Peter Dickson (announcer)

Peter Dickson
Born Peter Dickson
(1957-06-23) 23 June 1957
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Occupation Radio presenter, television announcer, voice over artist
Known for The X Factor (2004–), Britain's Got Talent (2007–Present), Family Fortunes, Chris Moyles' Quiz Night, The Paul O'Grady Show

Peter Dickson (born 23 June 1957) is a British television announcer, radio presenter and voice-over artist.[1] He is best known as the former voice of E4, as well as the announcer for The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, The Price Is Right, Family Fortunes, All Star Mr & Mrs, Live at the Apollo, Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow and Chris Moyles' Quiz Night.

One of the most prominent TV voice artists in the world today, Dickson has been the voice for hundreds of award winning television shows, radio programmes and advertisements.

Career

Dickson was educated at Belfast Royal Academy in his home city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. He later graduated with a BA Hons degree in psychology from Queens University, whilst being a member of the University Air Squadron. He was a reporter and journalist at the BBC later moving to the presentation department at Radio Ulster. From there he moved on to BBC Radio 2 as a newsreader and announcer, also presenting overnight shows and the comedy-based Friday Nightcap.

During the 1980s and early 90s, Dickson worked alongside Steve Wright on his Radio 1 afternoon and morning shows. He created, wrote and voiced many household name characters for Wright's award winning programmes. In 1990, he launched Melody Radio in London, where he presented the breakfast show for three years. He has contributed to two series of Quote Unquote for BBC Radio 4, and read the morning story on Radio 4.

Playwright Dennis Potter invited Dickson to play cameo parts in several of his TV Dramas. More television beckoned with Harry Enfield in his award winning Tiger Aspect series Harry Enfield and Chums. Various on screen character roles followed in the first two series of Steve Wright People's Show for BBC One. Bruce Forsyth called Dickson to voice the famous "Come on Down's" and prize descriptions for seven series of ITV's Bruce's Price is Right and he was on board for Family Fortunes starring Les Dennis and Patrick Kielty's Channel 4's Last Chance Lottery Live. He has also contributed to 11 series of the award winning BBC One panel game They Think It's All Over presented by Nick Hancock, Catchphrase, TV's Naughtiest Blunders and Safe for ITV and the cult animation series Monkey Dust for BBC in which he played himself.

His other TV credits include Never Mind The Buzzcocks, roles in Holby City, Noel's House Party and Live & Kicking, The 10%'ers and The Unknown Soldier for Carlton TV. He has featured on Griff Rhys Jones' Crystal Balls, Tales from Fear for Cartoon Network, Sing It Your Way with Denise Van Outen and Ian Wright, and ITV's Year of Promise with Carol Vorderman.

Dickson has written for the BBC Two comedy series The Fast Show and Play Your Cards Right for ITV.

Jerry Springer also made sure Dickson was "up front and full on", on his ITV Friday Night hit programme, and his subsequent Late Night With Jerry Springer for Five which ran for two series.

He was the voice of the BBC's Test the Nation live specials and has featured in Little Britain, The Paul O'Grady Show on ITV and the New Paul O'Grady Show on Channel 4. He provided the live commentary for Cirque de Celebrite and introduced An Audience with Joe Pasquale, and voiced a Westlife special on ITV.

In 2006, Dickson became the brand voice of youth channel E4

In 2011 and in 2012 he was the host of MTV's three big end-of-year video chart shows.

Documentaries

Since 1998 Dickson has worked closely with the Discovery Channel, narrating over 250 documentaries, including the 25 part The FBI Files. He has completed over 150 other documentary series for BBC Television, National Geographic Channel, Wall to Wall TV, The History Channel, Outline Productions, Adrenaline TV, Café Productions, Discovery Health, Flat Earth Films. For British Movietone, Peter narrated the 13 part series World War 2: The Complete History,[2] and the 50 part Millennium Minute.

Radio

Beyond his earlier radio work, Dickson's voice is heard daily on many commercial radio stations across the UK. He has voiced many campaigns from British Gas, Downton Abbey, The Sun, Euro RSCG, Branston Pickle (McCann Erricson), to Walls (McCann Erricson), "Drink Drive" and "Euro Millions" for COI/AMV/BBDO, Dairylea, Schweppes (Saatchi & Saatchi), KFC, Heinz and Wrigleys. He appears on Irish radio stations I 102-104 and 4FM. He was the voice of The Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show on Absolute Radio. He makes appearances on BBC Radio 1's breakfast and drive time shows, and on Capital Yorkshire's breakfast show Hirsty's Daily Dose.

He has played various character roles in The Department, a comedy series on BBC Radio 4 starring and written by Chris Addison, John Oliver, and Andy Zaltzman.

Music

In March 2009, Dickson released a UK single as 'Voiceover Man and The Credit Crunchers' called "What a load of Bankers". This was followed in 2010 by the single "Shake it".

Other media

He has been the brand voice for Domino's, BT and British Gas.

He has completed the voices for over 30 AAA Game titles and he is the host for the Kinect launch title "Kinect Sports".j

He also the characters for LEGO'S Worldwide PC game hit "Knight's Creator Kingdom" and "Crazy Castle" and played the Emperor Zorean on Xenoblade Chronicles.

He was the worldwide voice for Emirates airlines, Etihad the national airline of the UAE.

In 2010 he was the voice of the Help For Heroes concert at Twickenham.

Dickson recently lent his voice to SatNav "Nav Voices"

He was the announcer and commentator for Beach Volleyball at Horseguards Parade at the London 2012 Olympics.

He is a supporter of the Royal Airforce, compèring the Live Stage at the RAF Waddington International Airshow in 2013 and 2014 and at the RAF Cosford Airshow. He is a supporter of the Royal Airforce Benevolent Fund.

Credits

Television

Video games

Blades of Time

Other

Awards

Peter's voice has featured on award winning campaigns including:

References

  1. ↑ (7 November 2010). X FACTOR 2010: US SHOW TO HAVE 'BRITISH BALLS AND SWAGGER', Daily Star (United Kingdom), Retrieved November 19, 2010
  2. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1230096/

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, February 29, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.