I Know That Voice

Marc Silk has too many credits to put in this space, but he has been and continues to be one of the country's most successful and in-demand character voice artists. In our long and wide ranging conversation, we cover his early days as a producer and engineer on local radio in Birmingham, the day he turned down a job on Radio One, his love of all things Hanna-Barbara and Warner Brothers, and he has a lot to say about AI and the future of the Entertainment industry. There are funny voices along the way and a classic triumph over tragedy story to add to the mix.

Prolific and multi-talented comedian, presenter and composer Jake Yapp has been working in the audio industry since he was 19. "The BBC was my University" he says, and was the BBC's youngest producer at 20 years old. In this highly entertaining conversation, he tells me about his career, and has some fantastic insights into the business of writing and performing comedy and music for radio. He owes his later career to his brilliant video 'Radio 4 in four minutes' which caused a bit of a stir at the time. We also have a long and interesting talk about AI and the future of the business. There's also an unexpected Easter Egg, which he did when the internet connection went down. He has his own comedy podcast: Modern Sex With Dora Dale https://shows.acast.com/modern-sex-with-dora-dale

Yes, it's Scoop, Muck, Mr Bentley, Spud, & Travis from Bob the Builder, Kwazi from The Octonauts and James and Percy from Thomas and Friends all rolled into one. In a 30 year career he's voiced hundreds of commercials and animations (he and I were the Koala Brothers). Born in Sunderland, Rob cheekily got a job writing and voicing commercials for local radio and never looked back. Hear about his forays into musical impro, flying light aircraft and also his attitude to AI and the voice industry.

Norwegian-American David Menkin is a voice artist and a film actor. In an entertaining, frank and wide ranging conversation, we hear about his work in theatre, his approach to voice acting, and acting in general. He is also active in the vanguard of championing actors rights, trying to protect creative work in the world of AI, which he talks about passionately and with great clarity. It's not often I get to talk to three iconic action figures, but Virgil and Gordon Tracey and Luke Skywalker in one hit is pretty impressive!

A great episode with the voice of Moody Margaret in Horrid Henry, Florence in the Magic Roundabout and hundreds of other characters in animations, promos, commercials and sketch shows. Sue has also made documentaries for BBC Radio, and has her own podcast - The Hackney and Newham History Social Club. Funny, positive and hugely talented, our conversation covered her career, the future of the voice industry, and the art and craft of voicing animation.

The voice of a thousand (actually many more) movie trailers, the instantly recognisable Redd Pepper has been using his uniquely deep, authoritative voice since 1995 to get you to watch any number of cinematic blockbusters. He's also been in video games, TV shows and has appeared in a couple of films himself. Most notably Tim Burton's Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, in which he played all manner of demons and ghouls. He's currently the voice of the official opening and pre-match hype for #fifaclubworldcup2025. So sit back and listen to his life story, how he was discovered when he was a London Underground train driver, and he even did the end credits for me in a way I could only have dreamt of a few weeks ago!

In this episode I get to have a chat with the man behind the mask of Davros, leader of the Daleks in Dr Who since 1984, and since 1974 the voice of Mike Tucker in The Archers on Radio 4. He talks about his long and, by his own admission, incredibly fortuitous career which goes back to his days in a theatre group touring schools through the glory days of Dr Who and beyond. A modest and charming actor, who has made his name playing possibly the most evil character in television Sci-Fi, and also a myriad of characters in radio drama. Voice acting has always been his favourite aspect of his work, so he was only too happy to talk to me about it.

In this edition I have a fantastic and entertaining chat with the multi talented Emma Clarke, whose voice graces a large portion of the London Underground Network, and who currently hosts Radio 3's Saturday Morning Breakfast show. She has been a voice artist for thirty years, but is also a musician and composer, and is studying for her PhD. Once I'd stopped feeling intimidated, we talked about her career and the future of voice work.

Simon Greenall is an hugely versatile comic actor and voice artist. Since the early '90s he's been adding his talents to commercials, animation, video games and radio comedy and drama. His best known voices are Aleksandr Orlov and Sergei in the Compare the Market commercials, but he is also Captain Barnacles in the Octonauts, Micheal in I'm Alan Partridge and Sid James in The Missing Hancocks. His wide range of accents and voices, and his innate talent for comedy have made him one of the country's leading voice talents. Our highly entertaining chat covered his comedy writing career, stand-up, television, animation and a lot else besides.

Tim Bentinck (MBE) studied Modern Languages at Harrow, History of Art at the University of East Anglia, and trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He has been a professional actor since 1978. He won the Carleton Hobbs Radio Award in 1978 and joined the BBC Radio Repertory Company, which led to being cast as David Archer in The Archers in 1982. He has played leading roles in film, television, theatre and radio, is a voiceover and dubbing specialist, with a huge range of vocal styles and accents. He is also a musician, travel journalist, inventor, computer programmer, website designer, house renovator and author. His autobiography Being David Archer - And Other Unusual Ways of Earning a Living was published in 2017. Video games: Best known as Victor Saltzpyre in Vermintide, and James Bond in The World is Not Enough. Dark Souls III, Total War: Warhammer.

Kate Harbour's voice credits are far too numerous to list, but she is best known as Wendy in Bob the Builder. She's been in Shaun the Sheep, Chicken Run and many other films, TV series, and audio dramas. (I appeared with her in The Secret Show and The Octonauts). She is a musical theatre actress as well as a versatile and very funny voice actor. She also hosts animation voice acting workshops. We had a very entertaining and wide ranging chat about the business of voice acting and the future of the industry.

Actor and voice artist Paul Panting, a fellow Octonaut (he's Peso) has been in the business for over 30 years. Theatre and television, audiobooks, animation - He has been providing voices for Chuggington since the first season in 2008. Other credits include Muck in the UK dub of "Bob the Builder" (2015 reboot). I've known him since we both started out. We spoke about his career, the voice industry and the future.

Rupert Degas has been a professional voice actor for over 30 years. He is also a theatre and television actor. Currently living in Australia, his animation voice credits include a 7 year stint in Bob the Builder, Chop Socky Chooks, Robotboy, Thomas and Friends, Lucky Fred, Groove High, The Amazing world of Gumball and many more. He has been hundreds of video games, narrates audiobooks, does commercials, basically he can do pretty much anything that's thrown at him. A highly versatile and entertaining actor, our conversation covered everything from impressions to global politics.

Lizzie Waterworth is the voice of Horrid Henry (for which she was BAFTA nominated), but she is also a voice artist in many other shows and video games, and has been working in the industry for 20 years. Recently she branched out into books, by writing 'How to Talk so People Will Listen' which offers practical advice to help children find their voice and boost confidence when speaking in front of other people. I spoke to her about her career and about the voice industry in general.