Film and television Jones has appeared in more than 60 films since his first acting role in the 1992 film
Orlando. He voiced
Dobby in two
Harry Potter films:
Chamber of Secrets (2002) and
The Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (2010). He played
Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury in the
HBO/
Channel 4 production
Elizabeth I. In 2006, he portrayed
Truman Capote in the biopic
Infamous. He appeared in the
film adaptation of
Stephen King's
The Mist in 2007. In 2008, he portrayed
Karl Rove in
Oliver Stone's
W and Hollywood agent
Swifty Lazar in
Frost/Nixon. He appeared alongside his father in the 2004 film
Ladies in Lavender. Jones appeared in the 2010 episode "
Amy's Choice", of
Doctor Who, as
the Dream Lord, and in the
Big Finish Productions series'
Dark Eyes (audio drama) as Kotris. He also played the role of Samuel Ratchett in
Agatha Christie's Poirot TV Series 12 episode "Murder on the Orient Express". In 2011, he played the role of the British spy master Percy Alleline in the adaptation of
John Le Carré's
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and
Arnim Zola in
Captain America: The First Avenger, a role which he reprised in the sequel
Captain America: The Winter Soldier three years later as well as in a cameo in the TV series
Agent Carter the following year. In 2012, he had a leading role in the
ITV mini-series
Titanic, starred as one of the
seven dwarves in
Snow White and the Huntsman, played Dr. Paul Shackleton in
Red Lights, and Max in
Virginia. He also portrayed film director
Alfred Hitchcock in the
HBO television film
The Girl, a role that earned him his first
Golden Globe Award nomination, as well as his first
Primetime Emmy Award nomination. In 1998, he appeared as a
City businessman in the music video for
Gomez's song "Whippin' Piccadilly", from their album
Bring It On. He played
Neil Baldwin in the BBC drama
Marvellous in 2014. Sam Wollaston, in
The Guardian, praised Jones's "lovely, very human, performance", one that earned him his second
British Academy Television Award nomination. From 2014, he appeared in the
BBC Four television series
Detectorists, for which he received a nomination for the
British Academy Television Award for Best Male Comedy Performance in 2016 before winning the award in 2018. In 2015, Jones played the part of Roger Yount, a banker, in the three-part BBC series
Capital based on John Lanchester's
novel of the same name. Discussing working with Jones on
Capital, writer
Peter Bowker said, "I think Toby is a genius and thought that long before I worked with him. He always wants to know a character's needs, and what's beneath those needs. Then he takes all that material and somehow embeds it into the character and physically inhabits the character, so that you never think he's playing the character. It's fascinating to watch him close up. He carries the emotional complexities in every tiny gesture that his character makes so that you immediately can see what his character is like. A character like Roger is full of contradictions, a city banker with an air of entitlement but also a little insecurity picking away at him. Toby can portray that in his walk alone. That's what's great about him, he can portray cold he can portray warm and he can portray both of those things at once." He played
Captain Mainwaring in the film ''
Dad's Army'', released in February 2016. In July, of the same year he starred as the eponymous agent Verloc in the BBC's
The Secret Agent, a three-part television adaptation of
Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel. In 2017, he portrayed
Culverton Smith in "
The Lying Detective", an episode of the
BBC crime drama Sherlock. In 2018, he played the dinosaur auctioneer Mr. Eversoll in
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, the fifth instalment of the
Jurassic Park series. In the same year, Jones voiced
Owl in Disney's live-action
Christopher Robin. Jones co-wrote with
Tim Crouch the comedy series ''
Don't Forget the Driver'', released on BBC 2 in 2019, and in which he appeared as Peter Green; it was Jones's first time writing for television. In 2024, Jones played
Alan Bates in the ITV drama
Mr Bates vs The Post Office, a dramatisation of the
British Post Office scandal. He appears as newspaper editor
Alan Rusbridger in ITV television drama series about the
News International phone hacking scandal,
The Hack. In 2025 he also appeared as
Philip Burton in
Mr Burton. a film about the early life of
Richard Burton.
Radio and audiobooks In 2003 Jones played the part of Lord Brideshead in a
BBC Radio adaptation of
Brideshead Revisited. Jones voiced the title character in the 2005
BBC Radio 4 adaptation of
Oblomov. He also read the 2009 Radio 4 adaptation of John Irving's
A Prayer for Owen Meany. He played Inspector Goole in the 2010 BBC Radio adaptation of
An Inspector Calls. Since 2013 Jones has been the voice of the lead character, Joey Oldman in the
BBC Radio 4 series
The Corrupted, an adaptation of the
G. F. Newman novel
Crime and Punishment. On 2 December 2012 he played Napoleon Bonaparte in Anthony Burgess's
Napoleon Rising on Radio 3. In 2013 he played Kotris in the award-winning
Doctor Who audio play,
Dark Eyes, and read an abridged version of "
The Manual of Detection" by
Jedediah Berry for the BBC. In 2020 he portrayed
Falstaff in
BBC Radio 3's
Henry IV, Part 1. In 2021, Jones recorded the audiobook versions of
John Le Carré's final novel
Silverview for Penguin Audio and, for Harper Audio, the seminal dystopian novel
We by
Yevgeny Zamyatin in a translation by Bela Shayevich.
Stage In 2001, he starred in the
London West End comedy
The Play What I Wrote, directed by
Kenneth Branagh. His comic turn as Arthur earned him the
Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, and the play moved to Broadway in 2003. In 2009, he returned to the stage in
Every Good Boy Deserves Favour at the
National Theatre,
Parlour Song at the
Almeida Theatre, and
The First Domino at
Brighton Festival Fringe. In 2011, he played
J. M. W. Turner in
The Painter at the
Arcola Theatre. Jones starred as Stanley in the 2018 revival of
The Birthday Party at The
Harold Pinter Theatre. In 2020, he starred in the title role in the
Conor McPherson adaptation of
Uncle Vanya by
Anton Chekhov, at the
Harold Pinter Theatre. == Personal life ==