‘WYNGARDE! A CELEBRATION’ – Retrospective

By Thomas Bowington and Tina Wyngarde-Hopkins

Double-Bill: ‘Wyngarde! A celebration’ and ‘Queen Bette’. The G. Bod (formally Gay Body), Sydney, Australia – September 2018

Lot’s of laughs… but for all the wrong reasons!

Clearly written with almost indecent haste by Peter Mountford (Artistic Director of the G. Bod Theatre), and actor, Garth Holcombe, the play ‘Wyngarde! A Celebration’ was brought to the Sydney stage within weeks of Peter’s passing.

Although both writers professed to be “great admirers” of Peter they would, nonetheless, employ every grubby tabloid prevarication to promote this production, prompting one antipodean Wyngarde fan to exclaim that it had “made me ashamed to be Australian!” 

Like all good fairy stories, the play opened with the following line: “It’s lovely to see you – here’s to a pleasant evening and a few surprises. There we are. Are you comfortable? Now where shall we begin…?”

“Peter Wyngarde was best known for playing the character Jason King,” the promotional blurb informs us, “a bestselling novelist turned. sleuth, in two television series: Department S and Jason King, in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but was an accomplished theatre actor until his fall from grace: 2 arrests and convictions for gross indecency in public toilets in 1975″. N.B. (This contentious conviction was quashed by the UK Government in July 2023).

In actual fact, Peter was NOT arrested twice. The myth of an earlier conviction (or caution, depending on which fake news ‘site, online forum or piece of unsubstantiated Internet gossip you choose to read), has been identified to have been the cruel machination of a contributor to Wikipedia’s Peter Wyngarde ‘Biography’ back in 2012 (see here for the full story). However in their haste to strike while the iron was still hot, the authors of the play decided to base their story on information posted on an online encyclopedia to which any Tom, Dick or Harriet can contribute to – regardless of their being ill-equipped to do so – rather than reach out to those of us who actually knew the man.

But then, presenting a truthful and accurate representation of Peter’s life wan’t the purpose of this play. The true motivation was to create a character that would uphold the image they’d created of Peter in their own minds, based on decades-old tabloid stories and subsequent years of inane tittle-tattle. What we ended up with was a case of 2 + 2 = 95 in the writer’s minds, which was presented to an exploitable audience, and reviewed by journalists that had no idea who Peter Wyngarde was.

The publicity bumph went on… ‘Much of Wyngarde’s life is disputed: his name, his birth date, his sexuality. We know that as a teenager he was a Japanese Prisoner of War (alongside JG Ballard) and that he studied at RADA, before dropping out. We know that at the height of his fame the most popular boy’s name in the UK became Jason (after his character). We know that he was mugged by thousands of female admirers at Sydney Airport. We know that Mike Myers has credited him as the inspiration for Austin Powers. He may have been born Cyril Goldbert. He may have had a relationship with Alan Bates. He may have had the nickname Petunia Winegum.” Again, all gleaned from the oracle itself, Wikipedia.

The adult-rated drama opened at the G. Bod (formally the Gay Body) in September of 2018, where the audience saw former Home and Away star, Garth Holbrook, swagger on stage in a series of ill-fitting suits that made his character look more like Harold Steptoe than Jason King!

In his review of the play blogger Kevin Jackson, who was plainly oblivious to Peter’s extensive and lauded theatre career, sought to describe his as a “moderate talent” and a “second-tier actor”, whilst in the same breath gushing unreservedly about Holbrook’s performance.

Meanwhile, Suzy Wong, another blogger for ‘the Sydney main stage and independent scenes’, suggested that, “Wyngarde! A Celebration’ was a “re-framing of the personality, an insistence that we look at old narratives with new eyes, to form a history that makes sense in terms of how we experience the world today. As though a private audience with Wyngarde himself, in which his inhibitions are shed, and we witness him able to be his true self at last.” Really?!

Quite what these “inhibitions” were, Ms Wong chose not to impart to her readership, nevertheless, she appeared indubitably satisfied that what she’d witnessed was an authentic representation of Peter’s private life, in spite of the authors having no privileged knowledge about their subject beyond the same old tabloid tittle-tattle and speculation. A “private audience with Wyngarde” it most certainly was not!

In the wake of Peter’s passing, Messrs Holcombe and Mountford had evidently written with impunity: believing the specious press reports asserting that Peter had no partner or kin. Certainly scant consideration was afforded to those of us left to see our loved one parodied in this way. Similarly, the producers would decline to make even a brief courtesy call to Peter’s agent, Thomas Bowington, prior to opening night, so by the time we learned what was going on it was already too late.

Above: Garth Holcome as… a-hem… Peter Wyngarde (Photo by Richard Hedger)

While we were to write to both Garth Holbrook and Peter Mountford via the G.Bod Theatre, neither of them had the good grace to respond – perhaps because they knew they had no justification for staging this production. We did, however, receive an email from some nameless person at the theatre:

Dear Tina and Thomas, I am sincerely sorry for any hurt that you have been caused by our show. This was certainly not our intention. We are huge fans of Peter’s work, and received really wonderful feedback from our Australian audience, many of whom have been fans of Peter for many years, some of whom even saw him on stage here in the 1970s. This was very much a celebration of Peter’s work as an accomplished actor, and tried to debunk the awful rumours about him along the way. I like to think we were truly respectful to his memory, and those of our audience who weren’t aware of him, or simply too young, were fascinated by his career and told us that they now wanted to look up his work and see the real Peter in action. Again, we are truly sorry for any offence caused. I hope that this response goes some way to making it quite clear that this is A Celebration of Peter the actor, and nothing else. Best regards to you and your family. G.bod Theatre

We responded as follows…

Dear Sir or Madam, Thank you for taking the time to contact me, which is greatly appreciated. With regard to the play: Firstly, the wording that accompanied your listing on the Fringe website (and others) appeared as if it’d been cut and pasted directly from a tabloid newspaper. There are a myriad of words that could’ve been used to describe Peter and his work without having to rely on the gutter press. As it turned out, several Sydney residents who are also members of his Official Appreciation Society (which we run), had been put off going to see the production based on that introduction alone – fearing that it would be just another piss-take. Indeed, one of our most devoted members said later that the play had made her feel ashamed to be Australian! Perhaps if you’d sought out either one or both of us first (we can be easily found online) and explained what the play was about, then we might have been able to work with you in some way. But what’s done is done. Hopefully when the absolute truth about the man is revealed with the publication of the biography, ‘Peter Wyngarde: A Life Amongst Strangers’, many of these vicious rumours will finally be scotched. With Regards, Thomas Bowington and Tina Wyngarde-Hopkins

The Offending Publicity Blurb

‘G.bod Productions throws two icons onto the stage for this Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras season: the lesser known Peter Wyngarde (Garth Holcome) and the idolised Bette Davis (Jeanette Cronin) in monologues devised by the actors with the director Peter Mountford. The very different styles of the monologues rather cleverly showcase the acting styles of each: Wyngarde believed an actor should make the character fit the actor; Davis believed the actor should “rise up into the character”. Wyngarde did not believe in acting lessons, Davis was passionate about refining her craft. Both bear an uncanny resemblance to the their source material.

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What follows is Kate Stratford’s review – Theatre Now: 24th February, 2019

man within(?!). Purporting to be a ladies man (he was hospitalised after a mob female fan attack in Australia) he hid his homosexuality as many were forced to do at the time; charges of gross indecency telling their own story. Holcombe gives us a Wyngarde whose brash, cool hipness is a façade for the lonely, traumatised man within(?!). Purporting to be a ladies man (he was hospitalised after a mob female fan attack in Australia) he hid his homosexuality as many were forced to do at the time; charges of gross indecency telling their own story.

Here are two very different but equally compelling performances; insightful glimpses into “what made ‘em tick”. There is an intelligence in the material chosen (how do you encapsulate a life in an hour?) and the choices made reflect thoughtful, well-researched discussion between actor and director. Now, if we can just get the tech cues right ….”

(?): I knew Peter for a few months short of 30 years, and never felt for a single moment that he was in the least bit “traumatised.” In fact he was a very positive and forward-thinking man who exuded confidence. Tina Wyngarde-Hopkins

Above: The REAL Peter Wyngarde and what he’d have probably thought of this play

Theatre Review

‘Peter Wyngarde gained mainstream popularity in 1969 as Jason King, a novelist turned sleuth, in the UK television series Department S. A flamboyant actor, known for his horseshoe moustache and bronzed skin, he is one of innumerable twentieth century celebrities who had never come out of the closet, yet remains an integral part of British gay culture. His 1975 arrest for gross indecency in a public toilet forms part of his mystique, but as was typical of the times, his queerness was kept obscured, refused acknowledgement by wider society. The public would only allow a sex symbol who could not threaten their heteronormativity, and Wyngarde acquiesced.

Garth Holcombe and Peter Mountford’s Wyngarde! A Celebration is a re-framing of the personality, an insistence that we look at old narratives with new eyes, to form a history that makes sense in terms of how we experience the world today. As though a private audience with Wyngarde himself, in which his inhibitions are shed, and we witness him able to be his true self at last. Holcombe has the right charisma for the role, but is occasionally hesitant. The cocky debonair masculinity of a bygone era is portrayed alongside a camp sensibility, to make a statement about the evolution of gay identities, and to form a reminder of a community’s legacy of struggle.

Above: Garth Holcome – more Leonard Rossiter a la Rigsby than Peter Wyngarde (Photo by Richard Hedger)

For all the bravado that Wyngarde enjoys putting on display, there is a loneliness that pervades. There is an unmistakable pride in his long career in stage and film, but we sense something unfulfilled. Wyngarde! A Celebration can feel too gentle in its approach. We want a bawdy tell-all, but it gives us instead, something with more integrity than we are perhaps accustom to, in this age of ubiquitous intrusion and humiliation. It is our nature to seek authenticity, but it appears that revealing everything often serves to distract from the truth. Many things are left unsaid in Wyngarde’s story, and that is perhaps his very essence, and the most accurate representation of the man we have come looking for.’

Points: Peter was already an established, mainstream television star in the UK 15 years prior to accepting the role of Jason King in Department S. You have to be in the closet before you can come out of it. Peter remains an “integral part of British gay culture” only because the tabloids continue to repeat the same old blarny every time his name is mentioned, prompting indolent bloggers, online gossips and playwrights to produce this kind of rubbish. “…his queerness was kept obscured”. This is quite a grandiose statement, given that no one connected with this production had ever met Peter or come within a 1,000-mile radius of him – including the author of this ‘review’! Forming a “history”. Whose history? Garth Holcome and Peter Mountford’s? Certainly not Peter’s! A “…private audience with Wyngarde himself, in which his inhibitions are shed”, and, “…we witness him able to be his true self at last”. That would be the play’s author’s idea of his “true self”, certainly not the true self those who knew him saw. “…there is a loneliness that pervades”. Peter was never, ever lonely. “Integrity”? That’s hardly a word we would use to describe this nonsense!

Do you want to know if Peter Wyngarde had any genuine “inhibitions”, or how “traumatised” this supposed “second-tier actor” really was? Then look out for the biography, Peter Wyngarde – A Life Amongst Strangers.

Read about the REAL Peter Wyngarde in his own words…

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The Hellfire Club: The OFFICIAL PETER WYNGARDE Appreciation Society: https://www.facebook.com/groups/813997125389790/