Chris Jury (born 28 September 1956 in Coventry) is an English actor/writer/director with a range of television credits. He is best known for his role as Eric Catchpole in the antique trade drama Lovejoy starring Ian McShane, which he played between 1986 (series 1) and from 1991 (series 2) to 1993 (series 4), with a brief return in 1994 (series 5), for the show's finale.
Jury studied Drama/English at Hull University and began working as an actor in the theatre with such names as Mike Bradwell, Danny Boyle and Anthony Minghella; And with companies as diverse as Hull Truck, The Bush and Stratford East.
Through his own company, Picture That, he produced and directed To Baldly Go, a short romantic comedy which was sold to Channel 4 in the UK, and also secured an international distribution contract, selling to numerous TV stations throughout Europe and the USA. After a brief spell working in drama script development at BBC Pebble Mill, in Birmingham, he made two more short films for Picture That; Poppy's Present, which he produced and directed and Puke Fiction (The Vomit Trilogy), which he wrote and directed.
Puke Fiction, was shown in competition at the Ritzy Cinema in Brixton and won the Electric Pavilion Award, for Best Film, awarded by the Halloween Society. It was also chosen for a screening at the ICA as part of the 'Uncut' season of short films and was also shown in the 'British Shorts' section of the Manchester Film Festival and The Big Fix Festival in Birmingham.
His broadcast directing credits include Grange Hill, Dream Team, Coronation Street, Crossroads, Family Affairs and over 40 episodes of EastEnders. His writing credits include, The Dig, a two act comedy for the Cambridge Theatre Company, Mancini’s Empire, One Inch of Heaven, Roeg’s Rage, Wired, plus numerous episodes of The Bill and The Doctors, Casualty and Holby City. He also appeared as teacher Mr Knowles in Grange Hill. In 2006 he moved into writing feature films including Human Resources.
Chris Jury's other acting roles include Kingpin/Deadbeat in the 1988 Doctor Who story The Greatest Show in the Galaxy. Jury lives in Blockley, Gloucestershire with his wife Stella, Head Teacher of Hook Norton Primary School and two children Maisie and Joseph. He currently teaches in the Performing Arts faculty at Bath Spa University.
Famous quotes containing the words chris and/or jury:
“When I get all these accolades for being true to myself, I say, “Who else can I be? I can’t be Chris Evert.””
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)
“The thing with Catholicism, the same as all religions, is that it teaches what should be, which seems rather incorrect. This is “what should be.” Now, if you’re taught to live up to a “what should be” that never existed—only an occult superstition, no proof of this “should be”Mthen you can sit on a jury and indict easily, you can cast the first stone, you can burn Adolf Eichmann, like that!”
—Lenny Bruce (1925–1966)