Ken Barrie
Leslie Hulme, known professionally as Ken Barrie, was an English voice actor and singer. He was best known for voicing the titular character and several other characters in the children's television series Postman Pat, as well as singing the theme tune. He also sang the theme tunes of the BBC Television programmes Hi-de-Hi! and Charlie Chalk.
Biography
Barrie was born on 9 January 1933 in Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire. Under the stage name Les Carle, he recorded for Embassy Records, an offshoot of Woolworths that released inexpensive cover versions of pop hits, between 1962 and 1965. He changed his stage name when a friend told him it was French for "the Charlies", and took his new name of Ken Barrie from the names of his wife's brothers.His singing and narrating voice and whistling was heard in many movies and television commercials. Barrie provided singing voices in feature films for many actors, including George C. Scott, in Jane Eyre, Horst Buchholz in The Great Waltz, and Larry Hagman in Applause.
He became the voice of the children's television show Postman Pat in 1981, narrating the first and second series and also providing the voices of the characters Postman Pat, Ted Glen, Granny Dryden, Peter Fogg, Major Forbes, George Lancaster, Jeff Pringle, Alf Thompson, Reverend Peter Timms, P.C. Arthur Selby, and Sam Waldron. He retired from voicing Pat in 2008 when the series was revamped as Postman Pat Special Delivery Service, though stayed on as the voice of Ted, Alf, P.C. Selby and Reverend Timms for the show's first series before leaving the show completely in 2013. A single of the theme song, credited to Barrie, reached number 44 on the UK singles chart in 1982, and re entered the chart the following year.
He sang the soundtrack for the television show Charlie Chalk and recorded the soundtracks for the films Sharks' Treasure, Emily and Silent Scream. He also whistled the tune for the theme song of the 1987 BBC series My Family and Other Animals, based on the book by Gerald Durrell, and sang the theme song to the hit long running BBC sitcom Hi-de-Hi!.