, 2006 Jupitus worked in Essex at the
Manpower Services Commission, part of the Department of Employment, for five years, while he also wrote
political poetry and drew cartoons. He resigned from the department in 1984, hoping for a career in the music industry. Using the performing name
Porky the Poet, Jupitus became associated with
Anti-Fascist Action and the
ranting poetry scene, alongside
Seething Wells and
Attila the Stockbroker. Jupitus approached local bands to offer himself as a support act for their tours: "I thought it looked easy, I was very cheap. If you got another band to support you, there are probably four of them and roadies and managers. But me—I just turned up and read poems." His first vinyl recordings were part of the live
Newtown Neurotics album
Kickstarting a Backfiring Nation as Porky the Poet in 1987. Jupitus toured colleges, universities and student unions, supporting bands such as
Billy Bragg,
the Style Council and
The Housemartins. He supported Billy Bragg once more on the
Labour Party-sponsored
Red Wedge tour in 1985: "In the early '80s, I got involved with Red Wedge, in which
Neil Kinnock got various bands to stage concerts for Labour. The reason I got involved was 20% because I believed in the cause, 30% because I loved Billy Bragg, and 50% because I wanted to meet
Paul Weller". After Red Wedge, he found it difficult to get other bookings, due to the decline of political poetry as a mainstream art. He got a job as a runner for the independent record label
Go! Discs, which had signed Billy Bragg and other bands, such as the Housemartins. Bragg said: "We ended up managing to get him a job at Go! Discs, which was brilliant. I was concerned that the cut-throat nature of the record business would make him jaded—underneath that rhino exterior there is quite a sensitive person—but that was before I realised that he was going to come back and do gigs again. Working at Go! Discs got his confidence up." His performances of two of his poems, "Beano" and "Nobby", were included in the 1986 album
Not Just Mandela, alongside tracks by Bragg and Attila the Stockbroker, amongst others. Released on Davy Lamp Records, all proceeds of the record were going to the
Anti-Apartheid Movement. Jupitus became
press officer and
compère for The Housemartins (appearing in the 1986 music video for "
Happy Hour"), using the role to continue being in front of an audience, while also filling support slots for other artists. During this time, he worked as a warm-up act on the
Channel 4 TV show
The Show. He quit working for Go! Discs in 1989 and fell back on his poetry and competing to try to gain a foothold on the
London comedy circuit. He conceived and directed the
Brit Awards-nominated music video for Bragg's "
Sexuality" in 1991 and wrote a parody version of that song about
bestiality. He also appeared alongside
R.E.M. in the music video for Bragg's "You Woke Up My Neighbourhood" and performed in
Searchlight magazine's 2006 "Hope Not Hate" campaign tour with Bragg. He has also appeared numerous times at the
Glastonbury Festival as a DJ and a
compere in
The Left Field tent. Jupitus produced the music video for
Kirsty MacColl's 1991 single "All I Ever Wanted" from the album
Electric Landlady. He appeared at her tribute concert in 2002 as compere, and also sang one of her songs, "
Fifteen Minutes". In 2000, he released the stand-up comedy DVD
Phill Jupitus Live: Quadrophobia. In 2001, he appeared as a sports journalist in the film
Mike Bassett: England Manager. Jupitus made a guest appearance on the
Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band 40th anniversary DVD performing with the band on the tracks "Mr. Apollo" and "Canyons of Your Mind", and has toured with them around the UK. He appears on the Bonzos' 2007 album, ''
Pour l'Amour des Chiens''. Also in 2007, he performed with
The Blockheads on their 30th anniversary tour. He continued to perform with them sporadically since
Ian Dury's death, also appearing in Dury's place for "
Drip Fed Fred" during the
Madness concert at Wembley Arena shortly before Dury's death. Jupitus performed at the
Reading and Leeds Festivals in 2008. On 13–14 February 2009, Jupitus co-hosted the first BadMovieClub on
Twitter. At midnight, over 2,000 Twitter users simultaneously pressed 'Play' on the film
The Happening and continued to tweet whilst watching, creating a collective viewing experience that generated 40,000 tweets in under two hours. The first showing took place at 9:00pm, hosted by
Graham Linehan. Jupitus was awarded an honorary doctorate by the
University of Essex in South Essex College's congregation ceremony in
Southend on 30 September 2010. Jupitus was also awarded an honorary doctorate from the
University of Kent which his daughters had previously attended, in 2017. On 6 October 2010, Jupitus, along with
Emma Kennedy, hosted a special comedy evening at the Canterbury Animation Festival 'Anifest'. Jupitus attended the "I Do To Equal Marriage" event which celebrated the introduction of
same-sex marriage in England and Wales in March 2014.
Radio Jupitus began hosting his own radio show on
BBC GLR in 1995, a regular job that would last until 2000. After that, he embarked on his first stand-up comedy tour of the UK,
Jedi, Steady, Go, performing the
Star Wars story in a comedic fashion. In 2002, Jupitus was a stand-in presenter on
BBC Radio 2 for
Steve Wright while he was away on holiday. Jupitus was the breakfast DJ on
BBC Radio 6 Music from 2002 until 30 March 2007 (the last song played, by listener request, was "Broadway" by
The Clash), and made brief returns to the station during the summer of 2007, sitting in for
Stephen Merchant on Sunday afternoon and
Liz Kershaw on Saturday mornings. In 2010, he publicly criticised the BBC's announcement that it was to discontinue the station, describing the decision as "not only an act of cultural vandalism, it's also an affront to the memory of
John Peel and a slap in the face to thousands of licence-payers." Jupitus has since written a book about his time on 6 Music, entitled
Good Morning Nantwich: Adventures in Breakfast Radio. In February 2010, as part of his research for the book, Jupitus presented the breakfast show for one week on
Bournemouth University student radio station,
Nerve Radio, produced by Mog McIntyre and co-presented by regular student presenters Guy Larsen and Jess Bracey. in 2009 On 9 September 2009, Jupitus narrated a half-hour documentary on
BBC Radio 4 about the comic strip
Calvin and Hobbes created by
Bill Watterson. Jupitus has worked on
Radio 4 as a regular contributor to
Loose Ends,
The News Quiz (where his performances are notable for a range of parody voices), ''
I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and Just a Minute. He also presented Best Sellers
—a series on the life and work of Peter Sellers—and wrote and presented Disneyfied'', a documentary on the work of
Walt Disney. On 7 June 2020 he presented Pick of the Week. Jupitus has also appeared in several episodes of the Radio 4 show
The Unbelievable Truth and is a regular guest with the
Comedy Store Players.
Television Jupitus was one of the panellists on the first TV episode of the show
Loose Talk, which made a brief transition from radio to television in 1994. In 1996, he joined BBC Two's pop quiz show
Never Mind the Buzzcocks as a regular team captain – having appeared in every single episode of the original run, except for series 25, episode 6. He was a frequent guest panellist on
QI from 2003 until 2020, while his daughter, Emily Jupitus, later started working on the show as a researcher (or 'QI Elf'). He had a history of mimicking the
QI host,
Stephen Fry, while on the show. In December 1999, he had the lead role in
Dark Ages, an ITV sitcom parodying preparations (and fears) for the year 2000, set in Essex in the year 999. Jupitus has played Councillor Cowdrey in
CITV children's series
Bottom Knocker Street since its first series in summer 2013. Jupitus has presented several editions of the popular
Top Ten series for Channel 4, while also joining another comedy panel game—''
It's Only TV...but I Like It''—as a team captain, alongside
Jonathan Ross and
Julian Clary. He has made one appearance in an episode of
Holby City as a patient (in "Men are from Mars"). As a voice actor he has provided the voices for
Dandelion in an ITV adaptation of
Watership Down, for the first two series only, and also performing a selection of voices for
Rex the Runt by
Aardman Animations. Jupitus is a continuity announcer for the UKTV channel
Dave during the channel's evening schedule. During 2008, he did the voice over work for the Dave show
Batteries Not Included. He also took part in the Dave show Comedy Exchange, where he went to America, while
Eugene Mirman came to Britain. Here they each performed different routines in various events. He has appeared in
Argumental for the same channel, where team captain
Marcus Brigstocke made him laugh so hard he fell off his chair and took a long time to recover. Jupitus and Brigstocke were reunited on the Radio 4 show (hosted by Brigstocke) ''
I've Never Seen Star Wars'', in which Jupitus tried out things that he'd never attempted before, such as eating a Findus Crispy Pancake, undergoing a
colonic irrigation, and shaving another person's head. During the 2008
Major League Baseball season, Jupitus presented a feature during the seventh inning stretch of Channel Five's featured Sunday night game. Each week he would read a section or quote from one of his favourite baseball-related books. He is a fan of the
Boston Red Sox and has their logo tattooed on his arm. In December 2008, Jupitus took part as a guest presenter on
RTÉ's comical topical discussion show
The Panel.
Theatre Jupitus co-wrote and starred in the play
Waiting for Alice with
Andre Vincent which had a run at the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The premiere took place on 16 July 2007 at the St. Ives Theatre in
St Ives, Cornwall. Jupitus and Marcus Brigstocke appeared together in the UK tour of
Totally Looped, performing at the
Theatre Royal, Brighton, the
Kings Theatre, Southsea and the
Victoria Hall, Stoke-on-Trent in spring 2009. In October 2009, Jupitus joined the
West End theatre cast of
Hairspray, playing the role of Edna Turnblad at the
Shaftesbury Theatre. He joined the 2011 tour of
Spamalot, playing the role of
King Arthur. On 16 January 2015, Jupitus was confirmed as starring opposite
Jason Manford in the 2015 tour of
Mel Brooks' musical
The Producers, portraying Franz Liebkind. He has since appeared in
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang also alongside Jason Manford on a tour of the UK.
Podcasts From August 2008 Jupitus was the host of
The Times football
podcast "The Game", replacing the previous co-hosts
Gabriele Marcotti and
Guillem Balagué, although Marcotti was still a regular pundit on the show and hosted again on Jupitus' departure. Between September 2008 and June 2011, Jupitus produced a podcast along with Phil Wilding, who produced his BBC 6Music show, called ''Phill and Phil's Perfect Ten''. Initially being released fortnightly, it later became more sporadic due to the pair's work commitments. In April 2009, archive episodes were made available for purchase on Audible and iTunes as audiobook bundles of four with bonus 'perfect ones' attached. Since ending the podcast in June 2011 the pair have indicated that all back-episodes will be released free at some point in the future. In 2018 Jupitus was interviewed by
Jodie Cook for the Clever Tykes podcast: Creating Useful People. The podcast explores the childhood influences that shape future success. In Jupitus' episode he talked about how he developed his ethos for life and work, as well as his mum's dreams for him as a naval merchant.
Art Early in his career Jupitus drew cartoons which appeared in the
NME,
Time Out,
Radio Times and
The Guardian. In 2019 he started studying a degree in fine art at the Duncan of Jordanstone School of Art,
Dundee University. He has also curated collections for the Art UK website. He wrote the foreword for the book
Leigh Art in which he reminisces about childhood visits to
Leigh-on-Sea and his enjoyment for the annual Leigh Art Trail. ==Personal life==