John Sparkes Biography

John Sparkes (born 6 January 1954) is a Welsh comedian born in Swansea and 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. He also had major roles in Naked Video, Absolutely, Pub Quiz, and Jeff Global's Global Probe, and is narrator of children's TV show Peppa Pig.

Naked Video and Absolutely

Sparkes starred in the sketch show Naked Video, where he played Siadwell, the geeky bed-sit 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 and Barry Welsh is Coming (ITV Wales),

Barry Welsh

Barry Welsh is Coming was made for ITV Wales and broadcast only in Wales. As well as playing Barry Welsh, the host of a chat show, Sparkes also plays other characters within the programme, such as pub singer Gwyn and Fishguard news reporter Hugh Pugh. Although the series ended in 2004, it did return in 2007 for a series of one-off specials broadcast throughout the year.

Children's TV

He provides the voice of the Narrator and some other characters in the children's animated series Peppa Pig (which also features the voice of fellow Absolutely star Morwenna Banks), Shaun the Sheep and Mr. Elf and King Marigold in Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom. He also does the voice of Professor von Proton in The Big Knights, Steven in A Town Called Panic, and did the voice of Fireman Sam in the 2003-2005 series.

Other work

In 2005 he performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Absolutely Presents John Sparkes and Pete Baikie with his colleague from Absolutely.

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).

Currently, Sparkes is writing and presenting three ongoing television series for ITV Wales called "Great Pubs of Wales." He also voices the unseen character of archivist Goronwy, in a section of Wallace and Gromit's World of Invention showing on BBC One. He writes and presents Ghost Story in which he spends the night alone with a camcorder in haunted houses around Wales. He has co-written and presented Doug Strong's Special Places, a factual comedy series for ITV Wales and ITV Central.