From Doctor Who to opera coups: Jon Culshaw has done it all

Jon Culshaw is perhaps best known for his astonishing impersonation of Tom Baker - part of his repertoire of 350 voices. Now he has taken on David Dimbleby in a satirical operatic take on Question Time, he tells Tony PadmanJon Culshaw has an unorthodox way of avoiding unwanted callers to the front door of his Parliament Hill home. Rather than put up a sign saying no canvassers, politicians or estate agents, he switches into Tom Baker as Doctor Who.He recounts one such occasion. "Once, a group of Jehovah's Witnesses rang the doorbell and said: 'We'd like to talk to you about the Bible for a little while'. "It was busy time for me, so I just reacted in the voice of Tom Baker and said, 'No, I'm terribly sorry, that would be, err, terribly nice but unfortunately I have a very important job to do - one that involves the entire future of your species. Goodbye.'"I had a camera on the intercom and I wish I could have filmed it as they looked at each other in such a quizzical way."Needless to say, an interview with the impressionist and comedian is pure cabaret.He peppers our conversation with an assortment of famous voices. His Tom Baker is vocally so accurate and the delivery line so funny that you can picture the stunned reaction of the poor Jehovah's Witnesses. Although best known for the radio and television comedy show Dead Ringers, Culshaw made a slight departure for one night only when he played David Dimbleby in the BBC's sure-to-be-repeated Kombat Opera - Question Time Out.Culshaw explains the premise behind the show: "The programme's doing badly in the ratings and there's a modern studio executive who has an idea to have Graham Norton present it live from a pole dancing club."Mr Dimbleby objects to this and it's all about the battle of how he campaigns and gets everybody on his side and wins the fight - or does he?"Culshaw was so fascinated while reading the script that he began to imagine how this"pillar of the broadcasting world" would have responded were this to be true.He wanted to see how an esteemed journalist such as Dimbleby might react to some of the most bizarre situations imaginable, so in this case it was more than simply doing the voice - it also called for straight acting. His motivation in accepting the role was straightforward. "I was sent the script and thought, 'Yes I could do something with that'," says the 38-year-old, who speaks with a quiet northern accent except when he does his Tom Baker. "The starting point is to do the impersonation from behind the Question Time desk. Then as the guests become more and more outlandish, so the venues become more and more ridiculous."Add to that the inexperienced producers who come in and shout the odds with more barmy ideas. "Really, you've got to lift David Dimbleby up and make him into an activist and campaigner who you know will be heading to the streets. Everything is un-Dimbleby-like. He gets into a corner and fights." The musical comedy, written by Richard Thomas, also features the BBC Concert Orchestra, the BBC Singers and stars from the world of opera. Culshaw recalls: "One day the Question Time audience consisted of this huge choir and they would sing the questions with these wonderful harmonies and it was a staggering, amazing wall of glorious sound. It was beautiful to hear these arias with operatic delivery singing silly things. It's groundbreaking - nothing like it at all and it feels unique, which is great. I'm always looking for something like that." Dimbleby is one of more than 350 impersonations perfected by Culshaw that have won him and Dead Ringers rave reviews and countless awards, including a Broadcasting Press Guild award for Best Radio Programme.In fact, the only job this Ormskirk-born Lancashire lad has ever known is doing impressions.As far back as an eight-year-old, he mimicked neighbours, relatives (including an aunt who sounded like Alan Bennett) and his headteacher. He says he had his eureka moment when he was 15. "I just knew it would be some kind of performance thing," Culshaw remembers with precision."I was in the third year of high school and we had to make our career options. I had no interest in maths or science. It was a case of what are you going to do, what are you good at and what are you interested in?"But one science he did enjoy was watching The Sky At Night with Patrick Moore and Dr Who with Tom Baker, both of whom would make their mark when Dead Ringers began on Radio 4 in 2000 and two years later on BBC2. "I was not in a rush," he points out. "It was an accumulative thing, not a Big Brother load of nonsense. I wanted to take care and do my best, stuff I could look back and say I'm proud of that." This knack for voices plus a love of speech radio led to his first big break in 1986 as a presenter - albeit with an audience of patients and nurses on radio at Ormskirk General Hospital. The comedy road to Spitting Image and Dead Ringers went via local radio stations in the north where he finely tuned his famous hoax phone calls to listeners. He moved to London 10 years ago because of voice work and stints on Radio 1 and Capital Radio. "I came down here when I got a London voiceover agent. I thought this is the place to be if you're going to try and do something. This is the engine room of the entertainment industry." Culshaw comes across as easy going with no airs and graces despite the success he has achieved.Brought up on a diet of comedy geniuses such as Tommy Cooper, Morecambe and Wise and Ronnie Barker, he gives credit to his peers who have inspired him, such as Phil Cool, Rory Bremner and, in particular, Mike Yarwood.He says with absolute admiration for Yarwood: "A gentleman. I met Mike on several occasions. I loved the way he would recount stories about how he put his programmes together and how he met his characters and so on." The future is bright for Culshaw with more Dead Ringers on BBC2 and Radio 4, commercial voiceover work, plus a sketch for Comedy Relief on March 16. He admits his long-term plan could be away from traditional impressions. "I want to do more straight or character acting, something where you're not simply copying sounds from a tape - where you're actually reading a script and building a character."I'd like the feeling you get as you read the script, when you figure out who they are and what shaped them and what makes them react. It's a different area to making a voice."One instance for which Culshaw will forever be remembered was in 1998 while working on the Steve Penk show on Capital Radio. He was caught by a man who proved to be one step ahead of him: Tony Blair. The headline writers had a field day and it brought a smile to thefaces of Fleet Street political commentators and severalmillion newspaper readers. Culshaw, pretending to be William Hague, telephoned 10 Downing Street and asked to be put through to the Prime Minister, live on air. He does his William Hague while relating the story: "I said, 'Oh, Tony, eh up, eh up Tony'. I never expected to be put through and the joke was actually not to get through. It was meant to be, 'I am William Hague and you think I'm not important enough to be put through to the Prime Minister.'"The telephonist believed me and she put me straight through to Tony Blair who came to the phone and said hello. It was then I became nervous and thought, 'Oh we're in trouble now.' He knew it wasn't William Hague because he always addresses him as Prime Minister, not Tony." That might go some way to explaining that as an impressionist you can fool all of the people all of the time, unless it's Tony Blair.