What Happened To The Demon Headmaster Star Terrence Hardiman?

Terrence Hardiman is best known for frightening the life out of youngsters during the late ‘90s in his role as The Demon Headmaster on the TV show of the same name, in what can easily go down as one of the most chilling children’s TV programmes ever to have graced the small screen.

Copyright [CBBC]

Some may only know him as the dreaded Demon Headmaster, the terrifying teacher who had a strange power over his pupils and regularly hypnotised the kids by ordering them, in a spooky voice, to “look into my eyes” so he could gain control of their minds.

The CBBC show spanned three series from 1996 to 1998 and featured performances by a number of other much loved TV stars - including Only Fools and Horses actress Tessa Peake Jones as Dinah’s foster mum Mrs. Hunter, and Red Dwarf’s Danny John-Jules as Eddy Hair.

Terrence’s countless TV appearances - which have included starring as Major Reinhardt in 1970s BBC drama series Secret Army, as Abbot Radulfus in the murder mystery TV series Cadfael and as a version of Dad’s Army’s Sergeant Wilson in Goodnight Sweetheart - have earned him a legion of fans.

Some have taken their allegiance once step further than most by creating a whole website dedicated to his life, aptly named The Terrence Hardiman Website.

The page features news about the star’s life and several claims about his career, including that his favourite cake is Battenberg and that he went to university with Vicious actor and his Cadfael co-star Derek Jacobi.

While you may not have seen Terrence on screen since The Demon Headmaster first gave you nightmares in the late '90s, the 79-year-old actor - who celebrated his latest milestone birthday on April 6 - has been pretty busy since.

Copyright [BBC]

Doctor TV Roles

Following his best known role as the dreaded Demon Headmaster, Terrence could’ve quite easily taken on a new career as a lookalike for former Home Secretary Jack Straw, but instead he concentrated on securing further roles in high-profile TV shows.

One of the biggest shows the star went on to appear in is arguably sci-fi favourite Doctor Who.

He portrayed sinister government head Hawthorne in April 2010 episode The Beast Below, which also featured Amy Pond’s (Karen Gillan) first outing with The Doctor, then played by Matt Smith.

While Terrence only made a guest appearance in the ep, the self-confessed Whovian loved shooting his scenes in such an iconic programme.

He told Digital Spy at the time: “With any filming on a series, one can perhaps play a nice part but it can be done in a short time. I think I only worked on it for about three days to get all my stuff done. One was very welcomed into the whole setup. We filmed in an old castle in South Wales.

"They was a lovely crew of people to work with and it happened to be lovely weather too, and in spite of the paparazzi trying to get secret shots of us, we managed to get the whole thing done well.”

One of Terrence’s most recent roles sparked memories of his Demon Headmaster days as he portrayed another creepy person of power in BBC daytime soap Doctors.

The actor took on the role of religious leader Philip Burke in a special two-parter, entitled Purity, which aired in January 2015 and saw his character go up against the much loved doctors surgery receptionist Mrs. Tembe.

Terrence - who is married to actress Rowena Cooper - is no stranger to the Birmingham-based soap as since his big role as the Demon Headmaster he has appeared in the programme four times, as a different character on each occasion.

He first starred as Sir Bobby Hewitt in 2003 episode Blackout, and later went on to appear as Major Robert PIlmer in 2009’s The Way I Am, followed by the portrayal of Raymond Shelley in an ep called Third Party.

Terrence clearly has a penchant, or a persona, for a medical drama role as he also starred in The Royal in 2005 as Dr. Sedgewick, and just last year he turned up in an episode of Holby City as Harold Holland.

Copyright [ITV/REX/Shutterstock]

Other TV Work

But his face doesn’t just fit a medical drama as Terrence also has a knack for starring in a crime show.

While he’s made a name for himself playing authority figures, the tables were turned on his character in an episode of Jonathan Creek as he portrayed devious Swiss murder victim Andre Masson in the spooky 1999 episode The Eyes of Tiresias alongside Alan Davies’ titular character.

He also made a cameo in Heartbeat and played a judge in three episodes of the now defunct The Bill in 2003, plus a year later continued his crime starring spree by portraying Dr. James Lavery in Midsomer Murders.

His appearance in The Bill stood him in good stead for a future role as in 2004 Terrence once again played a judge, Garrett Warburton-James, in British legal drama The Courtroom, in which he appeared alongside the likes of former Emmerdale and Bad Girls star Claire King.

And he’s also played barristers in TV series Crown Court and The Brittas Empire.

The actor’s most recent TV work was, once again, crime related as he appeared in two episodes of Wallander - which stars Kenneth Branagh as the titular police inspector - earlier this year.

Copyright [CITV]

Aside from medical and crime dramas, Terrence’s successful role in The Demon Headmaster hasn’t been his only taste of children’s TV.

Cast your minds back to 1998 and you may recall the actor starred in five episodes of The Worst Witch.

Terrence portrayed Grand Wizard Egbert Hellibore, yet another authority figure, in the CITV show during the first and third series, while Richard Durden replaced him in the role for series two.

The character was head of Camelot College for Wizards, a rival school to Mildred’s Cackles Academy for Witches, and was nicknamed “Helli-boring” by the majority of Cackles’ pupils and teachers as a result of his constant droning and payback for his opinion that wizards are superior to witches.

The series starred a young Felicity Jones - who has since made a name for herself in movies such as Legend - as main character Mildred Hubble’s (Georgina Sherrington) arch-rival Ethel Hallow, and Jessica Fox - Hollyoak’s Nancy - as Mildred’s BFF Enid Nightshade.

But that’s not the only Worst show he’s starred in. Terrence also made four appearances in the second series of British sitcom The Worst Week of My Life in 2005, in which he played Gerard, the homosexual lover of Ronald Pickup’s character Fraser Cook.

Copyright [Middle Ground Theatre Company]

From Screen To Stage

Just last year, Terrence put his spooky Demon Headmaster experience to good use once again when he starred in terrifying theatre production Classic Ghosts at several locations across the UK on a Middle Ground Theatre Company tour.

He appeared alongside Jack Shepherd - best known for playing the titular role in detective drama Wycliffe during the years Terrence was scaring the life out of youngsters in The Demon Headmaster and former Coronation Street actor Dicken Ashworth.

The production was made up of two plays, The Signalman, and Oh, Whistle, And I’ll Come to You, My Lad, with one shown before the interval and one afterwards, and Terrence played a traveller in the former and Colonel Wilson, a golfing companion, in the latter.

While Terrence thoroughly enjoyed starring in the two productions, he admitted at the time that the tour was mentally tiring.

Speaking to website Theatre South East in February 2015, he said: “I am resting now because we performed twice yesterday and it is surprising how tiring the shows are. A lot of people seem to think it is just standing on stage and chatting away and that it is not hard work.

"However, the ordeal is very tiring, not so much physically but mentally so, due to you using so much concentration.”

As well as his work on the stage and small screen, Terrence has made a brief appearance on the big screen as an art gallery visitor in the Timothy Spall-led Mr. Turner in 2014, and once portrayed Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald in the Richard Attenborough-directed film Gandhi in 1982.

Doing Good

While Terrence is known for his dominating roles on TV, including his most famous alter-ego’s hypnotic presence, he is very much a gentle giant off screen.

In July 2013, the star was presented with the Silver Centurion Award by Gillian Cross - author of The Demon Headmaster books - for his charity work.

As well as spending his time taking on various TV roles, Terrence has volunteered for more than 4,500 hours to record 150 audio books for those who are unable to read print.

Part of his work is in the Calibre Audio Library, which provides 18,000 audio books for people with sight problems, dyslexia or disabilities that prevent them from reading.

Copyright [BBC]

Still Scary

Terrence is clearly nowhere near as frightening as his Demon Headmaster alter-ego in real life, but there are some who simply cannot forget that terrifying TV teacher.

In May 2014, Game of Thrones star Joe Dempsie admitted he still felt fear when he spotted Terrence walking along a London street.

When asked his favourite childhood TV, he told the Observer: “I was walking through Soho a few months ago and I saw the Demon Headmaster. I still felt scared of him.”

But Joe is not alone. Just last year, one theatre goer took to Twitter to admit they were petrified about seeing Terrence again as Classic Ghosts turned up in Derby.

They wrote: “I don’t know whether to be excited/scared that Terrence Hardiman is at @DerbyTheatre ! He still manages to scare me in The Demon Headmaster! (sic)”

What’s more, Terrence himself still gets told he used to frighten the living daylights out of people during his Demon Headmaster days, but he seems secretly proud of that now.

Speaking to Digital Spy in 2010, he said: “People stop me and say, 'When I was a little boy, I was terrified of you’. But it went well and I look back on it with a certain nostalgia now.”

While the star has admitted it is great to still be in demand for TV roles, he is also enjoying his down time in later life.

Speaking to website Theatre South East last year, he said: “I have been lucky and achieved a lot in my career but then so have a lot of actors when they get to my age. I am of an age now where I think that anything that comes after this is a bonus.

"It is nice to be asked but also I would be perfectly happy to sit back now and not do anything else. At least I think that is the case - we’ll see.”