‘I’ve starred in Peppa Pig for 20 years but only one fan request was too kinky for me’-Meghna Amin-Entertainment – Metro

The most popular children’s TV show is celebrating its 20th anniversary (Picture: Peppa Pig)

Being one of the most recognised voices in the country must come with its downsides and shocking encounters, but for one beloved Peppa Pig character, there’s only been one bizarre fan request.

Richard Ridings, known to the rest of us as Daddy Pig, is celebrating 20 years in the iconic role, yet has managed to keep his real identity under wraps from adoring children.

While he’s certainly had some young fans stunned when they hear him in everyday situations like supermarkets, sometimes he encounters specific requests that he’s had to turn down – and considering his role on the nation’s most popular children’s TV programme, we don’t blame him for thinking it doesn’t quite fit his character.

In a Metro.co.uk interview ahead of two decades as Daddy Pig, recalling fans’ requests over that time, Richard revealed: ‘There was one weird one actually… about some husband that wanted me to say something to his wife, but I wasn’t sure about that one, it was a bit strange, a bit kinky… I don’t do kinky.’

Thankfully, the majority of the requests are usually clips for birthday parties or as Christmas messages, and while he must be inundated with them, when asked about whether he thought he’d become one of the most famous voices of all time, he admitted: ‘No, how can you? How can you think such a thing? I still don’t believe it!’

And it’s not just children who recognise him from his voice, Richard told us, explaining one unexpected conversation: ‘It was a weird one actually, I was doing a group zoom call with music producers… and someone came and said, “Oh my god, I’ve just realised you’re Daddy Pig,” and someone else chipped in and said, “I recognised you from Common as Muck” which is a TV series I did years ago, and I said, “Yeah but I’m not here for that I’m here for music!”’ 

He’s perhaps more used to being stopped by children, the audience of his shows, and said: ‘I don’t notice it so much, I remember once when my daughter was quite young, in her teens, and we were shopping in Sainsbury’s, and there was a little girl tugging on her mummy’s shirt, saying “I can hear Daddy Pig”, so every now and then you get parents saying, “Oh will you say hello”.’ 

Daddy Pig, who is voiced by Richard Ridings, is a beloved character (Picture: Peppa Pig)

Of what it’s like actually being Daddy Pig, he went on: ‘It’s so lovely because there are very few times where people go “uh… Daddy Pig”, most of the time it’s like “Oh my god, it’s lovely,” or “Oh my God, my kids love that,” or “Oh my god. I remember that when I was a little person”.

‘It’s just such a lovely thing to be involved with. I get up every day, and I express my gratitude for being part of it. It’s just lovely.’

While we may know him as Peppa and George’s loving dad, Richard first rose to fame in a series of TV shows including Red Dwarf, Common As Muck, Fat Friends, and later played Buck in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, joking that he ‘specialises in animals’ to us.

When Peppa Pig was introduced to him in 2004, he had no idea it would grow into what it has become today.

‘At the time I thought a family of pigs was a bit weird,’ he began. ‘But as soon as you see it, you get it, and hear the script and how witted they are, it does make sense.’

He added: ‘I thought, I wanted to be involved even if it was tiny, but who could imagine it being so big across the world.’

Richard Ridings had no idea Peppa Pig would become what it is today (Picture: Peppa Pig)

At the start Richard had been told that Peppa Pig would be a family show and showed him scripts and animatronics, displaying what producers had in mind.

And we can barely believe it, but he admitted there was a worry people would struggle to get on board with it.

Richard said: ‘They showed me the scripts, and what they had in mind, and showed me The Big Knights which I think is actually the reason the BBC didn’t go for Peppa, [because in that show] they go around trying to save people even if they don’t want to be saved in this kind of weird mediaeval Central European country and it’s not nonspecific but it’s very, very funny.

‘But at the time there was [an idea of] “We’re moving away from shows with people with swords, we’re not having another Big Knights,” which was a shame, but on the back of that they looked at Peppa Pig and went “not for us”, so [the producers] were saying we were struggling to get people on board with it.’

Thankfully, a lot has changed since then and Peppa Pig now airs in over 180 territories, and in 2020, was officially the most-watched series On Demand in the world, according to Hasbro.

The beloved show initially sparked concern people wouldn’t be able to get on board with it (Picture: Peppa Pig)

But that doesn’t mean parents are always on board, with Richard revealing one complaint he regularly gets.

‘I have heard complaints and I sympathise with them, when very early on, people would have DVD players in the car before streaming came onboard, and it was like every five minutes you get the theme tune again,’ he laughed.

‘On the telly these days they’ve cut it down, but I did hear a couple of parents like “oh my god the theme tune” or “I was in charge of the kids and snoozing on the sofa but every five minutes I was being woken up by the theme tune.”

Despite working in the momentous role for 20 years, Richard and his Mummy Pig co-star Morwenna Banks don’t actually record their episodes together, and it was even a few years before he met other members of the cast, though he did spill a production secret that all of them have recorded a whole range of snorts with various options in the bank.

He said: ‘I never ever met Lily [Snowden-Fine, who voiced the first Peppa from 2004-2005], I think the family moved to Canada not long after, and the other thing was… I was just about to fly off to Prague to do another film, so we ended up doing the whole first series on one day, the day before I flew out, 52 episodes,.

‘We started at 8am and finished at 8pm, they’re only five-minute episodes, but even so there’s a lot to get through.’

The children’s programme airs in over 180 territories (Picture: Peppa Pig)

Richard went on to recall: ‘In those days, Daddy Pig was in most of them but these days there’s episodes where he might drop Peppa and George somewhere and then you don’t see him for the rest of the episode, but that’s fine.

‘But in those days he was pretty much onboard, he was an expert in everything and would fail at most of them… it was a lovely comedic trope that we don’t do quite so much of.

‘Children love seeing adults having a go and failing, there’s something important buried in there that even when the grownups are getting it wrong sometimes, they approach it with zest and relish and confidence.’

He added:’I love having a big, comfortable, warm, positive role model of a dad who loves his kids, who adores his kids, and would do anything for them, doesn’t always get it right, quite often falls asleep on the sofa with a newspaper, but he works hard, he’s an architect and a world-renowned expert on concrete!’

Addressing his future on the show, Richard vowed: ‘As long as they keep making it, as long as I’ve still got a voice I hope, I’d hate to leave the show, I love it, it’s a lovely thing to be involved with, it really is.’

Peppa Pig is available to watch on YouTube, with new special episodes featuring the start of a 3-part wedding party special with guest voices Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom for the show’s 20th anniversary having dropped last weekend.

All new episodes of Peppa Pig air from May 25 to June 4 on milkshake, and all episodes will be available to catch up on My5.

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