Stephens first appeared in films playing Major Lench in the 1956
John Boulting offering, ''
Private's Progress, which starred Richard Attenborough as an innocent young recruit who gets involved with a gang of Army spivs. In the same year, he also made his first major television appearance as Hassan Ben Ali in "Albania", an episode of the ITC Entertainment adventure serial The Count of Monte Cristo. He took a lesser role in the ITV "Television Playhouse" production of Skipper Next to God'', portraying a Dutch officer. In 1957, he switched to the
BBC, playing Monte in
No Shepherds Watched, the story of a bungling criminal family headed by
Warren Mitchell, whose plans for a robbery are foiled by a café owner, played by Mitchell's future
Till Death Us Do Part fictional wife,
Dandy Nichols. His only film appearance that year was in the
Columbia Pictures British
black-and-white film,
Kill Her Gently, directed by
Charles Saunders but with no star names appearing in the main roles of a man, his wife, and his chance encounter with two known prison escapees, whom he then tries to employ to murder his spouse. He appeared in two TV series in 1958 – the 6-part "
demob" saga from the
BBC called
Fair Game, and the popular police programme
Dixon of Dock Green (playing Todd in "The Key of the Nick").
Directing one film Peter Stephens' only film as a director,
Mustang!, was released through
United Artists in 1959. It was based on the book
Capture of the Golden Stallion by Rutherford Montgomery, and tells of the attempts by occupants of a ranch first to kill a troublesome wild mustang horse, and then to capture and tame it. He had been approached by film producers Robert Franklyn and Sam Abarbanel to make the
Western in the early 1950s, and shooting took place in California and
Oklahoma, with the final edit ready by 1955. Unfortunately, the picture quality was poor, reputedly because it had been shot with
16mm film and then enlarged to
35mm.
Returning to acting He returned to
Dixon of Dock Green once more in 1959, though playing an entirely different character, Chapman, in "Over and Out". He also took the role of Mr Lirriper in "The Runaways", part of the
Tales from Dickens presentations by
Fredric March. His work in the early 1960s included regular appearances in some well-known productions for television, such as
Maigret (1960),
Danger Man (1961 and 1966) and the 1962 mini-series of
Oliver Twist (featuring a young
Melvyn Hayes as the
Artful Dodger) when Stephens played Mr Limbkins. He also played a
councillor in
Sir Francis Drake in 1962, after which he took time out to appear on the stage. On 6 August 1964, Stephens opened at the
New Arts Theatre in the London
premiere of
Alan Ayckbourn's play
Mr Whatnot, portraying Herbert the Butler, amongst a cast which included
Ronnie Barker,
Ronnie Stevens and
Judy Cornwell. He did find time to play two characters on television that year, Mr Dawson in "My Late Dear Husband", an episode in the popular Scottish series ''
Dr Finlay's Casebook'', and Mr Jinkins in the BBC's 13 part serial
Martin Chuzzlewit, adapted from
Charles Dickens' novel. 1965 saw a brief return to the cinema for him, portraying Sir Giles Redman in the 30-minute "Scales of Justice"
featurette The Hidden Face. In television that year, he made appearances in single episodes of more anthology-style series, namely
The Man in Room 17,
Out of the Unknown,
An Enemy of the State, and
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The producers subsequently received complaints from lawyers acting on behalf of the deceased author
Charles Hamilton's estate. The character Cyril was said to bear a remarkable resemblance to
William George Bunter, whom Hamilton wrote many books about under the pen name Frank Richards. The BBC finally issued a disclaimer, saying that Cyril was merely "Bunter-like". Stephens would portray a completely different character, Lolem, during episodes one and three of the 1967 serial
The Underwater Menace while
Patrick Troughton was playing the Doctor
Final years Stephens made further 1967 television appearances in
Adam Adamant Lives!, ''Dr Finlay's Casebook
(for the second time, but as a different character), and played Felix Delmer in one episode of the BBC drama Champion House''. He continued his film career in 1967 by appearing in a 38-minute
short film called
Money-Go-Round, based on dealings at the
Stock Exchange, and in which he played a
tycoon. He followed this in the same year with a more prominent role as Farson in the full-length film
Herostratus, whose plot involves issues on suicide, and featured minor roles for a young
Helen Mirren and
Malcolm Muggeridge, who played himself. In the
Wednesday Play series, he appeared as Captain Carruthers in the final part of
Alan Plater's 1968 trilogy,
To See How Far It Is, about a "humble pen-pusher in a cardboard factory" who, in his attempts to brighten up his life, ends up surrounded by "a little feminine company" on a cruise ship. He could also be seen on TV in that year in another
anthology series, "
ITV Playhouse", playing Mr Morrow alongside
Nicky Henson and
Ronald Fraser in
Peter Wildeblood's play ''Rogues' Gallery: The Lives and Crimes of Jonathan Wild and Jack Sheppard''. Stephens' only cinema appearance of 1969 was as the Abbott of St Mary's in the
Hammer/
LWT co-production
Wolfshead. He was very busy on the
small screen however. He took the parts of Bellchamber in "Love All", an episode of the ITV series
The Avengers, Quintin Blythe in one episode of
Yorkshire Television's
The Flaxton Boys serial, and Sir Timothy Grange in "
When did You Start to Stop Seeing Things?", from the offbeat ghost-related television series
Randall and Hopkirk. He also played Mr Bailey in seven instalments of the TV series
Mr Digby Darling, which starred
Peter Jones and
Sheila Hancock. After portraying Don Gutierre in the BBC's epic historical drama
The Six Wives of Henry VIII, he made a cinema film alongside
Jean Simmons called
Say Hello to Yesterday, in which he played a businessman. 1971 saw many television appearances from Stephens. The list included
Doctor in the House,
Brett,
Z-Cars, and portraying Beppo Bowles in
Eyeless in Gaza. He made a major film in 1971 with
Pier Paolo Pasolini,
I Racconti di Canterbury, an
Italian language adaptation of
Chaucer's
The Canterbury Tales, playing Justinus. He had previously appeared as a
friar in the BBC's
bawdy 1969 TV version. The friar turned up in episode 5, entitled "
The Wife of Bath's Tale/
The Clerk's Tale". In late 1971 another film,
Hammer Films'
Twins of Evil, was released, starring
Peter Cushing, and in which Stephens supported as a member of the Brotherhood, a fictional sect which fought
vampirism in Central Europe in the 19th century. In the final year of his life, he secured a regular role as the chairman of the board of St. Swithin's Hospital in four episodes of
Doctor in Charge, the ITV comedy series based on
Richard Gordon's books, and starring
Robin Nedwell,
George Layton,
Geoffrey Davies and
Richard O'Sullivan. His last ever film was
Go for a Take, (released posthumously), an inward-looking treatment satirising the
film industry, in which he took the part of a film director who has to contend with two men 'on the run' invading a
set, pretending to be
film extras. Peter Stephens died on 17 September 1972; however, one further appearance occurred
posthumously — his portrayal of Amlodd in
HTV's historical adventure series
Arthur of the Britons. The episode he had completed before his death, "In Common Cause", was not broadcast until 24 October 1973. ==Filmography==