Malcolm Raymond McFee (16 August 1949 – 18 November 2001) was an English actor best known for his role as Peter Craven in the TV series ''
Please Sir!'', the film of the same name, and the spin-off TV series ''
The Fenn Street Gang''.
Career
Malcolm McFee made his first appearance on television in 1967. In 1968, he began a three-season stint in the
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00&nbs ...
situation comedy series ''
Please Sir!'' playing the part of smooth wide-boy Peter Craven. He continued the role into the 1971 feature film comedy version, also called ''
Please Sir!''. McFee had made his film debut in the 1969 satirical anti-war musical ''
Oh! What a Lovely War
''Oh! What a Lovely War'' is a 1969 British epic comedy historical musical war film directed by Richard Attenborough (in his directorial debut), with an ensemble cast, including Maggie Smith, Dirk Bogarde, John Gielgud, John Mills, Kenneth Mo ...
''.
The ''Please Sir!'' TV series spawned a comedy sequel called ''
The Fenn Street Gang'', which ran from 1971 to 1973. McFee was unavailable for season one as he was appearing in the West End play ''Forget-Me-Not-Lane'' and the part of Craven was played for that season by
Leon Vitali
Alfred Leon Vitali (26 July 1948 – 19 August 2022) was an English actor best known for his collaborations with film director Stanley Kubrick, as his personal assistant, and most notably as Lord Bullingdon in '' Barry Lyndon''.
Life and care ...
. McFee returned for seasons two and three. He appeared on television many times in the 1970s but was only rarely seen after this, until 1993.
After turning to the stage, McFee made a career as an actor and director, working as a theatre director in small theatres in Greater London and the provinces.
His last TV role was in an episode of the long-running
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a franchise holder for a region of the British ITV television network serving London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until the night of 31 December 1992.
Thames Television broa ...
police drama series ''
The Bill
''The Bill'' is a British police procedural television series, broadcast on ITV (TV network), ITV from 16 October 1984 until 31 August 2010. The programme originated from a one-off drama, "Woodentop (The Bill), Woodentop" (part of the ''Storyb ...
'',
in 1997.
McFee also appeared as a guest on ''
This is Your Life'' for
John Alderton
John Alderton (born 27 November 1940) is an English retired actor. He is best known for his roles in '' Upstairs, Downstairs'', '' Thomas & Sarah'', '' Wodehouse Playhouse'', '' Little Miss'' (original television series), '' Please Sir!'', '' ...
in 1974, and presented three episodes of BBC pre-school programme ''You and Me'' in 1978. He was the reporter and clown in the 1980s BBC schools science programme Science Workshop.
Music journalist
Simon Goddard has suggested that McFee is the subject of
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey ( ; born 22 May 1959), known :wikt:mononym, mononymously as Morrissey, is an English singer and songwriter. He came to prominence as the frontman and lyricist of rock band the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 198 ...
's song "
Little Man, What Now?" from his 1988 album ''
Viva Hate'', although previous opinions have suggested
Jack Wild
Jack Wild (30 September 1952 – 1 March 2006) was an English actor and singer. He is best known for his role as the Artful Dodger in the film ''Oliver!'' (1968), for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at t ...
or
Roger Tonge as the subject. The song mentions an ATV series axed after four years, and Morrissey watching it on a Friday night (season 1 of Please Sir! was indeed broadcast on Friday nights although subsequent seasons went out on Saturday or Sunday nights), and tells of the fall of a TV star of the 1960s who later became unknown.
Television appearances
Apart from ''Please Sir!'' and ''The Fenn Street Gang'', McFee appeared in the following television programmes:
Personal life
From 1960 to 1965, McFee attended
Plaistow County Grammar School
Plaistow County Grammar School, also known as "Plaistow Grammar" or "PGS", was a local authority mixed gender Grammar school established in 1945 and located on Prince Regent Lane (A112) in Plaistow, in the County Borough of West Ham and then ...
. He was briefly the drummer in a band called The Abstracts with some schoolfriends before devoting himself to acting.
In 1971, he married Margaret Kearnan. They divorced in 1995. McFee had three children,
including a daughter, Victoria, born to Margaret in 1980.
In an interview in 1973, McFee said that he owned a
Ford Capri and had a cat called Perdita Pusscat.
McFee died suddenly on 18 November 2001, at the age of 52, at his home in Braintree, Essex, shortly before he was due to appear as a
dame
''Dame'' is a traditionally British honorific title given to women who have been admitted to certain orders of chivalry. It is the female equivalent of ''Sir'', the title used by knights. Baronet, Baronetesses Suo jure, in their own right also u ...
in a pantomime of ''
Beauty and the Beast
"Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales'').
Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...
'' at the Elgiva Theatre in
Chesham
Chesham ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, United Kingdom, south-east of the county town of Aylesbury, about north-west of Charing Cross, central London, and part of the London metropolitan area, London ...
. He had been suffering from cancer. McFee had been raising money for the
Oncology
Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...
Department of
Broomfield Hospital in
Chelmsford
Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...
, Essex as a "Thank you" for the treatment he received from them.
David Barry and
Penny Spencer, who both appeared with McFee in ''Please Sir!'', attended his funeral.
Filmography
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:McFee, Malcolm
1949 births
Actors from the London Borough of Newham
Male actors from Essex
English male television actors
English male film actors
2001 deaths
Deaths from cancer in England
People from Forest Gate