John Challis (born 16 August 1942) is an English actor. He played Aubrey “Boycie” Boyce in the long-running BBC television comedy series Only Fools and Horses, and its spin-off The Green Green Grass.
Career
An only child, Challis was born in Bristol but brought up in South East London. His father James Alec, from Sheffield, was a Civil Servant. Challis attended the state boarding Ottershaw School near Woking, Surrey. Upon leaving school in 1960 at the age of 18, he worked as a trainee estate agent before becoming a professional actor. An early television role, in 1969, was in the controversial gangster drama Big Breadwinner Hog, and between 1971 and 1975 he made regular appearances in Z-Cars as Sergeant Culshaw.
He played Aubrey “Boycie” Boyce for many years in Only Fools and Horses and its spin-off The Green Green Grass. His other television appearances include Dixon of Dock Green, The Sweeney, Doctor Who (The Seeds of Doom), Dracula, Beau Geste, Juliet Bravo, Coronation Street, Bloomers, Citizen Smith, Ever Decreasing Circles, Doctor Snuggles, Chance in a Million, The Bill, One Foot in the Grave, Open All Hours, The New Statesman, Don’t Wait Up, Soldier Soldier, Brass Eye, My Family, In Sickness and in Health and Heartbeat.
The outdoor scenes of The Green Green Grass were filmed at his then home, surrounding fields and local villages. Four series were broadcast by BBC One from 2005–2009. In the 2008 series of Last of the Summer Wine he guest-starred as a fake jewel thief, trying to impress the ladies.
Challis appeared on the Channel 4 mockumentary television programme Brass Eye, where he was tricked into believing Clive Anderson had been shot by Noel Edmonds. On BBC radio, he played an interrogator in the play Rules of Asylum by James Follett, broadcast by BBC Radio 4 in 1973. He also played Dibden Purlew in Getting Nowhere Fast from 2001 to 2004.