Gordon the Garden Gnome is a British animated children’s television series aimed at getting children interested in gardening. We caught up with\u00a0Alan Titchmarsh, the voice of Gordon:<\/p>\n
KEITH MILES:<\/strong> ALAN TITCHMARSH: KEITH MILES: ALAN TITCHMARSH: TONY COLLINGWOOD KEITH MILES: ALAN TITCHMARSH: KEITH MILES: ALAN TITCHMARSH: KEITH MILES: ALAN TITCHMARSH: KEITH MILES: ALAN TITCHMARSH: TONY COLLINGWOOD: ALAN TITCHMARSH: KEITH MILES: ALAN TITCHMARSH: KEITH MILES: ALAN TITCHMARSH: KEITH MILES: ALAN TITCHMARSH: Gordon the Garden Gnome is a British animated children’s television series aimed at getting children interested in gardening. We caught up with\u00a0Alan Titchmarsh, the voice of Gordon: KEITH MILES: Can we start with a little background, how you got involved with Gordon? ALAN TITCHMARSH: I had a phone call, as you do!\u00a0\u00a0Would you be interested […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1441,"featured_media":19937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[247,755],"tags":[127,128,42],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-interviews","tag-alan-titchmarse","tag-gordon-the-garden-gnome","tag-interview"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nCan we start with a little background, how you got involved with Gordon?<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I had a phone call, as you do!\u00a0\u00a0Would you be interested in?\u00a0\u00a0When I found out it was a cartoon to try to get tinies into the great outdoors, interested in gardens, away from Gameboys, Playstations, I thought yesthis is my purpose in life!<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Apart from voice over what other involvement have you been allowed in the animation?<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>As much as I thought I needed.\u00a0\u00a0They are great stories, well told and the lines are funny, so you know you get your own input in terms of timing and there are times when they get things slightly wrong horticulturally.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>When we heard\u00a0Alan’s\u00a0delivery, we knew we were cutting out funny scenes. Hes a very good actor.\u00a0\u00a0We made a five minute pilot and then we sat down. It was clear that Alan was good at pure story telling and we were losing the funnier moments.\u00a0\u00a0In a bizarre way\u00a0Alan’s\u00a0input has been to double the length of the shows.\u00a0\u00a0His sense of humour and rhythm of speech changed what we were doing and then we started to write further scripts.\u00a0\u00a0Alan carries a show as an artist rather than as a star.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Did you approve individual scripts with Alan?<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>I recorded on my own so not with the rest of the cast and need do anything up to.one sitting (or standing in fact) was 13 episodes, taking most of the day to do it.\u00a0\u00a0Great thing is that these guys are writers for the voice.\u00a0\u00a0I write both on the page in novels and columns.\u00a0\u00a0I also write scripts for television and there is a great difference between writing for the page and writing for the voice.\u00a0\u00a0It is their stock in trade.\u00a0\u00a0When you are writing for somebody else you have to hear them in your head and then when you write it down you know they can say it because you have heard them.\u00a0\u00a0Its not what happens in novels funnily enough, when you are writing dialogue in novels you act like its talking dictation.\u00a0\u00a0You listen for what the characters are saying and you write it down and then it comes over as speech not as written word.\u00a0\u00a0Narrative is quite different from speech and these guys deal in speech the whole time so once\u00a0they’d\u00a0heard me doing one programme, one episode, theyd got the voice in their head they know how I deliver and they are very quick.\u00a0They would do it without any changes.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Did you know how Gordon would sound or did he develop?<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>We did a pilot over two years ago and I thought well theyve asked me to do it so it should be a bit me.\u00a0\u00a0I dont think I should give him a posh voice so I thought Id make him me but more-so, flatten his vowels a little bit. Sort of a cross between Alan Bennett and Duncan Preston from Dinnerladies.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>You’re only doing Gordon.\u00a0\u00a0Did you work well with the other actors?<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>We only ever met occasionally, coming in and out.\u00a0\u00a0It is tricky not doing the voices with them.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Did you never at any stage feel you wanted to do a Johnny Morris and voice all the characters?<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>When we started, I was doing it all and it was narrated throughout.\u00a0\u00a0Two things became apparent, one was that when it went to ten minutes, if I did all the voices it would take about 5 years.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Stay as a child.\u00a0\u00a0Starts with AT narration so you know its the same person as Bernard Gibbs did with the Wombles, 10 minutes, tell story in slightly different way so that other characters to have their own voices.\u00a0\u00a0What we did keep from the pilot is that there is always a very nice introduction setting the scene.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Every episode eases the children in and every episode ends with and everyone was very, very happy.\u00a0\u00a0The feedback is always awww.\u00a0\u00a0Its very endearing.\u00a0\u00a0I like the Chief Gnome, they five you a smile when you talk about it.\u00a0\u00a0It has been a great experience.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>So you are hoping that Gordon will continue on?<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Oh yes, when we have the 1000th<\/span> episode, Ill pay for the party.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>That’s been recorded!\u00a0\u00a0Your personal interest in animation?<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Never really got into The\u00a0Simpson’s, but Tom & Jerry, I loved early British animation such as Captain Pugwash and Noggin the Nag.\u00a0\u00a0I met and interviewed Oliver Postgate and Peter Firm and they bought along their cardboard cut-outs.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>You mentioned The\u00a0Simpson’s\u00a0which is a fairly sophisticated humour but its nice to see something with the awww factor.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Yes, Noggin the Nog, Magic Roundabout, they were endearing, enchanting, gentle and calming.\u00a0\u00a0There arent many like that around.\u00a0\u00a0Its all robots and wars and it is quite refreshing to have something nicer.\u00a0\u00a0Gordon is very pretty too.\u00a0\u00a0It has a strong message put over in the gentlest way, which will leave kids thinking they just want to go outside.\u00a0\u00a0To be out there and to do what Gordon does.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"