His childhood took him to Batu Gajah in Malaya in 1947, Oxford in 1949, back to Bulawayo and then on to Tanganyika and Uganda in the 1950s, his peripatetic early life giving him the foundation for the many voices he uses in his professional work.

[8] From the early 1970s onwards, Pegram frequently featured in character roles within various films and TV programs including Robert's Robots (1973–1974), Larry Grayson (1975), Space: 1999 (1977), Get Some In!

(1977–1978), The Professionals (1980), Fresh Fields (1985), The American Way (1986), Pulaski (1987), Drop the Dead Donkey (1990), Lovejoy (1992), Van der Valk (1992), Outside Edge (1994–1996), Proteus (1995), Melissa (1997), Written in Blood (1998) and Doctors (2003).

[13] He also appeared as a vicar in Curate's Egg,[14] the Duke of Windsor in the 1980 UK tour of Crown Matrimonial,[15] Melvin P. Thorpe in the West End production of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas,[16] and Wilson in The Case of the Dead Flamingo.

[17] More recently he appeared as Adam in Peter Hall's production of As You Like It[18] in 2003, and the American Secretary of State Byrnes in Eden's Empire by James Graham,[19] which was staged at the Finborough Theatre, London in 2006.

In 1968, Pegram married Zanzibar-born ex Royal Ballet principal and actress April Olrich, one of his co-stars in Wait a Minim!, on top of Coit Tower in San Francisco prior to their move to London the following year.