramatic episode. The character of Peter Denyer’s Dennis Dunstable caught the heart of all the Please Sir! viewers and you felt very sorry for him. John Alderton and Peter Denyer put in brilliant performances in this episode.”
To capitalise on his success in Please Sir! Denyer cut a rather sentimental ballad in 1972 called Beggar Boy and appeared in a mediocre film about banning pop music called Never Too Young to Rock. After experimenting further with pop Denyer returned to television to do a few episodes of Emmerdale Farm, the soap opera, as an estate worker called Batty. Other television work included appearances in Crown Court, Dixon of Dock Green and as the cello-playing student in Moody and Pegg. But it was in another sitcom, Agony, in 1979 that Denyer returned to the public’s attention. Maureen Lipman’s agony aunt on a local radio phone-in had her own domestic troubles with her very Jewish mother, her husband (played by Simon Williams) and amorous goings-on at work. At home her neighbours were a cool and collected gay couple, with one half played by Denyer.
The programme was one of the first to portray a gay couple on television as non-camp, witty and intelligent.
In 1986 Denyer landed yet another sitcom, this time for the BBC in Dear John, playing an introverted character who delighted in wearing gaudy medallions to singles’ evenings.
In 1990 Denyer left acting and started a second career as a producer of pantomimes. He wrote adaptations of A Christmas Carol, which was staged at the Piccadilly and Victoria Palace theatres, and Peter Pan, at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, and Chichester Festival Theatre. Denyer built up a business mounting pantomimes throughout the country. Box-office successes included Peter Pan and his adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He also directed a tour of J. B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls with Alfred Marks and Lynda Baron.
Denyer, who never married, became a tireless worker on behalf of the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, where he moved in 1978. The theatre was facing financial problems and cuts in funding. He campaigned for its survival and mounted two shows in the town hall, Dick Whittington and Aladdin, to provide some live local entertainment. He played the dame with great conviction and gusto.
Peter Denyer is principally remembered for a part he got in his twenties to play a teenager in Please Sir!, the ITV sitcom that starred a bemused and confused John Alderton as the master of a class of unruly teenagers. Denyer played the likeable but dopey Dennis Dunstable who, with his mass of curly locks, was constantly being led astray in the South London comprehensive school.
The writers were John Esmonde and Bob Larbey, who had found great success with BBC’s The Good Life. Along with Alderton, Please Sir! starred Deryck Guyler as the cantankerous caretaker and Joan Sanderson as the domineering assistant head. It ran for 55 episodes and as the pupils got older the sitcom was given a new life as The Fenn Street Gang. The sequel may have somewhat lacked the taut anarchic feel of the original but it was enhanced by the running gag of Denyer’s character trying to get a job.
Denyer made Dunstable his own with a string of controlled performances. He said many years later: “I auditioned for the role in 1967 and got the part because, I suspect, I looked stupider than anyone else at the auditions.” The mop of unruly ginger hair and youthful good looks made him one of the most popular characters on television in the 1970s.
Denyer had a leading part in an episode called Brawl Over a Brewery, in which he was interviewed for a job working with horses in a brewery. Alderton went along to support his pupil and when he got the job they had to cope with Dunstable’s drunken father. Denyer found the right balance between the comedy and the sad, distant relationship with his father. One critic wrote: “This was a fine dramatic episode. The character of Peter Denyer’s Dennis Dunstable caught the heart of all the Please Sir! viewers and you felt very sorry for him. John Alderton and Peter Denyer put in brilliant performances in this episode.”
To capitalise on his success in Please Sir! Denyer cut a rather sentimental ballad in 1972 called Beggar Boy and appeared in a mediocre film about banning pop music called Never Too Young to Rock. After experimenting further with pop Denyer returned to television to do a few episodes of Emmerdale Farm, the soap opera, as an estate worker called Batty. Other television work included appearances in Crown Court, Dixon of Dock Green and as the cello-playing student in Moody and Pegg. But it was in another sitcom, Agony, in 1979 that Denyer returned to the public’s attention. Maureen Lipman’s agony aunt on a local radio phone-in had her own domestic troubles with her very Jewish mother, her husband (played by Simon Williams) and amorous goings-on at work. At home her neighbours were a cool and collected gay couple, with one half played by Denyer.
The programme was one of the first to portray a gay couple on television as non-camp, witty and intelligent.
In 1986 Denyer landed yet another sitcom, this time for the BBC in Dear John, playing an introverted character who delighted in wearing gaudy medallions to singles’ evenings.
In 1990 Denyer left acting and started a second career as a producer of pantomimes. He wrote adaptations of A Christmas Carol, which was staged at the Piccadilly and Victoria Palace theatres, and Peter Pan, at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford, and Chichester Festival Theatre. Denyer built up a business mounting pantomimes throughout the country. Box-office successes included Peter Pan and his adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He also directed a tour of J. B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls with Alfred Marks and Lynda Baron.
Denyer, who never married, became a tireless worker on behalf of the Everyman Theatre in Cheltenham, where he moved in 1978. The theatre was facing financial problems and cuts in funding. He campaigned for its survival and mounted two shows in the town hall, Dick Whittington and Aladdin, to provide some live local entertainment. He played the dame with great conviction and gusto.
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