Martin Jarvis (actor) - Television Work

Television Work

Jarvis's first television appearance was in 1965 in the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, as Hilio, captain of the butterfly-like Menoptra, in "The Web Planet". He became a familiar face on television when he played Jon in the BBC's landmark 1967 adaptation of The Forsyte Saga, the lead in a BBC serialisation of Nicholas Nickleby (1968), Uriah Heep in the 1974 BBC version of David Copperfield and the male lead in the sitcom Rings On Their Fingers (1978–80) with Diane Keen. In 1993 he starred with Ewan McGregor and Rachel Weisz in the BBC adaptation of Scarlet and Black. He also appeared in the 2002 BBC children's miniseries Bootleg.

Jarvis has made several guest appearances in Doctor Who, including the serial "Vengeance on Varos" in 1985 as the beleaguered governor of the planet Varos. He has also appeared in "Jubilee", a Doctor Who spin off audio drama by Big Finish Productions alongside his wife.

His appearances on American television include such series as Murder, She Wrote, Walker, Texas Ranger, and, more recently, Stargate Atlantis and Numb3rs.

Jarvis has also voiced various characters in animated series such as Billy and Mandy (where he voiced Nergal, replacing David Warner) and The Life and Times of Juniper Lee. An interesting note is that in the former's case, he inherits the role of the character Nergal from his Titanic co-star David Warner. In 2000 he voiced "John Dread" in the TV series Max Steel. He has also voiced all the characters in the children's stop-motion animated series Huxley Pig and narrated an episode of Shakespeare: The Animated Tales.

Jarvis was the subject of BBC television's This Is Your Life in 1999.

Martin appeared in ITV 1's The Bill in July 2008. In March 2010 it was announced that he would appear in the BBC soap opera EastEnders playing journalist Harvey Freeman.