[3] He was educated at Bristol Grammar School, and subsequently attended St Catharine's College, Cambridge, where he read English from 1950 to 1953.
It was a time when the Cambridge amateur theatre scene was dominated by Peter Hall, with whom Jenkins shared rooms in college.
Jenkins also directed the first schools' series in the UK, The Ballad Story and the first schools' play, Macbeth (with William Devlin, Mary Morris and Miles Malleson), followed by Dr Faustus (with Paul Rogers, Judi Dench, Patrick Troughton), She Stoops to Conquer (with Paul Daneman, Jane Downs), and Twelfth Night (with John Wood, Laurence Hardy, Emrys James).
[4] In 2004 the company co-produced The Old Masters by Simon Gray (based on a treatment by Jenkins) at The Comedy Theatre, London with Edward Fox, Peter Bowles, and Barbara Jefford.
[6] The play subsequently had its US Premiere at the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut in January 2011 with Sam Waterston and Brian Murray.