Marcus
Bentley, the voice of Big Brother, speaks...
Doing an interview face-to-face is always preferable to over the phone.
It’s easier to establish a rapport, read body language, and develop
a relationship, however fleeting. It helps to be able to describe the
person you’re interviewing, their clothes, their mannerisms, their
nervous tics. It’s also interesting to compare how people look
in the flesh compared to on television screens.
But
today, the phone seems to be the only appropriate forum for the interview.
To see the face would be wrong, somehow, in the same way that hearing
Charlie Chaplin’s voice would somehow be wrong. Because today’s
interviewee has a voice instantly recognisable to millions, yet would
be able to walk unmolested through a gathering of even the most committed
TV obsessives.
The
phone rings twice, a familiar voice answers, and instantly a phrase
springs to mind. ‘Day 22 in the Big Brother house’. Over
the next half hour Marcus Bentley, narrator of Big Brother and probably
the most famous disembodied voice in Britain, reveals his average working
day on Big Brother, how chickens landed him his life-changing job, and
why he answers the phone to thousands of people every day.
How
did you land the job as the Big Brother narrator?
Going back to June 2000, the producers were putting
the final touches to the show, and they’d got hundreds of voiceover
samples from all the big voiceover agents, and they liked what I did
on a demo they’d asked me to do. They asked me to say a few things
off a script – stuff like ‘So-and-so’s in the bedroom,
telling the boys something his mother wouldn’t like to know’,
that type of thing. And fortunately they mentioned that they had chickens
outside, and I was told later that they particularly liked the way I
said the word ‘chickens’. So it was very fortunate for me
that they’d decided to have chickens in the first series. They
asked me if I’d like to do it, and I thought ‘Do I really
want to be committed for twelve weeks?’ And I’m very glad
I said yes!
You
had been on the verge of jacking in the acting and voiceover work to
become a teacher, hadn’t you?
Absolutely. The acting was getting sparse. I was
doing a few voiceovers, I wasn’t going to pass up on them because
they’re quite lucrative – especially the commercials. But
the acting wasn’t really paying, I’d started having children,
and I needed to make some dough, so we’d actually moved up north
after ten years down south, and I’d actually started doing a bit
of teaching. And it was Sod’s Law – I’d moved up north
lock, stock and barrel, and then Big Brother took off. Halfway through
Big Brother it goes absolutely massive with the Nasty Nick thing, and
suddenly I’m in demand to do voiceovers for the most weird and
wonderful things, and I was flying back-and-forth to London two or three
times a week, and it was just getting ridiculous, so we just thought
‘That’s it, it looks like Big Brother’s going to be
around for a while’ so we moved back.
Why
do you think they chose you? Were they specifically after a north eastern
accent?
I don’t think they were specifically looking
for anything. I think they just thought my accent was a bit different.
That’s what I imagine, but I’m putting words into their
mouths. They just thought it would be a bit different, and for me the
rest is history.
What
makes a good voiceover artist?
I don’t think I’m just a north eastern
voice, I’ve got a particular style. That’s what makes a
voiceover work. For instance I’m a big fan of Stephen Fry. He’s
got the most beautiful, fruity, rich and gorgeous voice. I love him
reading the Harry Potter stuff, he just brings every single syllable
to life. That’s what I’d like to emulate in my own little
way. When I was a child, they used to have these adverts for Mr Kipling’s
Cakes, and this guy who did the voiceover for his ‘exceedingly
good cakes’ was brilliant – it made you want a bloody cake.
He was an old bloke, and he had this gorgeous voice.
What’s
your working day like when Big Brother’s going on?
I live in Canterbury, which is a pretty big trek.
It’s about 60 miles from London, but by the time we get over to
the Elstree Studios, it’s taken about three hours each way. I
arrive at the Elstree Studios at about 1pm, in case they’re ready
early. They’re normally ready for me at about 2 o’clock.
In the early days I used to watch a rough copy of the show, to get an
idea, but quite frankly after about 600 episodes, I pretty much know
what I’m doing now. It takes me about five minutes to do –
let’s face it, I’m reading out loud, so it’s pretty
easy. I record it, and then I hang around with the producers and the
editors putting the show together, and I’m around to do pick ups
if they decide the voiceover didn’t work or another bit of script
is needed. Sometimes I’m also doing Diary Room Uncut at the same
time.
Do
you get involved in other stuff behind the scenes?
I’m probably the only person who’s
been involved in every Big Brother episode since the beginning. So I’m
there as Joe Public in the final viewing. That’s really nice,
that’s also become a part of my job, which is very interesting,
seeing these incredibly talented people working. There must be 200-300
people working on that show. I don’t know anybody who’s
not completely involved in it, talking about it all the time. I’ve
never worked on anything where people are so wholeheartedly obsessed
with it, from top to bottom. People say to me ‘Do you get sick
of it?’ No, absolutely not. If I got sick of the show, it would
be terrible, because it’s going for 13 weeks this year, and I’m
involved every single day. I don’t get a day off, so it would
be absolutely excruciating if I hated the show. But it’s one of
the best shows on TV.
Did
you ever think the job would turn out to be such a massive feature of
your life?
Absolutely not. Not at all. As an actor, you want
to have some sort of recognition, and a bit of money in the bank. It
just became bigger and bigger. Initially I thought I’d get nine
weeks’ work and that would be it. ‘Well, that’s not
bad’ I thought.
Why
do you think such a fuss has been made about your voiceovers?
I think if they’d used the regular type
of voiceover, like a BBC announcer, none of this would’ve happened.
Nobody would’ve really noticed the voice. But I think people thought
‘Who the hell is that?’ Luckily most people loved it, though
I read one online review saying ‘Possibly the worst voiceover
for many a year’. One comment I read was ‘I can’t
believe we have to listen to that Geordie bastard. If I wanted to listen
to f***ing Geordie bastards I’d go and f***ing live up there’.
When
did you realise you’d become famous?
When people wanted to interview me. I don’t
think anyone has ever become famous for what I do. You get people who
have been actors and become famous for their voices, like Tom Baker.
He’s now famous for his voice, but he was a very successful actor,
and a popular Dr Who. I don’t think anybody’s ever done
it this way round. I’m hoping to be Dr Who one day! I had to have
media training, and was doing all these interviews. It wasn’t
just the red tops, it was papers like the Guardian as well. The Guardian’s
section two did a massive piece, I was on the front of it! From one
of their eminent writers, saying ‘He’s a legend’ and
‘His voice oozes caramel’ all of that stuff, and I’m
just thinking ‘Oh my God, this is the bloody Guardian!’
It’s been an absolute treat. And I’m not kidding myself:
I read out loud, I know that.
Do
you get recognised a lot for your voice?
Yeah, occasionally, especially during Big Brother.
I live in Canterbury, which is a small town in Kent. I suppose if I
was up in the North East I’d just blend in. But down there I stick
out like a sore thumb. Because the programme is watched by 5 million
people a night, and my name is first up on the credits, people know
my name. Especially if I’m in a shop and I’m paying by card
they can see my name and then they’ll realise. One time I was
paying for a pair of shoes for my young daughter, and the girl said
‘You sound just like that bloke off Big Brother’ and my
daughter said ‘It is him’ and she went flapping round the
shop like a budgie let out of a cage, and she was hyperventilating and
telling everybody. Which was great, but also embarrassing when you’re
trying to buy a pair of shoes. But I must say, it’s great fun.
Do
people get you to say the same stuff to them all the time?
Yeah, it’s always ‘Day 22 in the Big
Brother house’ or ‘You decide’. People always want
me to do their answer machines as well. It’s great. I must be
on tonnes of phones.
You’re
clearly a fan of the show. What have been your favourite moments?
Nasty Nick getting his comeuppance. He once described
my voice as like listening to somebody doing a documentary on sewage
farming. And maybe Jade getting her ‘kebab’ out. Kate Lawler
trying to put her trousers on when she was drunk. Just silly little
things. Ahmed smashing the plates, all that arguing did my head in,
but was great fun.
Executive
Producers - Paul Osborne and Clair O'Donohoe interviewed
