I
first
met
Peter Halliday in 1985. I was
helping to organise a convention for
Imperial College London, and his telephone number was passed on to me
by Adrian Rigelsford. Peter duly attended the event, and was a highly
entertaining and popular guest, in fact so popular and entertaining
that, during the following years, he went on to attend events all over
the country, including, among others, Carousel, Falcon, Space Mountain
and Panopticon.
Peter later confided to me that when I had phoned out of the blue and
asked him to attend a
Doctor Who
convention, he'd thought that I might perhaps be a loony, because why,
he reasoned, would anyone be interested in him? Luckily, however, to
his great surprise, he found the genuine warmth and enthusiasm of the
many fans he met truly overwhelming. So much so, indeed, that when
Doctor Who
producer John
Nathan-Turner approached him to appear as the Reverend Parkinson in
“Remembrance of the Daleks,” Peter had immediately
said,
“yes,” and that's how I ended up in Willesden Lane
Cemetery, hobnobbing with writer Ben Aaronovitch, director Andrew
Morgan, and then having lunch with Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred and
Michael Sheard, served from the BBC catering van, no less.
Peter was always supportive, and when I became involved with audio
productions, he kindly agreed to play the barkeeper in the
Blake's 7
play
The Mark of
Kane, recording
his lines in the bedroom of a Putney flat, and then, a few years later,
appeared in the
Kaldor City
story
Checkmate
as Firstmaster
Derhaven in a two-hander with Peter Miles. Indeed, Peter's final
professional engagement was his memorable turn as Anubis in the
Faction Paradox
series.
Lawrence Miles had written this role specifically for Peter Halliday,
and at the time I thought that perhaps Peter would not be able to play
the part, as he had recently been in hospital with a leg injury. But
the day he came out of hospital, he phoned me and said
“right,
when are we going to do this recording?” He travelled
especially
down to Brighton to Alistair Lock's studio to do it, which I thought
was very brave under the circumstances. But then, that was the thing
about Peter, he was generous to a fault, and always looked surprised
when he was paid for appearing in an audio or attending a convention.
Having
known Peter for so long, it's
difficult for me to to write about him in any satisfactory way. Saying
“he was a nice guy” or “he was
kind” or
“he was a very good actor” isn't enough. All I can
say is
that I knew him very well, and now he's gone.
Originally
published in
Celestial Toyroom Issue 405/6
