John Sparkes
Swansea born John is more commonly known on Welsh television as Barry Welsh, in the award-winning (Best Light Entertainment, Welsh Baftas, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004) series Barry Welsh is Coming for HTV.
As well as this hit, he is widely known for his comic creations ‘Siadwel’ and ‘Frank Hovis’ from the days of BBC’s “Naked Video” and Channel 4’s “Absolutely”.
John Sparkes has since written for and performed in many shows including four series of “Celebrity Pub Quiz” (HTV), “Like It or Lump It” (Vera Prods for Ch4), ‘‘Jeff Global’s Global Probe’’ (ITV) and “The Morwenna Banks Show” (Absolutely for Ch5). He has also performed in both series of Radio 4’s “Mouth to Mouth” (Zeitgeist Prods).
Behind the camera he provides the voice of the Narrator children’s animated series ‘‘Peppa Pig’‘. He also lends his voice to the series ‘‘Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends’’ and ‘‘Shaun the Sheep’‘, and is the voice of Cbeebies “Fireman Sam” (Siriol Productions).
He also writes and presents “Ghost Story” in which he spends the night alone with a camcorder in haunted houses around Wales. He has also co-written and presented Doug Strong’s Special Places, a factual comedy series for ITV Wales and ITV Central.