Nicholas Pegg

Last updated

Nicholas Pegg is a British actor, writer and director. Educated at Nottingham High School and graduating with a Master of Arts in English Literature from the University of Exeter, [1] [2] Pegg subsequently trained at the Guildford School of Acting.

Contents

Acting

Pegg's acting work in the theatre includes productions for Nottingham Playhouse, Scottish Opera, Birmingham Repertory Theatre and the Theatre Royal, Plymouth. [3] His television roles include appearances in EastEnders , Doc Martin and It's a Sin , and he has appeared as a Dalek operator in numerous episodes of Doctor Who . [4] In his capacity as a Dalek operator he has also appeared in person on Blue Peter and in many editions of the documentary series Doctor Who Confidential . In November 2013 he appeared as himself in the 50th anniversary comedy homage The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot . [5]

Pegg has also worked on Doctor Who in the audio medium, acting, writing and directing for several Doctor Who audio plays produced by Big Finish Productions. For the same company, he played the Duke of Albany in King Lear (2017), [6] Foxy-Faced Charles in The Box of Delights (2021), [7] the Law Machines in Torchwood (2018), [8] and Captain Smollett in Treasure Island (2013). [9] His other acting roles include Gervais of Waringham in the 2020 Audible serial The Waringham Chronicles, [10] and its 2017-18 Audible prequel serial Scarlet City, [11] and Robert Wintour in the 2012 comedy film The Plotters. For the audiobook company Textbook Stuff he recorded the collected poems of Andrew Marvell, [12] and for Penguin Audiobooks in 2013 he read the Doctor Who short stories Tip of the Tongue by Patrick Ness and Spore by Alex Scarrow.

On 19 January 2014, Pegg wrote and performed The UKIP Shipping Forecast, a satirical response to the pronouncements of various high-profile members of the UK Independence Party. The sketch went viral, receiving 250,000 hits in 4 days.

Writing

David Bowie

As a writer, Nicholas Pegg is a noted authority on the life and work of David Bowie. He is the author of The Complete David Bowie ( ISBN   9781785653650), published by Titan Books and described by Bowie's long-time producer Tony Visconti as "the best Bowie reference book one could ever hope for". [13] Pegg has acted as consultant and contributor to numerous Bowie projects, including the 2022 Brett Morgen film Moonage Daydream, the BBC TV documentaries David Bowie: Five Years (2013) and David Bowie: The Last Five Years (2017), the Victoria and Albert Museum's exhibition David Bowie Is , the BBC Radio 2 documentary Exploring 'Life On Mars? (2017), [14] and the same year's Royal Mail edition of commemorative Bowie stamps. [15] He also worked on the Isle of Man Post Office's 2022 issue of commemorative stamps celebrating David Bowie's acting career. [16] In May 2016 Pegg joined Marc Almond on stage at London's Ace Hotel to co-host a tribute to Bowie in the company of Lindsay Kemp, [17] while in January 2017 Pegg teamed up with Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet to make a short film for The Guardian website to mark the first anniversary of Bowie's death. [18]

Also in 2017, Pegg appeared as a guest Bowie speaker at events including the Penzance Literary Festival [19] and the Victoria and Albert Museum's Celebrating Bowie at 70. [20] Since 2018 he has been a regular contributor to the Album to Album Bowie podcast series. [21] In 2019 and 2021 he was a guest speaker at the annual Dublin Bowie Festival, [22] and in 2022 he compered the David Bowie World Fan Convention in Liverpool, a role he would reprise at the 2023 event in New York. [23] He also appeared as a Bowie expert in the 2007 TV documentary series Seven Ages of Rock , and has hosted Bowie radio specials for broadcasters in Australia and the United Kingdom. [24] [25]

In 2018, the author Philip Reeve revealed that Pegg's book The Complete David Bowie had "played an inspirational role" in the genesis of Reeve's Railhead trilogy of novels. [26]

Decades

Nicholas Pegg is the co-creator of the 2017 concept album Decades , a collaboration with songwriter David Palfreyman which features a cast of notable actors, singers and musicians, including David Warner, Richard Coyle, Jacqueline Pearce, Jan Ravens, Simon Greenall, Edward Holtom, Sarah Jane Morris, Cassidy Janson, Mitch Benn, Jessica Lee Morgan, Ian Shaw, Gary Barnacle, Greg Hart, Terry Edwards and Martyn Barker. [27] [28] [29] [30] [31] In April 2018 he appeared with David Palfreyman on the Vintage TV show The Vintage TV Sessions, [32] introducing a live session by the Decades band, having previously presented a 2017 edition of the same channel's video jukebox show My Vintage, during which he introduced a selection of his favourite music videos and premiered the videos for the Decades singles 'We All Fall Down' and 'Hurting, Sinking'. [33]

Scriptwriting

Pegg has written stage plays, including numerous pantomimes for British theatres including Harrogate Theatre, the Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch, the MacRobert Playhouse in Stirling, and the Theatre Royal, Nottingham. [34] [35] [36] [37] He is also the author of the Doctor Who audio play The Spectre of Lanyon Moor , and he adapted the text of King Lear for the 2017 Big Finish version starring David Warner. [38]

Other writing

Pegg has written for publications including Mojo , Q Magazine , Pride Life , and Doctor Who Magazine . His other writing credits include the short stories Deep Water and Hold Your Horses for the 2008 and 2009 Doctor Who Storybooks as well as contributions to The Doctor Who Annual and The Brilliant Book of Doctor Who. He has also written numerous features for the BBC's range of DVD releases of the Doctor Who television series. He wrote Cheques, Lies and Videotape, a documentary about the heyday of pirate videos, which appeared on the DVD release of Revenge of the Cybermen . He also wrote When Worlds Collide, a documentary about politics and ideology in Doctor Who, which appeared on the DVD release of The Happiness Patrol , and A Matter of Time, a documentary about Doctor Who under the producership of Graham Williams, which was the leading special feature on the Key to Time series box set. Pegg has worked as script editor on several other documentary features, appears as moderator for the Doctor Who DVD audio commentaries of The Mutants and Resurrection of the Daleks (Special Edition), and wrote the "info text" subtitles for many DVD releases.

In October 2017 Pegg, under his regular pseudonym of The Watcher, concealed a crude acrostic message in his regular "Wotcha" column in Doctor Who Magazine, in which the first letters of each sentence spelled out the message "Panini ..." (publishers of Doctor Who Magazine) " ...and BBC Worldwide are cunts". [39] This was widely reported as leading to his sacking from the magazine and from Doctor Who. [40] [41] [42] These reports turned out to be inaccurate, as Pegg has continued to work regularly on the series. Alternative accounts suggest that the decision to axe his column had already been made and that it was this decision that led to Pegg writing the hidden message. [43] Pegg's column that month was subtitled "The column that is not something to be shuffled off on to some stray boffin, you know" (ostensibly a reference to a line of dialogue by the character Brownrose from the 1971 story Terror of the Autons , mentioned in passing in the article.) [39]

Directing

In addition to several Doctor Who audio plays for the Big Finish series, Pegg's work as a director includes theatre productions of Hamlet , Twelfth Night , Peter Pan , Funny Money , I Thought I Heard a Rustling, and Diary of a Somebody. [3]

Personal life

Pegg's long-term partner is actor Barnaby Edwards. Guesting at the 2017 Pride Cymru event Who's Queer Now, a symposium celebrating the impact and influences of Doctor Who on LGBT people, the couple revealed that they were celebrating their 25th anniversary. [26] [44]

Doctor Who credits

Pegg has operated the Daleks in numerous episodes of Doctor Who since 2005:

He has also written, featured in or directed a number of Doctor Who audio plays for Big Finish Productions: [45]

Pegg has also contributed to the following Doctor Who DVD releases:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dalek</span> Fictional alien race featured in the Doctor Who universe

The Daleks are a fictional extraterrestrial race of extremely xenophobic mutants principally portrayed in the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. They were conceived by writer Terry Nation and first appeared in the 1963 Doctor Who serial The Daleks, in shells designed by Raymond Cusick.

<i>Shada</i> (<i>Doctor Who</i>) Unaired 1979 TV serial, later reworked

Shada is a story from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by the series' script editor Douglas Adams, it was intended as the final serial of the 1979–80 season but was never originally completed, owing to strike action at the BBC during studio recording. Entering production as a six-part story in 1979, plans were later revised for the story to be broadcast as a four-part story in 1980. Ultimately however, the story would never be completed in either format.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Finish Productions</span> British company producing books and audio dramas

Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult science fiction properties. These include Doctor Who, the characters Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog from 2000 AD, Blake's 7, Dark Shadows, Dracula, Terrahawks, Sapphire & Steel, Sherlock Holmes, Stargate, The Avengers, The Prisoner, Timeslip and Torchwood.

The Caves of Androzani is the sixth serial of the 21st season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts on BBC1 from 8 to 16 March 1984.

Doctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mission to the Unknown</span> 1965 Doctor Who episode

"Mission to the Unknown" is the second serial of the third season of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Written by Terry Nation and directed by Derek Martinus, the single episode was broadcast on BBC1 on 9 October 1965. The only standalone regular episode of the show's original run, it serves as an introduction to the 12-part story The Daleks' Master Plan. It is notable for the complete absence of the regular cast and the TARDIS; it is the only serial in the show's history not to feature the Doctor at all. The story focuses on Space Security Agent Marc Cory and his attempts to warn Earth of the Daleks' plan to take over the Solar System.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicholas Briggs</span> British actor (born 1961)

Nicholas Briggs is an English actor, writer, director, sound designer and composer. He is associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs, particularly as the voice of the Daleks and the Cybermen in the 21st century series.

<i>Cracked Actor</i> 1975 British film

Cracked Actor is a 1975 television documentary film about the musician David Bowie, made by Alan Yentob for the BBC's Omnibus strand. It was first shown on BBC1 on 26 January 1975.

"Tooth and Claw" is the second episode of the second series of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on BBC One on 22 April 2006.

Helen Raynor is a Welsh television screenwriter and script editor from Swansea. She is best known for her work on the relaunched BBC science fiction series Doctor Who. She previously worked as a theatre director. Besides television episodes, Raynor has written theatrical plays, radio plays, and short stories.

James Goss is an English writer and producer, known both for his work in cult TV spin-off media, including tie-in novels and audio stories for Doctor Who and Torchwood, and for his fictional works beyond established universes.

Trevor Baxendale is a writer. His first Doctor Who novel The Janus Conjunction was published by BBC Books in 1998. He has also written novels for Torchwood and Blake's 7, as well as short stories, comic strips and audio drama scripts.

<i>Dalekmania</i> 1995 British film

Dalekmania is a 1995 direct-to-video documentary released in the United Kingdom. "Dalekmania" is the name given to the craze or "mania" among children in the United Kingdom in the 1960s for all things associated with writer Terry Nation's creations, the Daleks, who were then regularly appearing in the BBC's television drama series Doctor Who.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnaby Edwards</span> British actor, writer and director

Barnaby Edwards is a British actor, writer, director and artist. He is known as a performer for the British science-fiction television series Doctor Who, in the role of a Dalek operator. He has also written, directed, produced or performed in over 80 Big Finish Doctor Who audio stories. Alongside frequent radio and voice over work, Edwards has narrated over 40 unabridged audiobooks for Audible.com and others.

Tom Spilsbury is a British writer, magazine editor and journalist. As of 2021, he is a feature writer for TV Choice and Total TV Guide magazines. A former pupil of Bristol Cathedral School, he was, for ten years, editor of Doctor Who Magazine (DWM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Stolen Earth</span> 2008 Doctor Who episode

"The Stolen Earth" is the twelfth episode of the fourth series and the 750th overall episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 28 June 2008. The episode was written by show runner and head writer Russell T Davies and is the first of a two-part crossover story with spin-offs Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures; the concluding episode is "Journey's End", the finale of the fourth series, broadcast on 5 July.

David Palfreyman is an English songwriter, musician, actor and poet.

<i>The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot</i> British TV series or programme

The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot is a 2013 comedy spoof and homage to the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It appeared on the BBC Red Button service after the broadcast of "The Day of the Doctor", the official 50th anniversary special. The programme was written and directed by Peter Davison, who stars alongside fellow former Doctor actors Sylvester McCoy, Colin Baker and Paul McGann. It features appearances from then-stars of the show Matt Smith and Jenna Coleman as well as former stars David Tennant and John Barrowman. Additionally, then-Doctor Who executive producer Steven Moffat, his predecessor Russell T Davies and numerous others connected to the programme all appear as themselves in a more or less parodic manner.

<i>Decades</i> (David Palfreyman and Nicholas Pegg album) 2017 studio album by David Palfreyman and Nicholas Pegg

Decades is a 2017 double concept album by David Palfreyman and Nicholas Pegg, who co-produced it with Ian Caple.

<i>David Bowie: Sound and Vision</i> (documentary) 2002 American film

David Bowie: Sound and Vision is a 2002 documentary film about the English musician, made by the American television network A&E for their long running documentary television series and media franchise Biography. It was first broadcast on A&E on 4 November 2002. It was released as a DVD the following year.

References

  1. ↑ "The Complete David Bowie - Author Interview". Archived from the original on 20 November 2016. Retrieved 12 April 2006.
  2. ↑ "The Exe-Terminators: An interview with the Daleks – Part 2". 29 September 2015.
  3. 1 2 "Nicholas Pegg". Archived from the original on 29 June 2004. Retrieved 29 June 2004.
  4. ↑ "The Exe-terminators: An interview with the Daleks – Part 1". 28 September 2015.
  5. ↑ "The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot", BBC programmes, retrieved 26 November 2013
  6. ↑ "16. King Lear - Big Finish Classics - Big Finish".
  7. ↑ "19. The Box of Delights". bigfinish.com. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  8. ↑ "2. Torchwood: Torchwood One - Machines - Torchwood One - Big Finish".
  9. ↑ [ dead link ]
  10. ↑ "The Waringham Chronicles". thebookloversboudoir.wordpress.com. 21 March 2020.
  11. ↑ "Scarlet City: An Audible Original Series". Audible.com. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  12. ↑ "Andrew Marvell Society – Connecting Marvellians".
  13. ↑ "Nicholas Pegg - the Complete David Bowie".
  14. ↑ "BBC Radio 2 - Exploring 'Life on Mars?'".
  15. ↑ "Bowie is First Artist Honored with Royal Mail Stamps". 25 January 2017.
  16. ↑ "David Bowie: Actor". iompost.com. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  17. ↑ "REVIEW | Lindsay Kemp: My Life and Work with David Bowie -". 27 May 2016.
  18. ↑ Gormley, Jess; Sprenger, Richard; Dennis, Jon; Silverstone, Tom (10 January 2017). "David Bowie remembered by two of his biggest fans – video". The Guardian.
  19. ↑ http://www.pzlitfest.co.uk/event/bowie-in-the-bar-with-nicholas-pegg-and-members-of-the-bowie-lounge/ [ dead link ]
  20. ↑ "Let's Dance: Remembering David Bowie".
  21. ↑ "DAVIDBOWIE: ALBUMTOALBUM on acast".
  22. ↑ "Dublin Bowie Festival 2021: Tony Visconti, Rick Wakeman, Woody Woodmansey and more set to feature". hotpress.com. 9 December 2020.
  23. ↑ https://bowieconvention.com.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  24. ↑ "Illustrated db Discography Forum • View topic - Nicholas Pegg on Oz radio this weekend - 2 hr Bowie special".
  25. ↑ "Bowie author waxes lyrical on the Spitting Feathers Radio Show".
  26. 1 2 "Philip Reeve". www.philip-reeve.com. Archived from the original on 11 May 2018.
  27. ↑ "SPILL FEATURE: DECADES - A CONVERSATION WITH NICHOLAS PEGG AND DAVID PALFREYMAN". The Spill Magazine . 13 July 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  28. ↑ "James R. Turner Talks to David Palfreyman and Nicholas Pegg about 'Decades'". 11 October 2017.
  29. ↑ "Art rock album reviews round-up". 6 September 2017.
  30. ↑ "Review – Nicholas Pegg & David Palfreyman – Decades – by James R. Turner". 10 September 2017.
  31. ↑ "SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DAVID PALFREYMAN AND NICHOLAS PEGG - DECADES". The Spill Magazine . 14 July 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2020.
  32. ↑ "The Vintage TV Sessions Ep 39 – Vintage TV". Archived from the original on 16 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  33. ↑ "Nicholas Pegg: My Vintage – Vintage TV". Archived from the original on 16 May 2018. Retrieved 19 May 2018.
  34. ↑ "Theatre review: Jack and the Beanstalk at Harrogate Theatre".
  35. ↑ [ dead link ]
  36. ↑ "5-star Aladdin at the Queen's Theatre Hornchurch - Review". December 2015.
  37. ↑ [ dead link ]
  38. ↑ "REVIEW: King Lear is a Cinematic Shakespeare Adaptation for Audio". 24 October 2017.
  39. 1 2 History of Doctor Who in 100 Objects - #87: The Doctor's Pufferfish" - "Wotcha" by "The Watcher" (Nicholas Pegg) Doctor Who Magazine 516, Panini Comics 2017
  40. ↑ "Dalek sacked from Doctor Who for hiding this offensive message". Daily Mirror . November 2017.
  41. ↑ "Writer fired from Doctor Who Magazine over coded insult". Cultbox. 1 November 2017. Archived from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  42. ↑ Welsh, Daniel (1 November 2017). "'Doctor Who' Magazine Writer And Dalek Operator Fired After Calling BBC Worldwide 'C***s' In New Column". Huffington Post. Archived from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  43. ↑ Staff Writer (3 November 2017). "Media News". Private Eye. No. 1456. p. 15.
  44. ↑ "StackPath".
  45. ↑ "Nicholas Pegg". Archived from the original on 21 February 2006. Retrieved 12 April 2006.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.