Peter Hawkins

Peter John Hawkins was born on 3 April 1924 in Hargwyne Street in Brixton, south London, to Detective Inspector John Stephen and piano player Doris Matilda. According to son Silas, his father’s talent was derived from his mother’s ability to mimic others. He made his first stage appearance as a member of the chorus in a musical. During his last year at school, he wrote, with three friends, a revue entitled The Five Bs, the name of their form. He worked at Pitman’s from the ages of 16 to 18, writing similar shows at a youth club. Hawkins joined the Royal Navy, entertaining with impressions for which he wrote scripts, and survived when the HMS Limbourne sank after being torpedoed escorting the cruiser Charybdis near Guernsey. He was rescued by Ronnie Hill, a theatre actor at the time, and while recovering he took part in plays, which resulted in his being taken into Combined Operations’ Entertainments productions of the Royal Naval Barracks’ Scran Bag.[1]

Scran Bag toured mainland Europe, then Canada before the SS Menestheus was built, which began their tour of the Far East, and ended up at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith. After the war Peter won a two-year place at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He began his long association with children’s television with the magazine programme Whirligig voicing several characters.

In 1956, Peter married actress Rosemary Miller, who he met doing voices on Toytown.[2] Peter voiced Ernest the Policeman, a role he would reprise in the 1972 series, and Rosemary voiced Larry the Lamb in only four episodes. On 27th August 1959, they had a child named Silas, who they named if he grew up to be an actor, which he did. Despite his busy schedule, Peter spent lots of time with his son, reading bedtime stories as if he was recording, which Silas thought was overwhelming.

In 1963, he became the original voice of the Daleks in Doctor Who. He had previously enjoyed watching the first serial, An Unearthly Child and made his debut in the second, The Daleks. Peter would voice them in every 1960s story, as well as the two 1960s feature films, the latter of which he considered better than the former, and he and fellow Dalek voice David Graham would become lifelong friends. Despite son Silas being a Doctor Who fan, he didn’t find it weird that it was his father voicing the Daleks, although the Daily Express framed it as if he boasted to his friends about it, which Peter hated.

In 1966, Peter voiced the Cybermen in the fourth and final part of the Doctor Who serial The Tenth Planet. For the subsequent three Cyberman serials he used an electrolarynx, which he described as very uncomfortable. He considered the story and cast of his last Dalek story, The Evil of the Daleks, to be the best. Peter never returned afterwards as he had enough of having to fund it himself. He was, however, going to be the voice of K9 before John Leeson, who Peter had worked with on the first year of Thames Television’s Rainbow, won the role.

When Rainbow began in 1972, Peter was chosen to be the voice of Zippy. In the pilot he also voiced Sunshine, Bramble and Pillar, but after many policy changes they were removed. He tried to rewrite gags, which proved hard for the target audience, and so left the series despite being asked to stay. That same year he joined the ensemble of Dave Allen at Large, even writing various skits, and stayed until 1978.

Silas reckons his father had the most involvement with the Flower Pot Men, for which he invented their Oddle-Poddle language, although he also enjoyed the diverse cast of Captain Pugwash, being very proud when it appeared in The Times as a crossword clue: “The captain is all for the dog having a bath”.

Other notable roles include The Woodentops, The Adventures of Sir Prancelot, the voice of Money in the Access “Flexible Friend” adverts and The Family-Ness. According to Silas, he gave thought to every role, yet never looked back at them.[1]

Hawkins was interested in jewellery, fossils, serious music and eating out, and supported Chelsea. He also had a and a collection of Japanese sword guards and Impressionist works, including those of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Claude Monet, much to the delight of Gale Pedrick. Wife Rosemary Miller also had an interest in collecting paintings.[2] Peter considered his collection as “applause” for his busy yet anonymous voice work. He once hosted dinner with William Hartnell, although Hartnell drove in circles for hours looking for his house.[1]

Hawkins regularly smoked 20 Olivier in his prime, and later it would give him eczema. According to Silas, Rosemary would constantly dress his rashes. In 1992, he began operation to remove a tumor in his brain, which left him unable to read and made him very drowsy.[1]

Hawkins died on 8 July 2006, aged 82, of pneumonia. The funeral was held at St. Matthews in Queensway, where Silas was baptised. A showing of The Survivors, his first Doctor Who episode, was arranged, and Silas scattered his ashes at Fermain Bay, Guernsey, where the HMS Limbourne sank.[1]

• Peter Hawkins at IMDb
• Voice of the Daleks dies at 82 Lester Haines (The Register) Thursday 20 July 2006 10:35 GMT
• Daily Telegraph obituary
• Times obituary