Peter Jukes

Last updated

Peter Jukes
Born (1960-10-13) 13 October 1960 (age 63)
Swindon, Wiltshire, England
NationalityBritish
Education Queens' College, Cambridge
Alma mater Aylesbury Grammar School
OccupationWriter
Years active1980s–present
Known forAuthor, screenwriter, playwright, literary critic, blogger
Website www.peterjukes.com

Peter Jukes (born 13 October 1960) is an English author, screenwriter, playwright, literary critic and journalist. He is the co-founder and executive editor of Byline Times . [1] [2]

Contents

Early life

Jukes was born in Swindon, Wiltshire, England, and attended Queens' College, Cambridge. His mother was an Armenian and the daughter of a man fleeing the Armenian genocide; she was later adopted by his grandfather. [3]

Television

Jukes' television writing has mainly been in the genre of prime time thrillers or TV detective fiction, with 90-minute or two-hour long stories being broadcast by the BBC.

Jukes devised and wrote most of the three seasons of the BBC One prime time undercover thriller In Deep starring Nick Berry and Stephen Tompkinson; [4] [5] two 90-minute film length episodes of the BBC One series The Inspector Lynley Mysteries ;. [6] [7] Burn Out, the two-hour first episode of the first season of the Emmy Award winning cold case series Waking the Dead ; [8] achieved 8.4m viewers and a 38% share. [9] He and Ed Whitmore wrote the second series of the paranormal/science thriller Sea of Souls [10] which won the 2005 BAFTA Scotland Award [11] for Best Drama. Jukes' opening episode of the third season of Holby City [12] was described by The Guardian as the "televisual equivalent of Crack Cocaine." [13]

In October 2009, Jukes wrote a critical piece for Prospect magazine, contrasting the standards of UK television drama negatively with the standard of television dramas in America. [14] In the essay Why Can't Britain Do the Wire he argued that high-quality drama in the UK had suffered from a concentration of commissioning power, the dominance of soaps (such as the twelfth series of Holby City ), and the lack of show runners or writer producers that characterise US TV drama production. [15]

Radio

His radio credits include the original BBC Radio Soul Motel (2008) [16] (a drama taking place entirely in social networking space similar to Bebo or Facebook) and, with the comedian and actor Lenny Henry, the plays Bad Faith and Slavery: The Making of. [17] The latter formed part of the BBC's 2007 programming series to commemorate 200 years since Britain abolished the slave trade, "managed to extract maximum humour from the grimmest of subject matters", [18] by using the form of a semi-comic mockumentary. As The Spectator magazine explained: "Greg Wise plays the harassed producer trying to put together a drama for which Lenny Henry has provided sheafs of research printouts from the internet – but no script... 'Whose story is this?' demands Adrian Lester in an angry exchange with Brian Blessed. Were they in character? Or were they arguing for real?" [19]

In 2008, Henry starred in another "dark comedy" by Jukes [20] called Bad Faith: "Imagine the movie Bad Lieutenant transplanted to Birmingham, with Harvey Keitel's morally bankrupt copper replaced by Lenny Henry as a police chaplain who has lost his faith, and you have Peter Jukes's black comedy". [21] Paul Donovan of The Sunday Times called Bad Faith "the best radio drama I have heard in ages, and clearly destined to become a series". [22] In February 2010, three further episodes were broadcast on BBC Radio 4. [23] to more positive reviews: "The scripts are strong, taut, bang up-to-the-minute, salted with ironic humour. (Lenny Henry's) performance is brilliant" according to Gillian Reynolds in The Daily Telegraph , [24] and according to The Stage :

"Jukes' writing is terrific – funny, deep, unafraid to move from the mundane to the reflective. Jake, his semi-heretical minister, is the most original creation of his kind that I can recall and Henry was born to play him.". [25]

Non-fiction

Jukes's book A Shout in the Street was published by Faber and Faber in the UK in 1990, and by Farrar, Straus and Giroux and the University of California Press in the US. [26] This "unusual but addictive book" (according to The Washington Post [27] ) is a series of essays and montages about modernity and city life, centred on London, Paris, Saint Petersburg and New York City. The Journal of Sociology compared the book favourably to the work of Jane Jacobs: "He is less shrill than Jacobs, more confident in his materials, and yet more sensitive and critical." [28] But it was the format of the book ("a courteously lucid deconstructionist text, which is part documentary lecture, part collage of quotations and photographs" according to The New Yorker [29] ) which was commended by John Berger a "dream of a book" following the traditions of Walter Benjamin:

Benjamin dreamed of making a book entirely of quotations, and there have been some remarkable books which are creative responses to that idea, like Peter Jukes's A Shout in the Street. [30]

Following through in these themes of urbanism and city development, Jukes also co-authored, along with Anna Whyatt, Stephen O'Brien and the sociologist Manuel Castells, the monograph Creative Capital: 21st Century Regions. [31]

Jukes is the author of The Fall of the House of Murdoch, published by Unbound, a crowd-funded publisher, in August 2012. [32]

Since 2016, Jukes collaborates with Deeivya Meir on the podcast series Untold - The Daniel Morgan Murder. [33] He also co-hosted the podcast Dial M for Mueller with journalist Carole Cadwalladr. [34]

Theatre

Jukes's early theatre work debuted at Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre: Abel Barebone and the Humble Company (1987) and Shadowing the Conqueror (1988). [35] Shadowing the Conqueror, which transferred to Washington, D.C., was described in The Washington Post as "a depiction of the travels of Alexander the Great (Grimmette) and a contemporary photographer named Mary Ellis (Laura Giannarelli) – based very loosely on the relationship between Alexander and Pyrrho of Elis, a painter who accompanied the warrior on his expedition to the Orient – is most of all a lofty debate between two intensely committed, opposing forces." [36] Jukes wrote the book of the London stage musical Matador , [37] with lyrics by Edward Seago and music by Mike Leander, starring John Barrowman and Stefanie Powers, which premiered at the Queen's Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue in April 1991.

Journalism and politics

Jukes has been a book reviewer [38] and feature writer [39] for both The Independent and the New Statesman [40] on themes including nationalism, art in the computer age, [41] and apocalyptic religion. [42] [43]

During the 1980s and 90s, Jukes was an active member of the Labour Party and was involved in the investigations around the cash for questions scandal. [44] Jukes became an active Barack Obama supporter during the 2008 Democratic Party presidential primaries in the US, writing for Daily Kos and then MyDD when it became a pro-Hillary Clinton site. Later, he recorded his online experiences of the Primary 'Flame Wars' for Prospect . [45] Following the primaries, he was one of 25 regular bloggers who began writing for a new political blog, The Motley Moose. [46] [47]

During the News International phone hacking scandal trial of Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and others, Jukes used the crowdfunding tool Indiegogo to raise donations to allow him to livetweet the trial from start to finish. [48] In May 2016, Jukes presented and co-produced with Deeivya Meier a 20-part podcast about the Murder of Daniel Morgan, Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder, which topped the UK iTunes podcast chart. [49] The following year, Jukes co-wrote a book with Alastair Morgan titled Untold: the Daniel Morgan Murder Exposed, which featured new revelations about the case. [50]

According to Eliott Higgins, founder of the open source investigative site Bellingcat, Jukes came up with the name of the new organisation in 2014, inspired by the medieval folk tale of Belling the Cat. [51]

In 2018, Jukes and Stephen Colegrave founded Byline Times . [52]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lenny Henry</span> British stand-up comedian and actor

Sir Lenworth George Henry is a British actor, comedian, singer, television presenter and writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Davison</span> English actor

Peter Malcolm Gordon Moffett, known professionally as Peter Davison, is an English actor with many credits in television dramas and sitcoms. He made his television acting debut in 1975 and became famous in 1978 as Tristan Farnon in the BBC's television adaptation of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small stories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dawn French</span> British actress, comedian and writer (born 1957)

Dawn Roma French is a British actress, comedian, and writer. She is known for writing and starring on the BBC sketch comedy series French and Saunders (1987–2007) with her best friend and comedy partner Jennifer Saunders, and playing the lead role of Geraldine Granger in the BBC sitcom The Vicar of Dibley (1994–2020). French has been nominated for seven BAFTA TV Awards and won a BAFTA Fellowship with Saunders in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alan Davies</span> English comedian, presenter and actor

Alan Roger Davies is an English stand-up comedian, writer, actor and TV presenter. He is best known for his portrayal of the title role in the BBC mystery drama series Jonathan Creek (1997–2016) and as the only permanent panellist on the BBC panel show QI since its premiere in 2003, outlasting its original host Stephen Fry.

Katherine Lucy Bridget Burke is an English actress. She appeared in sketch shows such as French and Saunders (1988–1999), played a recurring role as Magda on the BBC sitcom Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012), and performed frequent collaborations with fellow comedian Harry Enfield. From 1999 to 2001, she starred as Linda La Hughes on the BBC sitcom Gimme Gimme Gimme, for which she received a British Comedy Award and two BAFTA nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Allam</span> British actor

Roger William Allam is a British actor, who has performed on stage, in film, on television and radio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Merchant</span> English comedian, actor, director and writer (born 1974)

Stephen James Merchant is an English comedian, actor, director, and writer. Merchant was the co-writer and co-director of the British TV comedy series The Office (2001–2003), and co-writer, co-director, and co-star of both Extras (2005–2007) and Life's Too Short (2011–2013) alongside Ricky Gervais. With Gervais and Karl Pilkington, he hosted The Ricky Gervais Show in its radio, podcast, audiobook, and television formats; the radio version won a bronze Sony Award. He also provided the voice of the robotic "Intelligence Dampening Sphere" Wheatley in the 2011 video game Portal 2. Merchant co-developed the Sky One travel documentary series An Idiot Abroad (2010–2012) and co-created Lip Sync Battle (2015–present).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracy-Ann Oberman</span> English actress, playwright, writer and narrator (born 1966)

Tracy-Ann Oberman is an English actress, playwright and narrator. She is known for roles including Chrissie Watts in the BBC soap opera EastEnders (2004–2005) and Valerie Lewis or "Auntie Val" in the Channel 4 sitcom Friday Night Dinner (2011–2020).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Tennant</span> Scottish actor (born 1971)

David John Tennant is a Scottish actor. He is best known for portraying the tenth incarnation of the Doctor in the sci-fi series Doctor Who. He returned to the show as the fourteenth incarnation of the character from 2022 to 2023. His other notable screen roles include DI Alec Hardy in the crime drama series Broadchurch (2013–2017) and its 2014 remake, Kilgrave in the superhero series Jessica Jones (2015–2019), Crowley in the fantasy series Good Omens (2019–present) and various fictionalised versions of himself in the comedy series Staged (2020–2022).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruth Jones</span> Welsh actress, producer and writer

Ruth Alexandra Elisabeth Jones is a Welsh actress, comedian, writer, and producer. She co-wrote and co-starred in the award-winning BBC sitcom Gavin & Stacey. She later co-wrote and starred in the Sky One comedy-drama Stella (2012-2017), for which she was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Female Comedy Performance and won the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Screenwriter.

Philip Jackson is an English actor. He appeared as Chief Inspector Japp in both the television series Agatha Christie's Poirot and in BBC Radio dramatisations of Poirot stories; as Melvin "Dylan" Bottomley in Porridge; and as Abbot Hugo, one of the recurring adversaries in the 1980s series Robin of Sherwood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stephen Mangan</span> English film and stage actor (born 1968)

Stephen James Mangan is an English actor, comedian, presenter and writer. He has played Guy Secretan in Green Wing, Dan Moody in I'm Alan Partridge, Seán Lincoln in Episodes, Bigwig in Watership Down, Postman Pat in Postman Pat: The Movie, Richard Pitt in Hang Ups, Andrew in Bliss (2018), and Nathan Stern in The Split (2018–2022).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doc Brown (rapper)</span> English actor, comedian, rapper, screenwriter (born 1977)

Benjamin Harvey Bailey Smith, also known by the stage name Doc Brown, is an English actor, comedian, rapper, screenwriter, songwriter, and voiceover artist. He portrayed DS Joe Hawkins in the television series Law & Order: UK. He is also known for portraying Nathan Carter in the CBBC television series 4 O'Clock Club from 2012 to 2015, and Imperial Security Bureau agent Lieutenant Supervisor Blevin in Andor.

Robert Daws is an English actor, and crime fiction author. He is best known for his television roles, including Tuppy Glossop in Jeeves and Wooster (1990–93), gruff cricketer Roger Dervish in the comedy Outside Edge (1994–96), mini-cab firm owner Sam in the sitcom Roger Roger (1996–2003), and East Yorkshire GP Dr Gordon Ormerod in the period medical drama The Royal (2003–11).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanne Froggatt</span> English actress (born 1980)

Joanne Froggatt is a British actress. From 2010 to 2015, she portrayed Anna Bates in the ITV period drama series Downton Abbey, for which she received three Emmy nominations and won the 2014 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. From 2017 to 2020, she starred as Laura Nielson in the ITV/Sundance drama series Liar.

Shaun Patrick McKenna is an English dramatist, lyricist and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Morgan</span> Northern Irish actor (born 1986)

Colin Morgan is an Irish actor. He is known for playing the title character in the BBC fantasy series Merlin (2008–2012), Leo Elster in Humans (2015–2018), and Billy Clanton in Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast (2021).

The twelfth series of the British medical drama television series Holby City commenced airing in the United Kingdom on BBC One on 20 October 2009. The series deals with the repercussions of the death of ward sister Faye Byrne's son Archie, including the resignation of consultant Connie Beauchamp and the return of former registrar Thandie Abebe-Griffin. It also focuses on staff members' romantic and family lives. F1 Oliver Valentine becomes romantically involved with registrar Jac Naylor and ward sister Daisha Anderson, and his sister Penny embarks on a secret romance with a heart transplant patient. Consultant Linden Cullen is reunited with his estranged daughter Holly, nurse Donna Jackson decides to adopt her half-niece Mia, sister Chrissie Williams gives birth to a son, Daniel, and Faye becomes pregnant by her estranged husband Joseph. The series includes a crossover episode with sister show Casualty and it also has the highest number of episodes to date, as the series contains a small number of episodes which air during the same week.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Daniel Morgan</span> 1987 unsolved murder in London

Daniel John Morgan was a British private investigator who was murdered with an axe in a pub car park in Sydenham, London, in 1987. Despite several Metropolitan Police investigations, arrests, and trial, the crime remains unsolved. An independent review into the handling of the investigation of Morgan's killing was published in 2021; it found that the Met Police had "a form of institutional corruption" which had concealed or denied failings in the case.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Suzannah Lipscomb</span> British historian and television presenter

Suzannah Rebecca Gabriella Lipscomb is a British historian and professor emerita at the University of Roehampton, a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Higher Education Academy and the Society of Antiquaries, and has for many years contributed a regular column to History Today. She has written and edited a number of books, presented numerous historical documentaries on TV and is host of the Not Just the Tudors podcast from History Hit. She is also a royal historian for NBC.

References

  1. ↑ Mortimer, Josiah (23 September 2020). "Interview: 'Fearless' rival launched to counter Murdoch-backed TV station". Left Foot Forward. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  2. ↑ Hatfield, Stefano (4 April 2021). "The lack of coverage of the Jennifer Arcuri scandal has ended my lifelong loyalty to the BBC". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  3. ↑ Jukes, Peter (20 November 2018). "My mum *jumped the queue* when, as the child of a man fleeing from the Armenian genocide, my granddad adopted her. Oh, and he gave refuge to a *queue-jumping* Jewish woman fleeing the Nazis. Long live decent British queue-jumping - the one that gave us a global reputationpic.twitter.com/1kKKKrlUSX".
  4. ↑ "Tompkinson goes In Deep". 18 February 2001 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  5. ↑ In Immersion | French Version of in Deep
  6. ↑ "Series 5". www.bbc.co.uk.
  7. ↑ "BBC - Drama - Inspector Lynley Mysteries Episode Guide Series 4". www.bbc.co.uk.
  8. ↑ "BBC Web site". Archived from the original on 19 September 2009.
  9. ↑ Digital Spy author (22 June 2001) Feltz return grabs 4m , Digital Spy, retrieved 6 January 2007
  10. ↑ "BBC - Press Office - Sea Of Souls credits". www.bbc.co.uk.
  11. ↑ Scottish Bafta Awards
  12. ↑ "Official Holby City Web Site". Archived from the original on 28 July 2012.
  13. ↑ Smith, Rupert (6 October 2000). "Life in the fast lane". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  14. ↑ Lusher, Tim (29 October 2009). "They get The Wire, we get Casualty". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 30 January 2010.
  15. ↑ Jukes, Peter (21 October 2009). "Why Britain can't do The Wire". Prospect . Retrieved 30 January 2010.
  16. ↑ "BBC synopsis for Soul Motel". Archived from the original on 7 July 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
  17. ↑ "BBC Radio 4 programmes".
  18. ↑ Cowen, Ruth (25 March 2007). "Bickering actors bring humour to a serious subject". Sunday Express.
  19. ↑ Chisholm, Kate (31 March 2007). "Behind the scenes". The Spectator . Archived from the original on 27 January 2020. Retrieved 20 March 2009.
  20. ↑ Davies, Patricia Wynn (8 August 2008). "Wednesday's TV & radio choices". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
  21. ↑ Campling, Chris (30 July 2008). "Radio Choice". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  22. ↑ Donovan, Paul (27 July 2008). "Programme of the Week". The Sunday Times . Retrieved 20 March 2009.
  23. ↑ "TV listings guide". Radio Times. 25 May 2023.
  24. ↑ Reynolds, Gillian (23 February 2010). "Radio Choice". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved 25 March 2010.
  25. ↑ Moira, Petty (22 February 2010). "Radio review – Drama". The Stage . Archived from the original on 11 June 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2010.
  26. ↑ Peter Jukes (1990). A Shout in the Street: An Excursion into the Modern City . University of California Press. ISBN   0-374-26339-6.
  27. ↑ "Hardcovers in Brief". The Washington Post Archive. 26 August 1990. Archived from the original on 19 October 2012. Retrieved 21 March 2009.
  28. ↑ Troy, P. (1991). "Book Reviews : A SHOUT IN THE STREET: THE MODERN CITY. Peter Jukes. London, Faber and Faber, 1990. xviii + 258pp. $45.00 (hardback)". Journal of Sociology. Excerpt, Sage Journals Online. 27 (2): 254–255. doi:10.1177/144078339102700214. S2CID   144299234. Archived from the original on 19 January 2016.
  29. ↑ "A Shout in the Street – An Excursion into the Modern City". The New Yorker. 27 August 1990.
  30. ↑ Jackson, Kevin (23 July 1992). "Anxieties of influence: Melancholic or Marxist? 100 years after his birth, Walter Benjamin is still causing arguments" . The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2010.
  31. ↑ Castells, Manuel; O'Brien, Stephen (1999), "Creative Capital", 21st Century Era, ISBN   9780953404704 , retrieved 20 March 2009
  32. ↑ "The Fall of the House of Murdoch" – via unbound.com.
  33. ↑ Deeivya Meir, Peter Jukes: Podcast "Untold - The Daniel Morgan Murder", episode "Serpico Haslam", 7th of July 2016, 31 min, from minute 1:45. And episode "Too Close for Comfort - New Evidence Connecting Daniel Morgan to another Violent Death", 9th of Oct. 2018, 24 min
  34. ↑ "Dial M for Mueller: Why Brexit Needs an FBI Style Inquiry - with Carole Cadwalladr and Peter Jukes on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. 7 March 2019. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  35. ↑ "Peter Jukes". Doollee.com – The Playwright's Database. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
  36. ↑ Sommers, Pamela (1 December 1990). "Stage Guild's Trio on Trust". Washington Post Archives. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2009.
  37. ↑ "Matador". Doollee.com – The Playwright's database. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016.
  38. ↑ Peter Jukes (February 1999). "Books: Please be my Virtual Valentine..." . The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
  39. ↑ Peter Jukes (April 1993). "The last of England: As Shakespeare's 429th birthday nears, the Channel tunnellers are burrowing under one of his monuments on the White Cliffs of Dover, symbolic fortress of nationhood" . The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  40. ↑ Jukes, Peter (10 November 1995). "Get a (digital) life". review of MICROSERFS. New Statesman. Archived from the original on 26 October 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
  41. ↑ Peter Jukes (June 1992). "The Work of Art in the Digital Domain" (PDF). New Statesman. Retrieved 18 March 2009.[ permanent dead link ]
  42. ↑ Peter Jukes (May 1998). "Books: The apocalypse, now and then". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
  43. ↑ Peter Jukes (April 2005). "Die Apokalypse in uns. Die Moderne und der monotheistische Fundamentalismus". Internationale Politik . Retrieved 17 March 2009.[ dead link ]
  44. ↑ "Select Committee on Standards and Privileges". Hansard Appendix 4, Section 12. 27 April 1995. Retrieved 21 March 2009.
  45. ↑ "Peter Jukes: "Flaming for Obama"". MYDD . 26 September 2008. Archived from the original on 9 November 2008. Retrieved 18 March 2009.
  46. ↑ Jukes, Peter (October 2008). "Flaming for Obama". Prospect . Archived from the original on 23 February 2009. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
  47. ↑ "Special Relationship". The Motley Moose. February 2009. Archived from the original on 14 January 2010. Retrieved 20 March 2009.
  48. ↑ "Live Tweeting the Hacking Trial till the Verdict". Indiegogo.
  49. ↑ "Untold: The Daniel Morgan Murder: 'British Serial' tops iTunes podcast chart with over 200,000 downloads". The Independent. 19 June 2016.
  50. ↑ Keenan, John (15 May 2017). "Untold podcast – the book: new details revealed about Daniel Morgan murder". The Guardian . Retrieved 17 May 2021.
  51. ↑ "Eliot Higgins: the man who verifies". Prospect Magazine. 4 December 2023.
  52. ↑ "Articles by Peter Jukes | Byline Times Journalist | Muck Rack". muckrack.com. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.