Unbeknown to many he was an avid bird enthusiast and not just the master of horror that we know so well through his wonderful Hammer films.

I thought of him yesterday as I heard my first cuckoo of the year down in the Dorset Purbecks. He too would have been thrilled by its all too rare call.

To celebrate his birthday BBC4 Extra are playing this Sunday at 11am, for the first time since 1972, Sounds Natural where Peter is interviewed about his love of the British countryside. I have heard a few snippets and it sounds wonderful.

As a teenager I waited nervously in a huge queue (at Forbidden Planet, London I think) to get both his and Christopher Lee’s autographs on my Hound of the Baskervilles video – it was wonderful as Peter asked me where I was from and couldn’t believe I had come all the way from rural Gloucestershire just to meet him – we talked of birds and rivers and discussed some of our delightful British river names before I was ushered on by an overzealous shop assistant!