Martin JarvisOBE (born 4 August 1941) is an English actor.[1] Described by the BBC as "one of Britain's most distinguished and versatile actors",[2] he has had a varied career in theatre, film and television, and is particularly noted for radio acting and voicing audiobooks.
Jarvis has had a long association with the BBC, particularly BBC Radio 4. In the 1980s Michael Frayn's columns for The Guardian and The Observer, described by some as models of the comic essay, were adapted and performed in many voices for BBC Radio 4 by Jarvis. He read a four part adaptation of John Gordon's The Giant Under the Snow in 1981.[5] He performs regularly in radio dramas and readings, both comic and serious. In David Mamet's Mind Your Pantheon he played the actor Strabo. He is known for his long series of readings of Richmal Crompton's Just William stories, which show his characteristic and flexible reading voices. He has also narrated the Billy Bunter series by Frank Richards. As a result of this extensive work, Jarvis has been satirised in the radio show Dead Ringers by Mark Perry, highlighting his seeming ubiquity in Radio 4 programmes.
Jarvis has performed the role of Jeeves in multiple radio dramas based on P. G. Wodehouse's Jeeves stories, including the 1997 L.A. Theatre Works adaptation of The Code of the Woosters,[6] the 2014 BBC radio adaptation of Ring for Jeeves,[7] and the 2018 BBC radio adaptation of Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.[8] He performs live dramatic readings of some of the stories in the intermittent radio series Jeeves Live! (2007–2020).[9]
Jarvis 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.[11]
Jarvis appeared in a 2014 episode of Law & Order: UK as Eddie Stewart, a man arrested and charged with murder.[citation needed] In September 2022, Jarvis appeared alongside his wife in an episode of the BBC soap opera Doctors as John Chilton.[12]
Jarvis married Rosalind Ayres on 23 November 1974 in Ealing; he has two sons by a previous marriage. He met Ayres when they played in Hamlet together; she played Ophelia. Together with his wife, Jarvis runs the radio production company "Jarvis & Ayres Productions",[10] frequently used by BBC Radio 4.