Bradford butcher is 'voice' of Yorkshire Water (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bradford butcher is 'voice' of Yorkshire Water

10:45am Thursday 17th April 2008 in

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The dulcet Tyke tones of a Bradford butcher have won him the chance to swap his meat cleaver for a microphone as the new voice of Yorkshire Water.

Kevin Carroll, 52, won a competition to find a friendly Yorkshire twang to greet customers when they contact the firm's call centre.

He and more than 100 others recorded their own versions of the Yorkshire phrase: "Hear all, see all, say nowt. Eat all, sup all, pay nowt and if tha ever does owt for nowt allus do it for thi sen."

Five finalists were chosen and the contest was put to an online poll, which Kevin, of Gregory Crescent, Horton Bank Top, won with more than two thirds of the vote.

He said: "I've been told my voice isn't bad so when I saw the competition in the Telegraph & Argus I thought I'd give it a go.

"I'm proud that so many people voted for me.

"I think they just wanted a friendly Yorkshire voice, although strangely, I was in America last year and everyone thought I was Australian."

Following in the footsteps of Yorkshire celebrities Nell McAndrew and John Craven, Mr Carroll will also record a pod-cast that people can download and play as they walk around Ogden Reservoir, between Denholme and Halifax.

He will act as a virtual' tour guide pointing out places and points of interest.

He said: "I have been to the reservoir loads of times. I used to go all the time with my two daughters when they were younger. It's a really nice place."

Mr Carroll, who has always lived in Bradford has been a butcher at Morrisons supermarket in Keighley for about 30 years but he would not say no if he was offered more work as a voice-over artist.

He said: "I will carry on being a butcher unless I get a job doing voice-overs. I'm waiting for the call but not holding my breath!"

Zoe Mason, head of customer service at Yorkshire Water's contact centre Loop, said: "The aim of the competition was to find a voice that our customers could relate to. We are a Yorkshire company, we employ Yorkshire people so we thought it would be a good idea if the first voice they heard on contacting us was a Yorkshire one."