Voice Over
ON AIR
Jon is one of the best known commercial voices in the UK.
As well as hundreds of commercials, he spent 13 years as the voice of the UK's most listened to Radio Network - BBC Radio 2, and recorded over 1800 episodes of The Weakest Link for BBC TV where he was affectionately known as "Statman"
Voice Over
ON AIR
Jon is one of the best known commercial voices in the UK.
As well as hundreds of commercials, he spent 13 years as the voice of the UK's most listened to Radio Network - BBC Radio 2, and recorded over 1800 episodes of The Weakest Link for BBC TV where he was affectionately known as "Statman"
Jon maybe best known for being the original voice of Siri on Apple's UK phones, but he was a well known and widely recognised voice over before then. After leaving Channel 4, he spent 3 years as the main promotions voice of BBC 1 and 7 years as the voice of Sky Movies.
He has voiced numerous high profile advertising campaigns , including adverts for Duracell, The Mirror, The Times, Nokia, Acuvue and the inflight entertainment for British Airways.
He also works as an Awards Ceremony announcer - what is known in the trade as "Voice of God". From the Millies and the National Business Awards to the Asian Awards, The Railway Children Ball and the Mobile News Awards, it's Jon's voice announcing the nominees and congratulating the winners.
“Jon is the ultimate professional. He is arguably the best voice-over man in the country but also excels at managing his very successful business empire of top class talent and being a highly sought-after conference host. I have worked with him for many years in the television, radio and corporate arena and can highly recommend him as someone who will bring great experience, creativity and talent to any project”
“Jon is one of the best VO’s in the business and runs a great agency. Nothing is too much trouble and he has proved a valuable and reliable resource for many projects in the past and will do in the future I’m sure. He’s also a very nice guy which always helps!”
Siri
"Siri's been asked millions of questions since it was launched - do you know what the most common one is?
What do you mean no bloody network?"
Siri
"Siri's been asked millions of questions since it was launched - do you know what the most common one is?
What do you mean no bloody network?"
When Siri was launched by Apple in 2011 - they chose a female voice in the USA but a male voice for the UK market. Jon was that voice - the original UK voice of Siri. Now there are numerous Siri voices - but like James Bond and Sean Connery - there was only ever one original.
You'll find Jon's synthesised voice on a whole host of other gadgets from Sat Navs for TomTom and Garmin and Jaguar LandRover vehicles to Apps like Waze. It's used by a whole range of IT devices to read text aloud on smartphones and computers. This allows people who are sight impaired to access everything from emails and websites just as easily as regular sighted people do. Jon's voice is usually nicknamed "Daniel" if you want to apply it to your app or computer.
Siri often makes the headlines - and I'm often interviewed about the job. Here's one of the latest interviews:
Jon is often asked about whether he enjoys being Siri - and of course the answer is "yes". But what gives him the most pleasure are emails like the one below from Rik. Enabling people to use the web and email when they don't have have the ability to see as well as others can is really empowering. That's the best bit about being Siri for Jon.
“Hi Mr Briggs, my name is Rik and I’m from Wigan in the UK. I am a blind Apple product user and I have many Apple products that use voice-over, you tell me the time on my Apple Watch and help me create music in garage band on my Mac, you have opened up my world in Technology. I know you are listed on the Mac as Daniel, but I didn’t know it was you until I did a little research, you help me with day-to-day things and I couldn’t imagine using my Apple equipment without your crystal clear voice. Thanks for helping to make technology accessible for me and other visually impaired people. Rik”
If you'd like to know some more about the other Siri's that have been used on the iPhone, the Guardian newspaper can tell you more in this article.
Voice of God
"Voice of God" is a term used by the events industry for a live announcer. By tradition it is an unseen deep male voice that may appear to be coming from on high - hence "Voice of God".
Voice of God
"Voice of God" is a term used by the events industry for a live announcer. By tradition it is an unseen deep male voice that may appear to be coming from on high - hence "Voice of God".
They are most often used for awards ceremonies - but any live event that might benefit from someone instructing or cajoling the audience should consider using one. It requires an experienced voice over who is very used to the pressurized arena of live events and has brilliant sight-reading skills. Jon is one of the UK's best known Voices for Awards working on some 50 events each year including The National Business Awards, The Asian Awards as well as introducing ITV Audience specials such as The Paul O'Grady Show and Michael McIntyre.
Excellent Talent also has some of the very best "VOG's" in the business and is the only agency to specialize in this type of talent.