born in leicester, hurley first became interested in acting at alderman newton's boys' school when he played le beau in "as you like it" before going on to act in youth theatre, school plays and amateur dramatic societies. on leaving school in 1969 he spent ten years working in repertory theatres around the united kingdom when his roles included the title role in "hamlet", nero in "britannicus", gus in "the dumb waiter", tony lumpkin in "she stoops to conquer", (salisbury playhouse), ariel in "the tempest" (gateway theatre, chester), the title role in "henry v", the black prince in "edward iii" (theatr clwyd), pip in "great expectations" (wolsey theatre, ipswich) and dromio of syracuse in "the comedy of errors" (bristol old vic). he also worked with communicado and the custard factory, playing tyresius in "antigone", johnnie in "hello and goodbye", and the farrant twins in "corpse!" for vienna's english theatre. he then studied at the central school of speech and drama, graduating in 1981.