INTERVIEW: The Right To Reply

‘The Right to Reply’ is a television programme which is broadcast on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom. The premise is to invite viewers to participate by praising or criticising programmes which have been shown on British TV during the previous week.

Viewers may also make enquiries about TV stars – past and present. Peter was interviewed by a fan who’d made just such an inquiry.

Fan: So, Peter Wyngarde was Jason King?

Peter: Oh, I don’t know about that! I think a romantic extension, certainly, because he was outrageous. I’m certainly not outrageous.

Fan: Jason King was certainly very popular – he was talked about in all the newspapers and magazines. What do you think accounted for that popularity?

Peter: Oh, my incredible charisma and charm (Laughs)! I don’t know. If you’re a real fan, you have to answer that.

Fan: So, Jason King was a complete romantic?

Peter: Incorrigible!

Fan: And of course he made Felicity Kendal’s career!

Peter: I don’t know about that. But I did rather fall in love with her, if that’s what you mean? That was a mistake, I think, because Jason should never have been allowed to be vulnerable.

Fan: On two occasions you were voted ‘The Best Dressed Man In Europe’. Now, if you don’t mind me being too personal, look at you now! (Peter is wearing a baseball cap, denim jeans and jacket, and training shoes}.

Peter: Yes, but I’ve been shooting – you saw that! I don’t look like this all the time!

Fan: When I used to watch the series – both series, I used to think they were deadly serious, but looking back at them now, there’s quite a bit of parody.

Peter: (Laughs) I think they were meant to be sent up. The story line was there, which I think is very important – you had to keep that going, but the fun of it – the send-up quality, I think came about with spontaneous shooting. We used to do about six months – this is on ‘Jason King’ and not ‘Department S’. We used to invent scenes which took place, or didn’t take place. I remember once we were in Rome and this gaggle of nuns came down some stairs, and I said to the cameraman: ‘Look up! I’m going to run amok amongst these nuns!” What is that marvellous phrase – a lamentation of swans? That was like a lamentation of nuns!

Fan: Do you think that Jason king could bring an extra dimension to toadies crime series?

Peter:: I don’t know. I think that they’re pretty marvellous. For example, ‘Inspector Morse’, which I think is terrific. I think the reason I like that particular series, which I hope we tried to bring to ‘Jason King’, was style. I don’t just mean the clothes; it wasn’t sort of bland. Another sort of think which I think is a great shame is the phoney realism. You know, not neo-realism, but phoney realism. This macho pap which no one believes for a second – it doesn’t fool anybody. That, I think, has got in the way a lot, where the slightly sent-up quality does help a bit.