Have you ever wondered who the distinctive voice that reads the Lottery numbers belongs to? Well, now you know. It’s Alan Dedicoat. Over the course of a career that has thrived for more than forty years, Dedicoat’s voice has become famous, even if his likeness hasn’t. If you don’t watch the Lottery, you’ll have heard him doing voiceovers on landmark programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing and Children in Need. He was also the main newsreader on BBC Radio 2 for nearly thirty years.
Born on the outskirts of Birmingham, Dedicoat was educated at two of the city’s finest institutions, King Edward VI and the University of Birmingham. In 1979, he began work at another Brummie landmark, Pebble Mill, then the home of local BBC TV and radio. By 1986, he had moved south to join Radio 2, becoming newsreader for Wake Up to Wogan, the UK’s most beloved breakfast show. It was Wogan who gave Dedicoat his nickname, ‘The Voice of the Balls’, owing to his role on the Lottery, which he has voiced since its inception in November 1994. His dulcet tones will also be familiar to younger viewers as, for over a decade, he has provided the voiceover for highly-rated CBBC game show Copycats.
Another area where Dedicoat puts his voice to excellent use is after-dinner speaking. Always in demand, Dedicoat is a highly-engaging, witty speaker with an armoury of anecdotes and quips to entertain corporate audiences. One of his favourite tasks at such events is as quizmaster, testing guests on anything and everything from music to their own company.
