Funny voices

For a decade I had the immense pleasure of working on The Folks on the Hill, a topical impressions show for BBC NI television and radio. Its writer and star was the incomparable Sean Crummey, who died in November 2011. Folks producer Owen McFadden is planning a tribute/fundraiser to mark the 5-year anniversary - more news when we get it.

I loved working on Folks. There was Sean of course - hilarious, generous, kind - and the crew - Owen, John, Bill, Frank, Liam - but the work itself was so much fun. I am really not an impressionist, but I'm quite flexible with my voice and found I could make a decent stab at the likes of Anne Robinson, the Queen, Victoria Beckham and various NI politicians, although there were plenty of voices I could never master - Cheryl Cole and Sharon Osbourne spring to mind - and I had to beg Sean to rewrite the sketches so I only had a line or two. The recording sessions were a joy from start to finish, this periodic foray into comedy a welcome change from the grim news grind.

So it's been fun to work more recently with long-time local comedy favourites The Hole in the Wall Gang. They've invited me to be a guest performer in the last 3 series of their radio sketch show A Perforated Ulster - it's been a chance to dust off some of the old voices and add a few new ones. For this latest series I've had NI First Minister Arlene Foster, Hillary Clinton and Chancellor Angela Merkel. The 6-part series runs until 2nd July - I feature in episodes 3 and 4. You can listen to the whole lot HERE.

The Sean Crummey Memorial Fund has so far raised more than £60,000 for research into bowel cancer.