I’VE GURN UP IN THE WORLD
TV star I’ve signed up to the Ugly Agency but future looks pretty good
Craggy-faced Peter Burrows is cashing in on his wild- haired, wrinkly looks after signing for the Ugly Modelling Agency.
Edinburgh-born Peter is the only Scot on the books of London talent company Ugly, who supply people with unusual appearances for photoshoots, TV ads and music videos.
And the 70- year- old has perhaps surprisingly made his face his fortune – raking in £ 200- plus an hour and working with a glittering array of stars including One Direction, James McAvoy, A lan Cumming, Dav id Walliams and Alan Carr.
Peter – who stars as a dancing wheelchair- bound pensioner in the current Specsavers TV ad – once made £15,000 from a BT commercial.
He said: “I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I’d describe myself as a professional model.
“My friends have a good giggle about me working for the Ugly Modelling Agency but it’s given me a new lease of life.
“My wife doesn’t think I’m ugly, although she was watching X Factor the other night and a Scottish cheese advert I’m in was on and she said, ‘Oh, no, not again.’
“I only got into this through my son. He wanted to be an actor so went along to the agency and they said to me, ‘ Why don’t you do it as well?’. “I had no idea how busy I’d be. I’m lucky that not so many old people do this. You find with a lot of old people that they get to a certain age and retire and that’s it – life’s ended.
“But my change of career shows you can still have fun.”
Dad-of-two Peter’s unusual job has seen him star in spoof One Direction music video Your Maths Skills Are Terrible. The bit-part actor has also appeared in a Harry Potter movie, turned up as a carol singer in EastEnders and even had to flash his manhood at the shocked audience on the Richard & Judy show while X-Men actor Alan Cumming played a game called Real Scot or Mock Jock.
Peter is in demand for his gurning skills and was drafted in to the Big Brother house to make its stars laugh in a diary room stunt.
He said: “The work is very varied and I’ve got so many favourite moments from working with Ugly.
“I think my highlight is appearing in the last Harry Potter film but my young relatives are in awe that I once appeared in a One Direction video.
“They were asked to put together a jokey song called Your Maths Skills Are Terrible to the tune of What Makes You Beautiful on the Chris Moyles Quiz Night show.
“All I had to do was sit on a chair like a clapped- out pensioner with a 60th birthday balloon.
“The lads were lovely and were like, ‘ Thanks for doing that for us.’
“The funny thing was my relatives in Malaysia, who are massive fans, only recently realised it’s me and they’ve watched the video hundreds of times.
“The Richard & Judy show with Alan Cumming was hilarious. All the guys dressed in kilts had to tell a joke and Alan had to tell if we were really Scottish or not.
“The first guy told his joke but he was English so he had underpants on. They had us lifting our kilts in front of a group of ladies.
“Their reaction was priceless when I lifted my kilt. It was tastefully done so the viewers only saw me from behind.”
London-based Peter added: “I do gurning too so that gets me a good amount ofwork.
“I was invited on to Big Brother to test how long it took to make contestants laugh. When they lifted a cover off my face, I had to gurn at them and they had
to try not to laugh. I did it for an X Factor sketch on a children’s telly show and a wee girl who was one of the young judges said, ‘I found that very disturbing.’ “One of the most fun jobs was playing the conductor in a Peppa Pig Oink- estra advert.” Peter worked as a limo chauffeur to the stars for 35 years before finding fame himsel f , driving around superstars including The Roll ing Stones, Rod Stewar t , Bil ly Connol ly and even Princess Diana. He said: “I drove a very famous lady – Diana. I think it shows where life can take you because I was an orphan and had a difficult start to life. Suddenly I’m sharing a car with royalty so life is what you make of it. “Diana was a lovely person and just beautiful. I’ve got a lovely letter from her.” He said: “I get recognised quite a lot mysel f now, especia ll y f rom the Specsavers advert. “I must have one of those faces. I’m always gett ing funny looks from people.” Peter is one of more than 1000 “character models” on the Ugly Modelling Agency’s books. The f irm launched in 1969 and now have off ices in LA and New York. The talent- spotters’ most successful find was Del Keen, who can command up to £ 10,000 a day and has posed for top fashion brands Calvin Klein, Diesel and Levi. Ugly would love to recruit more Scots and Peter dreams of working in his homeland. He said: “I’ve done a Scottish advert for cheese but I’ve never actually done anything in Scotland. I wouldn’t mind coming back home for a nice wee job.” For more information, go to www.ugly.org