# John Sparkes

John Sparkes (born 6 January 1954) is a Welsh comedian and actor. He portrayed Barry Welsh, presenter of the HTV Wales series Barry Welsh Is Coming. He has also had major roles in Naked Video, Absolutely, Fireman Sam, Shaun the Sheep, and Jeff Global's Global Probe, and is the narrator of the children's television show Peppa Pig.

## Early life

Sparkes was born on 6 January 1954 in Swansea, Wales. After working, firstly at Lloyds Bank in Mumbles and then as a teacher, in the 1980s he turned to comedy and moved to London, performing on the alternative cabaret circuit with comedians such as Alexei Sayle, Jo Brand, Paul Merton, and Rik Mayall.

## Television comedy career
### Naked Video and Absolutely

Sparkes starred in the sketch show Naked Video, where he played Siadwel, the geeky South Wales poet who wore an anorak and glasses. The character also appeared when Sparkes was part of the BBC Radio 4 comedy programme Bodgers, Banks & Sparkes.
He was one of the team behind the Channel 4 sketch show Absolutely, which ran for four years between 1989 and 1993. Following an award-winning radio special, a new series for BBC Radio 4 was commissioned for broadcast in September 2015.

### Barry Welsh

Barry Welsh Is Coming was a long-running comedy series for HTV Wales. As well as playing Barry Welsh, the hapless host of a chat show, Sparkes also plays other characters within the programme, such as pub singer Gwyn, old Mr Ffff and Fishguard news reporter Hugh Pugh. Although the series ended in 2004, it returned in 2007 for a series of one-off specials.
Throughout its original run, the series also won four BAFTA Cymru awards for Best Light Entertainment.

## Children's television

Sparkes provides the voice of the narrator and some other characters in the children's animated series Peppa Pig, in which the voice of fellow Absolutely star Morwenna Banks is also featured. In Shaun the Sheep he voices Bitzer the Dog and the Farmer. He also voices Mr Elf and King Marigold in Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom, Professor von Proton in The Big Knights, Steven in A Town Called Panic, and the lead character Fireman Sam in the 2005 series.

## Radio

After killing off Siadwel in Naked Video, Sparkes revived the character in 2014 for a new series of radio shows for BBC Radio Wales, which was recommissioned a year later.

## Writing

Sparkes has written and presented three ongoing television series of Great Pubs of Wales for ITV Wales. He has voiced the unseen character of archivist Goronwy, in a section of Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention for BBC One and has written and presented Ghost Story, in which he spent 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.

## Other work

In 2005, Sparkes performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Absolutely Presents John Sparkes and Pete Baikie with his Absolutely colleague Peter Baikie.
For Welsh television, he starred in Jeff Global's Global Probe (ITV Wales), and he resurrected the character Frank Hovis, originally devised for the Absolutely series, in Pub Quiz (BBC Wales).

## Personal life

Sparkes is married to Beverly and they have two grown-up daughters.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1989 | Melancholia [de] | Roger Dere | British-German film by Andi Engel, starring Jeroen Krabbé |
| 2003 | Calendar Girls | Welsh Photographer | |
| 2015 | Shaun the Sheep Movie | The Farmer, Bitzer | Voice role |
| 2015 | Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots | Narrator, Mr Potato | Voice role |
| 2015 | Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas | The Farmer, Bitzer, Hector | Voice role |
| 2017 | Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience | Narrator | Voice role |
| 2019 | A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon | The Farmer, Bitzer | Voice role |
| 2024 | Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl | The Farmer | Voice role, cameo |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1986 | Naked Video | Siadwel | 6 episodes |
| 1988 | Cabaret at Jongleurs | Unknown role | 1 episode |
| 1989–1993 | Absolutely | Various characters | 28 episodes |
| 1992 | Angry George Irons | Unknown role (voice) | 1 episode |
| 1992 | Saturday Zoo | Glaswegian Matron | 1 episode |
| 1994–1995 | The All New Alexei Sayle Show | Various characters | 8 episodes |
| 1996–2004 | Barry Welsh Is Coming | Barry Welsh, Hugh Pugh, various characters | |
| 1998 | Comedy Nation | Various roles | |
| 1999-2000 | The Big Knights | Various roles | |
| 2000 | The Strangerers | Bilbo | 2 episodes |
| 2001–2005 | Pub Quiz | Frank Hovis | |
| 2002 | A Town Called Picnic | Unknown role (voice) | 1 episode |
| 2004 | Jeff Global's Global Probe | Various roles | |
| 2004–present | Peppa Pig | Narrator, Mr Rabbit, Mr Potato, Uncle Pig, Mr Pony (voices) | |
| 2005 | Fireman Sam | Fireman Samuel "Sam" Jones, Fireman Elvis Cridlington, Station Officer Basil Steele, Norman Price, Dilys Price, Trevor Evans, Tom Thomas, Mike Flood, Dusty (voices) | 26 episodes |
| 2005 | Not Tonight with John Sergeant | Barry Welsh | TV movie |
| 2007–present | Shaun the Sheep | The Farmer, Bitzer (voices) | |
| 2009–2012 | Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom | Mr Elf, King Marigold, Zoe Baker (voices) | 44 episodes |

### Theatre

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 2006–2007 | Fireman Sam: On Stage | Fireman Sam (voice), Elvis Cridlington (voice), Dilys Price (voice), Norman Price (voice), Tom Thomas (voice) | |