INTERVIEW: The Simon Dee Show

Channel 4 – Sunday, 29th December 2002

Simon Dee: Now. Jason King. Has it been aq bit of a hangover for you?

Peter: No, I loved it. It was great fun. It was an invention; you invented it – the character you invented. You could do things with it; play around, be as imaginative as you could be and it was fun.

Simon Dee: A nice sort of suave, loose character.

Peter: (Smiling) Louche.

Simon Dee: Oh, louche!

Peter: Lovely word.

Simon Dee: You met Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh?

Peter: I did a play with her, of course – ‘Duel of Angels’, on Broadway and in London at the Apollo Theatre.

Simon Dee: Extraordinarily beautiful lady.

Peter: Wonderful lady. I fell in love with her, of course; very deeply fell in love with her, and it was difficult after that to look at anybody else. And then of course she died, which didn’t help.

Simon Dee: So, who’s top man in the game now then – in the acting game, in London town?

Peter: I don’t go to the theatre that often. I like the National, they do wonderful things there, but other things are very commercial. there are lots of musicals going on, very few – maybe three or four, good plays.

Simon Dee: Peter Wyngarde, thank you for coming on. It’s lovely to see you after thirty six-years.

Peter: Thirty-six years!

Simon Dee: Or something outrageous. When we last met we were both young and dashing.

Peter: (Grinning) Yes, we still are.

Simon Dee: Ladies and gentlemen – Peter Wyngarde.