About Gary
Born in Benton, Newcastle upon Tyne but now living further up the Northumberland coast.
Jobs have included everything from bacon boning to exhaust fitting before going back to college to study Film and Television Production.
Gary has been creating funny stories and cartoons for many years. The Fairly Truthful Tales series of books and CDs are often featured on BBC and local radio.
No longer performing himself he prefers writing material for celebrities including Johnny Handle, Bill Maynard and Bernard Wrigley to perform live and on radio.
Gary’s cartoons accompany his writing work and that of several other authors including poetry, childrens and school books.
Gary is a volunteer presenter on Radio Tyneside - that's our local hospital and community radio station here in Newcastle and Gateshead - but it's also available on DAB, 93.6FM and online - so Geordies all over the world can listen. As well as The Geordie Hour, Gary has created and presented ‘Born at the Right Time, An Hour with Good Folk, The Happy Time Jazz Show and the Rare Old Times Radio Show - as well as documentaries and comedy dramas.
Geordie Dialect
My childhood council estate was built to house workers for the recently opened Ministry of Pensions and so attracted people from all over the country. Our neighbours were from London, Yorkshire, Lancashire and a couple of Northumbrians. It wasn’t until the slum clearances in the West End that we started to get some proper Geordies living there. My dad was a ‘Jesmond Geordie’ and encouraged us to speak correctly at all times. My mother was a Lancastrian, with Scottish parents brought up in Carlisle so she was no help either! Although I did develop an ear for different dialects and became a bit of a mimic.
20 years in the motor trade brought the Geordie out in my voice and working in Gallowgate and the West End meant I had to be able to communicate. I have since researched the origins of our language and written a book on the subject. I also write and record Geordie dialect material for monologues.
I also present The Geordie Hour on local radio so I feel suitably qualified to offer advice; if not as a well-read academic but an enthusiastic practitioner! First and foremost, I love dialects, especially Geordie and am passionate about maintaining regional identities.
As a result of writing a book on the subject, producing many Geordie monologues and cartoons AND presenting The Geordie Hour on radio, I was asked by the BBC to appear on a special Newcastle episode of Songs of Praise. I spoke about the origins and history of our language for a couple of hours - which was then edited down to a couple of minutes!
Voice Over Artist
Being a performer for many years and a broadcaster for the last 13 years, Gary can easily read in broad Geordie or a more refined standard English with a Newcastle accent. Don’t ask him for RP! All voice overs are recorded, broadcast standard, in his home studio with a very fast turnaround.
Having written almost 1000 scripts for radio, video and TV Gary is also in demand as a script editor.
His Geordie voice has been used in a series of animated films for The Byker Lion and in an interactive quiz in the Lost Dialects department at THE WORD - The National Centre for the Written Word in South Shields.
