Celebrity masterchef starts tonight (BBC One, Wednesday 10 June, 8pm) and that really is rather a cause for celebration. Rather. As fantastic as it will be to see Gregg and John in action (complete with a look at how Gregg’s tasting technique), one of the unheralded things that really makes the shows is India Fisher’s smooth and husky voiceover. She’s one of our favourite voiceover artists here at TV Scoop, and it was a real treat to talk to her. Although she sounds nothing like she sounds on the telly. Have a look at what she said after the jump…

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TV Scoop: So India, we’re paying tribute to our favourite shows featuring the best voiceovers on telly… Come Dine With Me…
India Fisher: I love Come Dine With Me! I love Come Dine With Me!

TVS: Masterchef is one of my favourite shows for lots of different reasons, but one of them is your voiceover.
IF: Bless you!

TVS: Can I ask you how you got involved with the show?
IF: Very boringly, I just auditioned. Not a very rock n’ roll answer, but I just got myself a voiceover agent and it was one of the jobs that first came up. I’d never done anything like it before. I was sort of blagging my way through it really: right, so that light comes on and I just speak, right? I’d never done any voiceover to TV before. You sit in a booth and you put on headphones and listen to the show. A light then comes on and then you speak. It’s a bit like being a trained monkey really – when lights comes on, I speak. They made me jump through quite a few hoops for it, I must say. I had to do four recalls. Bless them, they said, “We really like your voice but can you be a little bit less jolly hockey sticks?” And I was like, me? No I can’t! I kind of thought that if they didn’t want someone too jolly hockey sticks they should go and find someone else, but thankfully they didn’t.

TVS: What is the process of auditioning for a voiceover? Do they ask you to do something in a particular kind of voice? Or do they let you just speak naturally?
IF: Well… what’s lovely about my kind of work is that people are listening to your CV CD so you don’t know someone is listening to you. Thankfully, the Masterchef people liked the tone of my voice, and I did try to make it sound a little bit less jolly hockey sticks in the end. You just sit there and they play you the final, edited version because the voice is the last thing to get added.

TVS: No offence, but it does sound relatively easy…
IF: Yeah, yeah, yeah! I tell people I read aloud for a living! I suppose there is a knack to it…

TVS: But I guess that your voice is now an integral part of the show, so do you now analyse it all and tweak your voice at all?
IF: I must say that there are times when I catch the show – and it’s one from the very early days that’s being repeated on whatever channel it’s being repeated on – I do think, “Did I really say it like that?” I think I’ve got into a rhythm now and I now have my Masterchef voice. “It’s a minute to go and she’s burnt her muffins…”

TVS: Your voice on the show is quite husky and, dare I say it, quite sexy…
IF: Oh well, thank you very much. Whereas you’re saying that the voice you’re listening to now isn’t sexy?

TVS: No, no! I’m not saying that. It’s just… slightly different.
IF: Lots of people say that actually. I’ll be in a bar or something and someone will say that I don’t sound anything like I do on television. And I tell them that’s because there’s no music playing in your ear and when I’m on the telly I’m speaking an inch away from a very sensitive microphone.

TVS: I would imagine though, that’s because, as you’ve said, you’ve developed your Masterchef voice…
IF: Absolutely. There’s a definite Masterchef voice.

TVS: And did that have to be moulded by you and the production team?
IF: Yeah, I think it has been developed over the years. I got some very good direction to begin with. Karen Ross, the producer, was brilliant and I remember one time she came up to me and said, “India. Everyone likes you, everyone’s listening to you. You don’t have to shout.” It was one of those things I always remember!

TVS: The show really has captured the imagination…
IF: I think it’s a brilliant format, I have to say. It has just the right amount of people-watching – they always get interesting people on – and everyone fancies themselves as a bit of a cook, and lots of people fancy having a go. There’s just the right amount of competition without it being too reality TV. I think it’s a really winning format. And then there’s John and Gregg. I love them, they’re such great telly.

TVS: Do you hang out with them at all?
IF: No, not really. I think I did one series and I was walking in Wandsworth Common and John came jogging towards me. I was about to say hello, but then realised he would have absolutely no idea who I was. At all. I would just have looked like some sort of strange nutter. But I did meet them and I do know them. Whenever I see John, I tell him that he probably doesn’t remember me, but he always says, “I know who your are India, for god’s sake!”

TVS: You’re an actress, so what made you want to do some voiceover work?
IF: I sort of fell into it really. I’m an actor first and foremost, and I did three series of Dead Ringers. Jan Ravens very kindly put me in touch with her agent, who took me on as a voiceover artist. I’d done lots of radio plays before, and I do the audio version of Doctor Who. I’ve played the Doctor’s companion for 10 years, strangely enough. So it has always been a medium I’ve worked in was comfortable, but I’d never really thought about doing some voiceover work. Until I got this agent, and Masterchef was one of the first jobs that came up. Since then I’ve been very, very lucky with it.

TVS: You and the rave soundtrack…
IF: Yes! I know! It’s Club Masterchef!

TVS: Do you take bets at what sub-genre of dance music they might use next?
IF: Hahaha! Yes! Well, I always have to not show my ignorance when the producers tell me what a great tune such and such is. I feel very old sometimes… “Is this a popular beat combo?” I particularly love the repeated use of Firestarter.

TVS: I really love those bits when the contestants carry their finished dishes from their workstations over to Gregg and John. There’s always like this foreboding synth drone…. woooooooaaaaaarrrrrggggghhhh.
IF: Absolutely… will Sally’s terrine impress the judges? Has she overdone it with the tarragon?

TVS: So final question… what makes a good voiceover artist?
IF: Well, as I’ve said I adore Come Dine With Me and I adore Dave Lamb. He’s just one of the greatest voiceover artists in the world. I think he’s a very lucky lad because he gets to be sarcastic in his stuff. That is just the perfect voiceover, and he’s a God in the sub-genre of voiceover.