Dear Father...

I’m greatly looking forward to setting off on tour 12-14 April with my great friends the Bridge Quartet presenting our new Mozart programme "Dear Father...". Do join us if we're coming near you... venue details below. Further dates being planned for 2024/25.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was famous as an infant prodigy, performing in public for the first time when he was only six and publishing his first symphonies by the age of eight. But it was his father Leopold, himself a minor composer and violin tutor, who shaped and guided young Wolfgang’s career, exhibiting his son’s extraordinary talents around the cities of Europe throughout the years of his childhood, until their relationship inevitably cooled as the younger Mozart grew into maturity. In 'Dear Father…' the Bridge Quartet presents three of Mozart’s most striking and original string quartets (K157, K421, K590), which chart the course of this complex and fascinating relationship at pivotal moments in his life, interspersed with narrative and readings by Christopher Kent from the revealing correspondence between father and son which continued throughout their lives.

Friday 12th April, 7pm - St Mary’s Church, Boyton, Wilts, BA12 0SS. Tickets £15/£10 boyton7lw@gmail.com

Saturday 13th April, 7pm - Kennett, Lincombe Drive, Torquay,TQ1 2LP. Tickets (free with retiring collection) deborah@kearneybrewer.com

Sunday 14th April, 5pm, Barkham Exmoor, South Molton, Devon EX36 3LU Tickets £12/£5 (students/U18 free) www.barkham-exmoor.co.uk/event-details/dear-father-mozart-string-quartets-with-the-bridge-quartet-christopher-kent

New TV Promos demo

The 2024 demo revamp continues... here's my new TV promo emotions reel with drama spots from ITV, Sky and Apple TV plus sports promos for ESPN Wimbledon, Fox Soccer and CBS Sports. Thanks and hats off to all the superb producers involved.

New trailer demo

As awards season heats up, here’s a selection of trailers for some of this year’s exceptional movies and streaming shows I’ve been honoured to voice (plus a couple of old faves), including One Life, No Time to Die, Doctor Jekyll, The Great, Fast X and Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, etc. Plenty of good stuff to see in the cinema and on TV at the moment!

An interview with Chris Mars

Thanks very much to ace musician Chris Mars Music for inviting me to be a guest on his popular YouTube channel, where we chatted about movie trailers, studios, working with Dame Judi Dench, the challenges of AI and a host of other things. Chris is a leading singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who was in the hit 80's band A Flock of Seagulls and has worked with almost everybody in the music industry since. Please do dip in for a listen and give his channel a like/share if you enjoy it.

One Life

Gosh, this one packs a powerful punch. For my final trailer campaign of 2023 I was very pleased to add my voice to trailers for One Life, the new film starring Anthony Hopkins (still in towering form aged 85) as Nicholas Winton, the “British Schindler”, who rescued thousands of children from Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Highly recommended.

Fast X

Here’s a fun trailer I voiced earlier in the year as part of the promotional efforts around the launch for Fast X, the latest movie in the Fast and Furious franchise, filmed exclusively in Rome. Plenty of thrills and spills in this one!

Yes you Can Can

How do you sell paint? It’s an interesting question because most paint of whatever type does the same sort of job and most manufacturers make a rage of similar colours, don’t they? That’s why I think this campaign from Swedish paint company Colorama for their CanCan range of paint is so clever. It focuses on lifestyle-led design and and is superbly imagined by leading Skandi agency Swartling. Their brief to me as the v/o? “Be stylish”. I think we did a pretty good job between us!

I'm sexy and I tow it...

I must admit when I was asked to voice a radio spot as a breakdown recovery driver in the style of Noel Coward I did wonder quite how it would turn out, but I think “I’m sexy and I tow it” may end up as one of my favourite lines of the year. Kudos to ace producer the estimable Rik Watson for bringing it together with such style.

Never Such Innocence

The pianist Gamal Khamis and I are delighted to be returning to St Mary's Perivale on Sunday 5th November at 3pm for a live and live-streamed performance of NEVER SUCH INNOCENCE, our acclaimed narrative recital of words and music from the First World War. First performed in 2016 as part of the Somme 100 commemorations it has since been seen in concert venues, theatres and festivals across the UK, including sell-out performances in London's West End and it was described as “an incredibly moving performance” when it was featured on BBC Radio 3's In Tune.

NEVER SUCH INNOCENCE tells the story of my own great uncle, nineteen-year-old conscript Private Percy O'Key, through his real-life letters and diaries, interspersed with piano music of the period by composers including Elgar, Ravel, Debussy and Ivor Gurney and the words of writers such as Wilfred Owen, Edward Thomas, Siegfried Sassoon and Vera Brittain.

"A moving and compelling journey from innocence to loss, told with unflinching clarity and compassion."

3pm Sunday 5th November

St Mary's Perivale, Perivale Lane, London, UB6 8SS

(Admission free with retiring collection)

And live online at: www.st-marys-perivale.org.uk

Audience comments from previous performances:

“Very special, deeply moving and immensely absorbing.”

“Spell-binding… so compelling to watch and listen to”

"The most amazing evening... one of the most moving and thought-provoking events I have ever attended."

“Beautifully nuanced show – tender, moving, angry

Doctor Jekyll

British comedian and actor Eddie Izzard grows ever more interesting as a performer and this is definitely one to watch out for... a very fresh new take on an old story. I was pleased to provide the v/o on these trailers for old friends Hammer Horror. Definitely scary but also funny... release date 27th October.

BFI London Film Festival

It was good to spend some time at BFI London Film Festival last week and meet some of the makers. I enjoyed Killers of the Flower Moon, Saltburn and Maestro but couldn't find much to like about Foe (the otherwise admirable Paul Mescal looking rather overstretched, I felt). The Holdover Boys was a film that really grew on me (once you get over the initial similarities to Dead Poets Society, though it ends up being something quite different) and Paul Giamatti gives a standout leading performance. It was a particular pleasure to meet with director Alexander Payne afterwards and chat about some of his previous work.

The Royal Mint

Who knew you could give gold bullion bars for Christmas? I was pleased to add my voice to this rather classy national radio spot for The Royal Mint with superior production by the ace Steve Henderson at Global. That's the Christmas shopping sorted then...

The Enfield Poltergeist

Well this one was a fun trailer to voice for The Enfield Poltergeist on Apple TV. The producers asked for a Hammer Horror pastiche along the lines of Vincent Price or Peter Cushing. Turned out rather well, we all thought. Damned creepy show though...definitely one to watch from behind the sofa!

The Spirit of Yachting

It’s always nice when work and personal interest overlap… here’s a booth-eye view at IMG for The Spirit of Yachting ep 04 series 7, airing this weekend (26/27 Aug) on BBC News Channel. The conditions for the 2023 Fastnet Race were spectacular, but I was pleased to be on dry land for this one.

ESPN Wimbledon 2023

It's been a great pleasure for some years now to work with legendary Emmy-award winning writer and ESPN producer Jeff Sarokin on his annual trips to Wimbledon. Jeff's work is always so lyrical and imaginative - more like mood films than traditional sports promos. This is the preview we made for ESPN’s coverage of the Men's Final between Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic last week (and what a game that was).

An Exquisite Harmony

Many thanks to all at London’s Jermyn Street Theatre for the packed sell-out performance and great reception last night for AN EXQUISITE HARMONY, our story about the lives, loves and music of Robert & Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms. Thanks too to Gamal Khamis for his beautiful playing and to Sarah Sherborne for so elegantly standing in for the indisposed Fenella Norman (now happily recovered). More dates to follow...

New medical v/o demo

Medical voiceovers are one of those agreeable challenges that arrive in the studio from time to time. Usually there are a few long words to check out and get the chops round but really the task is the same as in any other form of v/o... engaging the listener with the narrative and trying to make the complicated sound clear. Here’s a new demo of recent examples.

Stronghold calls again

It was very good to be back at leading London studio The Soundhouse today to record new characters and narration for the latest edition of the Stronghold games franchise with old friends Firefly Studios, almost exactly twenty years since the first version we did together. How time flies!

An Exquisite Harmony - new trailer drop

We are delighted with the new trailer for An Exquisite Harmony, our show about the Lives, Loves and Music of Robert & Clara Schumann & Johannes Brahms, featuring Fenella Norman, Gamal Khamis (piano) and me.

Forthcoming performances are as follows:

Sunday June 25th, 5pm - All Saints Church, Church Street, Isleworth, TW7 6BE (opposite the London Apprentice by the river). Free with retiring collection

Sunday July 16th, 5pm - Jermyn Street Theatre, 16b Jermyn Street, London, SW1Y 6ST (2 mins from Piccadilly Circus). Tickets: £22/£20 via 020 7287 2875 or www.jermynstreettheatre.co.uk/show/an-exquisite-harmony/

Enoch Arden in Swaledale

ENOCH ARDEN AT THE SWALEDALE FESTIVAL

It was a great privilege to perform Tennyson’s epic poem ENOCH ARDEN at Swaledale Festival in Richmond’s beautiful Georgian Theatre Royal, Britain’s oldest working theatre (dating from 1788) with my regular recital partner, the pianist Gamal Khamis this week. What a beautiful theatre and festival. We loved it!