Actor William Shatner Used His Past As A Counsellor At A Welfare Camp In Canada To Perfect His Tone As The New Narrator Of Beloved British Children's Show The Clangers.
The Star Trek icon admits producers were a little nervous when he first hit the studio and stepped up to the microphone - because they feared his voice might not work for the show - but he quickly put them at ease.
He tells WENN, "Telling stories to kids is something I did all my life. I was a camp counsellor at a welfare camp in Canada and I was in great demand at these bunks to go and tell a story, and I'd make up a story.
"If they were teenagers I would tell them horror stories which would send them to bed shaking. So I started as a teenager telling stories that might very well have enhanced my desire to be an actor. As time went on and I had children of my own, I was in great demand as daddy, the storyteller. Generations have come and gone and I'm still the storyteller.
"The challenge (for The Clangers) is we're entertaining two-to-six year olds, which is very difficult because their attention span is limited. So what do you do? How do you tell a story that will capture your imagination while you are sitting with your child... There is a high-minded aspect to The Clangers, in that each of these stories has a little lesson to it that the parent can discuss with the child. It has been on the air in England for generations.
"I decided to come in close to the microphone and to talk to the child as though they were right there and I was telling this child as though they were on my lap or in front of me... and I could feel the producers relaxing as they found out what I was going to do. There had to have been some hesitation, a 'What's he going to do?' - because they couldn't really ask me to audition, could they?"
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