Peter Wyngarde Peter Wyngarde Peter Wyngarde (23 August 1927 – 15 January 2018) was a British actor best known for playing the character Jason King, a bestselling novelist turned sleuth, in two television series: "Department S" (1969–70) and "Jason King" (1971–72). His flamboyant dress sense and stylish performances led to popular success, and he was considered a style icon in Britain and elsewhere in the early 1970s; Mike Myers credited Wyngarde with inspiring the character Austin Powers. Peter Wyngarde's date and place of birth, his birth name, and his parents' nationalities and occupations are all disputed. According to his own account, he
1970s in television established writers, it was effectively an apprenticeship for new ones who were trying to make a name for themselves; Dennis Potter, John Mortimer, Arthur Hopcraft and Jack Rosenthal all served time on "Play for Today" before going on to write their own independent series. In style, the plays could go from almost documentary realism (of which "Cathy Come Home" is the best known example) to the futuristic or surrealist ("The Year of the Sex Olympics", "House of Character"). Potter went on to write "Pennies from Heaven", one of the landmarks of 1970s television drama. It had the now familiar elements