Peter Llewellyn-Jones, 76, was an interpreter and teacher who helped establish sign language interpreting as a recognized profession in Britain. Throughout his working life, Llewellyn-Jones devoted himself to improving accessibility and opportunity for Deaf people.
Llewellyn-Jones became a pioneer in the teaching of British Sign Language interpreting and linguistics and developed the U.K.’s first undergraduate degree course in the subject for the University of Wolverhampton in 1992. He was also instrumental in developing sign language interpreting for British television and bringing it to the stage. Beginning in the early 1980s, he worked on 600 professional theater productions across the U.K.
One of the earliest to interpret for productions of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), he worked on RSC main house shows and tours from 1991 to 2000, interpreting alongside Vanessa Redgrave, Kenneth Branagh, Jim Broadbent, and Ian McKellen, among others.
Llewellyn-Jones was also an accomplished actor and writer. He co-wrote and co-presented the second series of Insight (1984), a groundbreaking television program for Deaf children, in which he acted and signed. He also played Mr. Grimley in the children’s television series The Riddlers, which ran from 1989 to 1998.
The Guardian (9/15/26)