Dan Peggotty Alun Armstrong Peggotty's brother is a happy, generous man who warmly welcomes David into his eccentric little family's home in a boat on Yarmouth Sands. When tragedy strikes, Dan meets it with a dignity that teaches the adult David much about life's most important values. For distinguished actor Alun Armstrong, it was a choice between playing out a favorite childhood memory of a kind old Norfolk fisherman called Dan Peggotty who lived in a houseboat or accepting a role in the next Clint Eastwood movie. Armstrong, a self-professed Dickens enthusiast, explains: "We did David Copperfield in school. We read it around the class, everyone taking a paragraph. Whenever I think of Dickens, the thing I remember most is the boat on the beach. I wanted to do this part and I did in fact turn down Clint to do it. I said to him, 'The thing is, I've got the opportunity of doing a Dickens.' And he said, 'Oh, you must do it.'" Armstrong has been seen recently on Masterpiece Theatre in Aristocrats (in the role of Henry Fox). His wide range of theater work has won him many awards, including a Laurence Olivier award for the title role of Sweeney Todd. His long list of television credits includes the role of Squeers in the Royal Shakespeare Company/Broadway version of Nicholas Nickleby.