Chris Jarvis
Chris Jarvis has worked in children’s television since 1993, performing in shows for all ages: the teen magazine ‘Fully Booked’, the live sketch and gameshow ‘The Friday Zone’ for primary children, and ‘Playdays’ for pre-schoolers.Apart from a brief sojourn at ITV to host ‘Jungle Run’ and ‘Maths Mansion’ for Channel 4, Chris has remained with the BBC. In 2002 he helped launch CBeebies as part of the on-air presentation team before co-hosting seven series of ‘Show Me Show Me’ with Pui Fan Lee as well as ‘Stargazing,’ ‘Step Inside’ and the ‘CBeebies Presents’ productions.
Chris has written and co-devised programmes including the BAFTA winning ‘Old Jack’s Boat’ starring the late, great Bernard Cribbins inspired by a song penned by his dad!
Behind the microphone, Chris has voiced several characters for ‘Dream Street’ and other animations and radio programmes. He wrote and voiced two series of ‘CBeebies Magic Den’ for BBC Sounds.
Since the mid 90s, he has written, directed and appeared in some of the big BBC Children’s Christmas spectaculars including ‘Strictly Cinderella,’ ‘Jack and the Beanstalk,’ and ‘Dick Whittington.’ Every year Chris writes, directs and performs in a theatre pantomime too, he’s the resident dame at Lighthouse Poole in Dorset.
Having been a patron of the Foundation for several years, Chris became a Lifetime Patron in July 2023.