Danny John-Jules makes Cat’s vanity funny through movement and timing, giving Red Dwarf a welcome change of pace. We rate him as an ensemble actor whose flamboyance leaves space for the company around him.
Fi1m perspective
Cat preens and Danny John-Jules gives the vanity a dancer’s precision. In Red Dwarf (1988), elaborate clothes and dance-inflected movement give him a comic rhythm quite separate from the central pairing of Craig Charles and Chris Barrie. We laughed at the preening because John-Jules makes such extravagant self-regard seem perfectly natural to the character. His interruptions are welcome, and he does not need to make Cat any less ridiculous to earn them.
That is a useful skill in a programme built around people bickering. John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn, as Kryten, provide changes of pace that stop the Charles–Barrie exchanges becoming exhausting. The series is uneven, and affection for its cast does not oblige us to pretend otherwise. But the occasional moves towards drama work because these characters have become good company, and John-Jules deserves a share of the credit for that.
His early screen work made direct use of his musical experience: he played a doo-wop street singer in Little Shop of Horrors (1986). Cat became his best-known part, and Barrington in Maid Marian and Her Merry Men (1989–1994) continued the broad comedy. Dwayne Myers in Death in Paradise (2011) belongs to the more grounded side of his work, a useful contrast to the elaborate display of Cat. These are reasons to resist treating John-Jules as though he and his most familiar character were the same person.
We would not make versatility the main reason to watch him, however. What works so well in Red Dwarf is the judgement behind the physical comedy: John-Jules supplies a different sort of foolishness without pulling us away from the group. His contribution matters even when Charles and Barrie are doing most of the quarrelling, because their exchanges would grow tiresome without those pauses. For a first encounter, choose Red Dwarf for the ensemble rather than expecting Cat to carry the evening alone.
Biography
Danny John-Jules is a British actor, singer and dancer. Born in Paddington, London, he began his career as a dancer in West End productions and with the group Second Generation before moving into television and film.
He is best known for playing the Cat in the science-fiction comedy series Red Dwarf (1988–2020), appearing in every episode to date alongside the core cast. Other prominent television roles include Barrington in Maid Marian and Her Merry Men (1989–1994), Lenny Bicknall in M.I. High (2007–2008) and Officer Dwayne Myers in Death in Paradise (2011–2018, with later guest appearances).
His film credits include Scum (1979), Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998) and Blade II (2002). He has also performed in stage musicals such as the original London production of Starlight Express.
