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 situation comedy series Please Sir! playing the part of smooth wide-boy^[1] 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.^[2]

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^[3] and the part of Craven was played for that season by Leon Vitali. 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 police drama series The Bill,^[4] in 1997.

McFee also appeared as a guest on This is Your Life for John Alderton in 1974, and presented three episodes of BBC pre-school programme You and Me in 1978.^[5] He was the reporter and clown in the 1980s BBC schools science programme Science Workshop.^[6]

Music journalist Simon Goddard has suggested that McFee is the subject of Morrissey's song "Little Man, What Now?" from his 1988 album Viva Hate,^[7][8] although previous opinions have suggested Jack Wild^[9] or Roger Tonge^[10][11] 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.^[12]

Television appearances

Apart from Please Sir! and The Fenn Street Gang, McFee appeared in the following television programmes:^[13]

Personal life

From 1960 to 1965, McFee attended Plaistow County Grammar School. 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.^{[citation needed]} They divorced in 1995.^{[citation needed]} McFee had three children,^[4] including a daughter, Victoria, born to Margaret in 1980.^{[citation needed]}

In an interview in 1973, McFee said that he owned a Ford Capri and had a cat called Perdita Pusscat.^[39][40]

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 in a pantomime of Beauty and the Beast at the Elgiva Theatre in Chesham. He had been suffering from cancer.^[41] McFee had been raising money for the Oncology Department of Broomfield Hospital in Chelmsford, 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.^[42]

Filmography