Patrick Allen

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As Captain Collier in Night Creatures (1962), Allen doffs his hat to the late Captain Clegg

For other persons named Patrick Allen, see Patrick Allen (disambiguation).

John Keith Patrick Allen (March 17, 1927 - July 28, 2006) was a British actor and voice actor.

Allen was born in Nyasaland (now Malawi), where his father was a tobacco farmer. After his parents returned to Britain, he was evacuated to Canada during the War where he stayed to finish his education.

His made his film debut in Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (1954). He subsequently appeared in character roles in many films, including Night Creatures, The Wild Geese, The Sea Wolves and Who Dares Wins.

He was the narrator for the British Government's Protect and Survive series of instructional videos in the 1970s; some of his lines in that production were re-recorded and sampled into the single Two Tribes by the band Frankie Goes to Hollywood. Allen has also worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company in a number of stage roles, along with many BBC productions. He was also the voiceover artist for Vic and Bob's comedy series "Vic Reeves Big Night Out", The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer and Shooting Stars, and appeared in and voiced numerous commercials for house builder Barratt Homes. His voice over work led him to start up his own business, running a very successful recording studio for voice-over work.

He provided the narration for the 1988 children's series TUGS, playing Captain Star. He also narrated the first series of Blackadder, and appeared in the last episode The Black Seal as Edmund's arch-nemesis, Phillip of Burgundy - known to his enemies as 'The Hawk'.

In 2005, he became the voice of the British television channel E4, providing voiceovers for many of its idents and promotions. Some of the slogans are rather irreverent and very funny, and match the tone of the channel well, especially during the channel's recent campaigns. These include:

Only we has got Six Chuffing Feet (to advertise the final series of Six Feet Under)
Paris squashed against Britney in your gaff (to advertise The Simple Life and Britney and Kevin: Chaotic back-to-back; the word 'gaff' is British slang for 'house')
Big Shiny Films in your Dinky Little Home (to advertise films)
Chucking Spunky Tunes In Your Tellybox (to advertise E4 Music, the channel's music television strand)
Shamelessly importing Cool Stuff (referring to shows including Lost and the aforementioned Six Feet Under)
Watch the piggies squeal! (advertising Big Brother Diary Room Uncut)

Not long before his death, he narrated parody versions of the Protect and Survive films for Kerrang! TV.

He was also the voice of the Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show on XFM, the late show on 103.2 Power FM and briefly Virgin Radio, until he fell ill early in 2006.

He died on the 28 July 2006. [1] He left a widow, the actress Sarah Lawson and two sons. However he is still remembered as the first ever voice of captain star from the 1988 - 1989 series TUGS, & also still remembered as first narrator of Blackadder,