A number of queries have been presented to the Project, in recent times, each requesting information about the specific voice actors/artists who worked on the Tell-A-Tale series.
This avenue of the Project is still very much a work in progress.
Although we are not yet in a position to present an exhaustive list of the voice actors who worked on the series, we felt it important to present the data which we have successfully unearthed to date.
Recorded by Pickwick International and (initially) in association with The Moss Music Group New York, the Tell-A-Tale series accompanied a range of Ladybird Books from 1982-1992. The original producer on the Tell-A-Tale series was Graham Goodwin who, it would appear, produced many of the earlier titles in the series, ranging between 1982 and 1986.
Cassette titles initially released in the Tell-A-Tale series were more commonly twinned with the following Ladybird Book series; ‘Well Loved Tales series’, ‘Children’s Classics series’, ‘Ladybird History series’, ‘Ladybird Horror series’ and ‘Ladybird Fables and Legends series’. Those earlier titles, produced by Goodwin, are perhaps best characterised by the classical music pieces, licenced from The Moss Music Group New York and used in the background of each of the recordings.
In addition to the timeless classical music, used in each these earlier recordings, Pickwick employed voice actors from the BBC Repertory Company to narrate the stories. In the absence of an exhaustive list of the voice actors who worked on the Tell-A-Tale series, we can confirm that the lead female voice actor on many of these earlier recordings was Frances Jeater. We also know that John Baddeley and Anthony Jackson feature on many of the recordings. We have also identified David Buck, Nigel Pegram, Roger Blake, Susan Sheridan, Judy Bennett, Elizabeth Lindsay, David Horovitch, Kerry Shale, Stephen Thorne, Nigel Anthony and Hugh Dickson.
It is important to note that the series began to expand rapidly from about 1984, continuing to release additional accompanying audio titles from each the above Ladybird series of books in addition to a number of US TV tie-ins such as ‘Masters of the Universe’, ‘She-Ra: Princess of Power’ and ‘Transformers’. The latter recordings displayed newly-composed theme music, unique to the Tell-A-Tale versions of the TV characters. Popular UK TV tie-ins were also released, though in the cases of the UK TV series tie-ins (‘Puddle Lane’, ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ etc.), the theme music used is identical to the music used on the original TV shows themselves.
By 1988, Elaine Saffer had taken over production of the Tell-A-Tale series from Graham Goodwin and her independent production company, Saffred Music Ltd., composed/produced/coordinated all of the Tell-A-Tale recordings thereafter. All of those Tell-A-Tale cassettes which were produced 1988-1992, featured electronic background music, uniquely composed by Saffer.
It should be noted that the later recordings also used different voice actors, artists chosen by Elaine Saffer herself. Actors were initially contacted through the actor’s union and were subsequently invited to send cassettes of their work (plus their CVs) directly to Saffer. Among the voice actors used in later titles were Simon Needs, Trevor Nichols, Kate Lee, Neil Conrich, Tracey Wilson and John Howard.
We plan, over time, to upload a ‘Voice Actor Chart’ to a newly-drafted section of the website, pertaining to same. This chart will indicate the voice actor and the character played/title of the corresponding story.
It will continue to be a work in progress as we have not yet identified all of the voice actors who worked on the series.