December 11, 2019 • 20 mins
In this episode our David Rintoul, known for his role in the recent series of The Crown (among many other things) joins us to tell us about his audiobook prep process and his advice for budding video game voiceovers.
Presenter: David John
Producer and editor: Emma Samuel
Created by: Neil Conrich
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
David John (00:00):
So hi again from me, David John, I'm here again to
introduce you to the Squadcastpodcast from London voice agents
Voice Squad.
I'll be interviewing people fromall over the industry but mainly
people involved with VoiceSquad.
And this week I'm talking toVoice Squad actor and voice
(00:20):
artist David Rintoul.
David is a hugely experiencedtheatrical actor and television
and film as well as a voiceactor.
Got a few credits here....
correct me if I've got anythingwrong, David, we've got Mr Darcy
in the 1980 adaptation of Prideand Prejudice, Aerys Targaryen
in Game of Thrones.
(00:42):
Some voice stuff- he's done alot of work in Peppa Pig, I
believe.
David Rintoul (00:46):
Yes.
David John (00:47):
And of course many, many audiobooks- and these days
doing a lot of work in the gamesindustry, which is a growing
part of our industry and veryinteresting part for us as
actors.
So we'll be talking about that.
Says here you were in Warhammer,Vermintide and Pillars of the
Earth.
David Rintoul (01:04):
Among others.
Yep.
David John (01:05):
Great.
So welcome David.
David Rintoul (01:07):
Thank you.
David John (01:07):
We're going to start right at the beginning.
Acting.
How did you get into it?
When did you discover you wantedto be an actor and how did it
all start for you?
David Rintoul (01:17):
No family connection except one of my
father's second cousins was aprofessional wrestler, so maybe
that's where it came from.
But I as a kid, I used to writeplays at school, and a primary
school teacher encouraged me towrite plays and to put them on
and to act in them.
And then I joined a very goodyouth theatre group in Aberdeen,
run by a wonderful woman,Catherine Hollingworth.
(01:37):
Started off as an electrician,working for her, and then she
eventually allowed me to playsome of the odd part and I got
completely obsessed by it.
David John (01:44):
Yeah.
David Rintoul (01:45):
Did a couple of tellys, um, as a teenager
through her, went university,not to be an actor.
Enrolled for law, was going tobe a lawyer, worked in a law
office before I went.
Thought, no, pointless goingthrough this long training, if
I'm not- my heart's not, reallyin it.
Didn't know what to do.
Did philosophy.
Which was a bit of a joke.
I was 17.
I didn't really know what I wasdoing but I knew I loved acting
(02:08):
and Edinburgh's a kind of placewhich didn't have a drama
department, but it was quiteliberal.
David John (02:14):
And that's the university, Edinburgh, yes?
David Rintoul (02:14):
This is a long time ago, this is late sixties
and they had two theatres andthey said, well, boys and girls-
run them.
To those of us in the dramasociety.
So in three years I directed sixplays, I acted in thirty.
David John (02:25):
Fantastic.
David Rintoul (02:25):
I wasn't a very good student of philosophy and
towards the end of my secondyear, I suddenly decided, well,
this is what I love doing Iwonder if I could make a living
and addition for drama schools?
Got into RADA and that was it.
David John (02:39):
That was it.
David Rintoul (02:39):
Yup.
David John (02:40):
Wow.
Everyone has such a differentjourney don't they?
David Rintoul (02:41):
Yeah.
David John (02:41):
But it's getting that bug that you got right at
the beginning of creating andwriting.
David Rintoul (02:46):
Yeah, completely obsessed.
And that decision to be an actorwas not so much as a career
choice, but as a kind of a, as avery deeply personal choice.
And this is what I am.
This is who I am.
I'm an actor.
That doesn't sound pretentious!But that's what I felt like.
David John (03:03):
Yeah, yeah.
The thing that's interesting aswell is that, I don't know about
you, but I had that samefeeling.
It was, well, no one can make aliving doing that, coming from
where you come from.
David Rintoul (03:13):
Absolutely.
David John (03:13):
So you have to kind of battle through that as well.
Yeah.
So, um, you then left RADA hadlots of different kinds of work-
theatre film and telly.
I imagine.
David Rintoul (03:25):
I was lucky.
I was lucky.
I got a lead in a TV seriesagain for BBC Scotland.
It was Robert Louis Stevenson'slast novel called Weir of
Hermiston which is about afather and son conflict.
And as it happened, most of myScottish contemporaries were
what used to be called charactermen, rather than young leading
men.
David John (03:45):
Right.
David Rintoul (03:45):
So I got the part of Archie Weir- and it was a
wonderful part- playing oppositethe great Tom Fleming, who's
playing my father, who I workedwith quite a lot after that, and
a fantastic Scottish cast.
And this was about four monthsout of drama school.
So a really lucky break.
David John (03:58):
Fantastic.
David Rintoul (03:58):
And that got me into TV, both in Scotland and
down here in London.
And at the same time roughlyI've joined a Joint Stock
Theater Company, which is a Bill[William] Gaskill and Max
Stafford-Clark working withpeople like David Hare and Caryl
Churchill and Howard Brentonwhen they were very young.
I stayed with them for eightyears on and off.
(04:20):
So I had a lot of luck early onin my career, which is kind of
necessary.
David John (04:25):
Yeah, luck is necessary, but then you have to,
you know, take thoseopportunities I guess, and
working with those people what afantastic introduction to the
industry.
So were you at that point everconsidering or working in voice
at all, or was that somethinglike the kind of later?
David Rintoul (04:43):
Not really.
I mean, I mean I did, I did someradio early on mainly in
Scotland.
David John (04:45):
That's kind of radio drama?
David Rintoul (04:50):
Yeah I remember when I was a teenager, I bought
a series of Shakespearerecordings by, you know, the
greats like Wolfit and PaulScofield.
And, uh, Gielgud and so on.
And I used to- up in my room-and I'd forgotten all about
this, but I had a little taperecorder and I used to take
myself doing Shakespearespeeches.
(05:11):
I must've been fifteen, sixteen.
It was a weird thing for afifteen or sixteen year old boy
to do but I suppose it wasthere.
David John (05:31):
That's the actor! He was there at fifteen.
David Rintoul (05:31):
I mean, how all this started, how the audiobook
started was Marilyn Imrie, who'sa wonderful radio producer.
She did her first productionever and I was in the cast and
it was my first radio productionever.
And on one occasion I was doinga recording of a Walter Scott
novel.
I mean as a drama rather than asa narrator, being in it.
And we're having a drinkafterwards and she said, Oh, I
had a funny day.
She said, I've just been talkingto the Ian Fleming estate and
(05:52):
asking if the solo recordingradio rights were available for
any of the James Bond novels.
And they said No what do youwant?
She said Oh, right! I'll haveGoldfinger and From Russia With
Love.
And they said, Fine, you've gotit.
And there was just a slot then,this is talking about the 80s,
it was a slot then- Storytime Ithink it was called- at
quarter-to-five to five o'clock.
David John (06:12):
And that's Radio Four is it?
David Rintoul (06:12):
Radio Four.
Yeah.
A solo reading slot.
And she said, well, I've askedSean Connery's agent and he
says, no, not interested.
She said I do not know who toask and I was sitting there
having a drink with her and Ikept completely schtum, I didn't
say a word.
But twenty minutes later shesaid, Ah David, do you want to
do that?
I said I'd love to.
Of course I would.
(06:33):
So I did the two things.
Um, I was able to be on a chatshow with Alan Titchmarsh, with
Honour Blackman and I was ableto say, do you realize, Honour
that you and I are the only twopeople in the world ever to play
Pussy Galore?
So after that I did these two-
David John (06:51):
So that was for radio not as audiobooks?
David Rintoul (06:57):
That was for Radio.
But then Shivers Press, as was,who were up in Finchley, said,
well, do you want to do whatturned out to be, all the James
Bond books?
And that, those are the first 40books I ever did, which was a
fantastic start! And that was in1983.
Um, and so since then I've doneabout 250 audiobooks.
(07:18):
And it's been a large part of mycareer and a great joy.
I mean, I absolutely love it.
David John (07:23):
Yeah.
And I guess at that period, theearly eighties, it was growing.
David Rintoul (07:26):
It was great.
David John (07:27):
I mean nothing to what it is now.
That was the beginning, wasn'tit?
David Rintoul (07:30):
Yeah.
I mean, I think technicallypeople were actually literally
cutting it with a razor blade,stitching the tape together.
That of course it was issued onas cassettes but so that was the
start.
David John (07:44):
And with this downloadable thing now it's just
completely exploded.
So, you say you get great joyfrom audiobooks, is that, that's
one of your favorite audio jobs?
David Rintoul (07:54):
I think it is.
I mean, it's very hard work.
David John (07:58):
But a good book I guess is a cracker.
David Rintoul (08:01):
I think I've been lucky with the books I've got
and I've been asked to read.
I mean, you know, you do yourfair share of stuff that you
think, no, this is maybe notsomething I normally enjoy
reading just for myself, butactually not many of these.
Most of the stuff I've had toread up I've been really
interested in.
And also it gives you, it givesyou books to read.
(08:22):
Um, you know, it introduced meto books I might not otherwise
[have read].
David John (08:27):
And of course as a reader it's that thing, if the
book is well written, even ifit's not something that you may
read, it's still a pleasure toread it.
David Rintoul (08:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It also depends on genre aswell.
I mean, I've read some very goodhistory books for example, and
theyare difficult because thereisn't a story as such.
It's a succession of facts.
Um, and you're not quite asengaged in it.
It's, it's much more of a job, awork.
Still enjoyable, but I mean, Isuppose what you, what I enjoy
(09:00):
most about it is that good oldfashioned thing of storytelling,
which goes back centuries.
David John (09:04):
And that's the skill of it, doing a history book is
you, you have to tell the storyso people will engage and listen
to you.
David Rintoul (09:10):
Yes.
In as much as you can with it,an academic book.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
David John (09:14):
So, let's talk about games because you've been doing
a lot of work in computer games.
Again, something that's explodedin the last, would you say five,
ten years maybe?
I mean, it's just incredible.
And, you've done a lot of work.
So how do you find working oncomputer games?
David Rintoul (09:32):
Well, and again, I enjoy it.
This has happened through Neiland Voice Squad.
have a kind of what I call aconventional agent as well.
I do film and TV through that.
(A theatrical agent.) But I'vebenefited hugely from working
with Neil and Voice Squadbecause he's introduced me to
(09:53):
all kinds of different thingslike video games and, well,
they're very high energy.
They tend to be very highenergy.
I tend to get rather high energycharacters! I specialise in
dwarves! One of my very regularcharacters, is a Yorkshire
dwarf, but I've also done myshare of Scottish dwarves as
(10:14):
well and all sorts.
And I suppose what I enjoy, oneof the things I enjoy, is you
don't know really what you'regoing to come up against.
You know, you'll get the callfor this video game and you say,
what are the characters?
And you may be told about thecharacters beforehand or you may
not.
Sometimes you just turn up andthere is an image on the screen.
(10:35):
What do you think this charactermight sound like?
And you go, Oh, well, um, whatabout this?
What about this?
What about this?
And you've got to work quitequickly to find a voice, an
appropriate voice for thatimage.
If everyone agrees with that, ifthat's a good voice off you go.
So it's very much in the moment.
Um, and I enjoy that about it.
David John (10:52):
Yeah.
So that's kind of using all theold skills that you get from
theatre, bringing the actingskills and having to work
quickly?
David Rintoul (10:59):
I guess it is.
I mean, I never thought that I'dreach my great age and be a kind
of Mynah Bird actor.
And indeed I'm not a greatmimic.
I can, if you give me a voice, Ican do an approximation of it,
but mimicry is a real separateskill I don't possess.
But what I can do, I guess isinvent voices and come up with
(11:22):
the voices that amuse me orexcite me.
And you know, do that.
David John (11:27):
Yeah.
And that's all about making thecharacter believable for the
game.
The players now demand goodperformances from their
characters or they don't believeit.
David Rintoul (11:37):
That's right.
I mean, yeah, the player entersinto the imaginative world of
the game and you as a performersort of that's your job is also
to enter into the imaginaryworld of the game so that you
take the player along with youand you both enter into that
kind of imaginative world.
David John (11:56):
So as it's growing, obviously you're getting a lot
of work.
There are a lot of other peopleinterested in getting this work.
I mean as well as what you'vejust said about the way you have
to quickly think of a characterand work on it then and there.
What other kind of advice couldyou give for say a young actor
coming in?
David Rintoul (12:13):
Big advice.
Big advice is very often at theend of a session or sometimes
during the session they say, canyou do things like: you have
been stuck in the chest with aspear(or) you are being thrown
off a bridge screen.
All those general kinds ofthings.
Combat noises, roars as you gointo battle.
(12:34):
My strong advice to any otheractor is leave that to the end.
Because if you do it at thebeginning of a session, you tend
to rip your voice to bits.
Um, and then you don't have theaccess to the subtlety of
dialogue.
So do all the dialogue first andthen do your screaming and'man
falls off bridge' and'spearthrough head'.
David John (12:54):
Very wise.
It's what we say with ADR aswell with the dubbing, you know,
always do that stuff at the endbecause you can't really cheat
it if you're dying and fallingoff somewhere in your throat cut
.
You have to scream as if you'redying and falling, you know?
David Rintoul (13:09):
And again, I mean , you fall back into theatre
resources there, you use yourdiaphragm, you try to get off
your throat.
But inevitably, usually I walkout of a video game session with
a fairly tired voice.
You've got to watch it.
Because quite often I do a lotof theatre.
(13:30):
You know, if you've had a reallyhard day on a video game, you've
got to watch it if you've got abig show that night.
David John (13:38):
Yeah.
So I'm just popping back toaudiobooks.
Have you got a particulartechnique for preparing, because
different actors prepare inslightly different ways.
What do you generally do?
David Rintoul (13:53):
Now I use an iPad.
I've been using one for yearsand years and years.
I used to ask the company toblow it up onto double sided A4.
I would mark up each voice in adifferent coloured ink.
I would make my pronunciationlists and then I'd research
pronunciation.
When I was in the studio, Iwould have this thing, the
(14:15):
double A4 like a conveyor belt.
So when I made a mistake, I'dshift it on.
If I was on a run you'd have towatch it because you're kind of
leaning off the chair back intothe mic to stay on mic.
But you know, on a page of A4it's very seldom you get through
that without making a mistakeand having to do it again.
So now it's on iPad and I use anapp that I can underline and
(14:39):
make notes.
I've stopped underlining eachvoice laboriously which I could
do with an electronic app, butactually it's usually pretty
obvious who's speaking.
If it's really difficult, then Iwill underline just to draw
attention to who it is.
But I still make thepronunciation lists.
So what I do is I'll make thepronunciation list, underlining
(15:03):
in red each of the words I don'tknow, usually foreign words, but
some obscure English words aswell.
I will then write them all outlonghand on blank sheets of
paper and then I'll research it.
And now sometimes I can researchit with a dictionary.
(15:24):
Sometimes they use Forvo orother pronunciation guides.
Forvo's good for some languages,not so good for others.
It's good on German for example,but you know, et cetera.
But usually I try and get itfrom the horse's mouth.
So I had a lot of Polish wordsand I went to Justyna, who's in
the agency, who is Polish,recorded her, but that's not the
(15:47):
end of the process.
Once I've recorded her, I goback to my handwritten and
against each word in red ink, Iuse my own particular kind of
phonetics.
Um, so there it all is in order.
I give a copy to the person onthe other side of the glass of
both the written and therecorded, versions so they can
(16:08):
check through as well.
So it's quite a laboriousprocess.
I mean it's luck of the draw.
Some books you have a very shortpronunciation list, but others
very, very long pronunciationlist.
I suppose my biggest was aDorothy Dunnett historical epic
about who the original Macbethwas and it's 850 pages.
(16:32):
And I think I had something like600 pronunciation queries in
Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic,Welsh Gaelic, old Norse,
Icelandic, you name it.
And so that was a huge piece ofresearch.
But you know, you take the roughwith the smooth and, and it's an
education.
David John (16:51):
It is.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is sometimes hours andhours and hours of preparing
often more than the actualrecording of the book, isn't it?
(16:59):
So what we usually do is ask a few kind of quick fire questions
that we ask everybody.
So just to get a picture of whatyou feel about certain things.
Yeah.
So just before we go- are you acat person or a dog person?
David Rintoul (17:12):
We've got a cat and I'm fond of both.
Dogs are more difficult to keepin a way.
Cats.
We have a neighbour who looksafter our cat, Oscar.
David John (17:20):
Does the cat sitting.
Yeah.
Good.
Good.
Oscar.
Good name.
Favourite ice cream flavor?
David Rintoul (17:28):
Ah, I'm rather fond of a vanilla and salted
caramel.
David John (17:34):
Very good.
Yeah.
Um, okay.
Here's a good one.
What is your favourite movie ofall time?
David Rintoul (17:40):
Seven Samurai.
Well, I'd have to juggle, but Isay that and Les Enfants du
Paradis as well.
David John (17:47):
Yes.
Yes, yes.
Two classy bits of work.
So last time you went to thetheatre, what did you see?
David Rintoul (17:53):
It was two nights ago I went to see Ibsen's
Rosmersholm.
And it was very, very good.
It's a weird play.
Ibsen is an extraordinary writer.
I've played Peer Gynt and I'veplayed Allmers in Little Eyolf,
but he's very weird.
But that was a good production,I enjoyed that.
David John (18:07):
And where's that on?
David Rintoul (18:08):
Duke of York's.
David John (18:08):
Yeah.
Okay, good.
And now to London where you'velived since?
David Rintoul (18:13):
Since oh'60 (1960)...Oh wait a minute.
'69,(1969).
David John (18:20):
And was that coming down to RADA?
[Yes.] Okay.
So what is your now yourfavourite place in London?
David Rintoul (18:25):
Goodness.
Uh, it's a good question.
I'll tell you what- my favoriteplace(is) the river.
I love the Thames and I'm luckyenough to live in Fulham.
I can get the boat from Putneybridge down to work, if I'm
working in central London.
I quite often taken the boat into work, so I love the river.
David John (18:44):
Yeah and that covers an awful lot of London, of
course.
Great.
Okay, David, thank you so much!
David Rintoul (18:52):
Great pleasure.
David John (18:52):
Very interesting talking to you.
Next week we'll be talking toKobna Holbrook Smith.
He's a Voice Squad artist.
He's gained a lot of attentionfor his work in movies recently.
He was in Mary Poppins Returnsand also Paddington 2.
He's recently been working inthe West End as Ike Turner in
Tina the Musical, verysuccessfully.
(19:14):
Award-winning, actually won an[Olivier] award.
He's read a lot of audiobooks,in particular the Rivers of
London series.
Rivers of London! There we are.
He'll be talking to us, youknow, in more depth about his
work in particular withaudiobooks and also everything
else he does.
If you want to find out any moreabout Voice Squad or listen to
(19:36):
any of the artists, listen toDavid's reel or Kobna's reel,
then please visit the website.
Please check us out on Twitter,Facebook, and LinkedIn.
And if you enjoyed the episode,please subscribe, rate us
wherever you listen to thepodcast and come back and listen
to the next episode.
Squadcast is a Voice Squadlimited production hosted by
(19:58):
David John, devised by NeilConrich.
It's produced by Emma Samuel andalso edited by Emma Samuel.
If you've got any questionsplease drop us an email.
So hi again from me, David John, I'm here again to
introduce you to the Squadcastpodcast from London voice agents
Voice Squad.
I'll be interviewing people fromall over the industry but mainly
people involved with VoiceSquad.
And this week I'm talking toVoice Squad actor and voice
(00:20):
artist David Rintoul.
David is a hugely experiencedtheatrical actor and television
and film as well as a voiceactor.
Got a few credits here....
correct me if I've got anythingwrong, David, we've got Mr Darcy
in the 1980 adaptation of Prideand Prejudice, Aerys Targaryen
in Game of Thrones.
(00:42):
Some voice stuff- he's done alot of work in Peppa Pig, I
believe.
David Rintoul (00:46):
Yes.
David John (00:47):
And of course many, many audiobooks- and these days
doing a lot of work in the gamesindustry, which is a growing
part of our industry and veryinteresting part for us as
actors.
So we'll be talking about that.
Says here you were in Warhammer,Vermintide and Pillars of the
Earth.
David Rintoul (01:04):
Among others.
Yep.
David John (01:05):
Great.
So welcome David.
David Rintoul (01:07):
Thank you.
David John (01:07):
We're going to start right at the beginning.
Acting.
How did you get into it?
When did you discover you wantedto be an actor and how did it
all start for you?
David Rintoul (01:17):
No family connection except one of my
father's second cousins was aprofessional wrestler, so maybe
that's where it came from.
But I as a kid, I used to writeplays at school, and a primary
school teacher encouraged me towrite plays and to put them on
and to act in them.
And then I joined a very goodyouth theatre group in Aberdeen,
run by a wonderful woman,Catherine Hollingworth.
(01:37):
Started off as an electrician,working for her, and then she
eventually allowed me to playsome of the odd part and I got
completely obsessed by it.
David John (01:44):
Yeah.
David Rintoul (01:45):
Did a couple of tellys, um, as a teenager
through her, went university,not to be an actor.
Enrolled for law, was going tobe a lawyer, worked in a law
office before I went.
Thought, no, pointless goingthrough this long training, if
I'm not- my heart's not, reallyin it.
Didn't know what to do.
Did philosophy.
Which was a bit of a joke.
I was 17.
I didn't really know what I wasdoing but I knew I loved acting
(02:08):
and Edinburgh's a kind of placewhich didn't have a drama
department, but it was quiteliberal.
David John (02:14):
And that's the university, Edinburgh, yes?
David Rintoul (02:14):
This is a long time ago, this is late sixties
and they had two theatres andthey said, well, boys and girls-
run them.
To those of us in the dramasociety.
So in three years I directed sixplays, I acted in thirty.
David John (02:25):
Fantastic.
David Rintoul (02:25):
I wasn't a very good student of philosophy and
towards the end of my secondyear, I suddenly decided, well,
this is what I love doing Iwonder if I could make a living
and addition for drama schools?
Got into RADA and that was it.
David John (02:39):
That was it.
David Rintoul (02:39):
Yup.
David John (02:40):
Wow.
Everyone has such a differentjourney don't they?
David Rintoul (02:41):
Yeah.
David John (02:41):
But it's getting that bug that you got right at
the beginning of creating andwriting.
David Rintoul (02:46):
Yeah, completely obsessed.
And that decision to be an actorwas not so much as a career
choice, but as a kind of a, as avery deeply personal choice.
And this is what I am.
This is who I am.
I'm an actor.
That doesn't sound pretentious!But that's what I felt like.
David John (03:03):
Yeah, yeah.
The thing that's interesting aswell is that, I don't know about
you, but I had that samefeeling.
It was, well, no one can make aliving doing that, coming from
where you come from.
David Rintoul (03:13):
Absolutely.
David John (03:13):
So you have to kind of battle through that as well.
Yeah.
So, um, you then left RADA hadlots of different kinds of work-
theatre film and telly.
I imagine.
David Rintoul (03:25):
I was lucky.
I was lucky.
I got a lead in a TV seriesagain for BBC Scotland.
It was Robert Louis Stevenson'slast novel called Weir of
Hermiston which is about afather and son conflict.
And as it happened, most of myScottish contemporaries were
what used to be called charactermen, rather than young leading
men.
David John (03:45):
Right.
David Rintoul (03:45):
So I got the part of Archie Weir- and it was a
wonderful part- playing oppositethe great Tom Fleming, who's
playing my father, who I workedwith quite a lot after that, and
a fantastic Scottish cast.
And this was about four monthsout of drama school.
So a really lucky break.
David John (03:58):
Fantastic.
David Rintoul (03:58):
And that got me into TV, both in Scotland and
down here in London.
And at the same time roughlyI've joined a Joint Stock
Theater Company, which is a Bill[William] Gaskill and Max
Stafford-Clark working withpeople like David Hare and Caryl
Churchill and Howard Brentonwhen they were very young.
I stayed with them for eightyears on and off.
(04:20):
So I had a lot of luck early onin my career, which is kind of
necessary.
David John (04:25):
Yeah, luck is necessary, but then you have to,
you know, take thoseopportunities I guess, and
working with those people what afantastic introduction to the
industry.
So were you at that point everconsidering or working in voice
at all, or was that somethinglike the kind of later?
David Rintoul (04:43):
Not really.
I mean, I mean I did, I did someradio early on mainly in
Scotland.
David John (04:45):
That's kind of radio drama?
David Rintoul (04:50):
Yeah I remember when I was a teenager, I bought
a series of Shakespearerecordings by, you know, the
greats like Wolfit and PaulScofield.
And, uh, Gielgud and so on.
And I used to- up in my room-and I'd forgotten all about
this, but I had a little taperecorder and I used to take
myself doing Shakespearespeeches.
(05:11):
I must've been fifteen, sixteen.
It was a weird thing for afifteen or sixteen year old boy
to do but I suppose it wasthere.
David John (05:31):
That's the actor! He was there at fifteen.
David Rintoul (05:31):
I mean, how all this started, how the audiobook
started was Marilyn Imrie, who'sa wonderful radio producer.
She did her first productionever and I was in the cast and
it was my first radio productionever.
And on one occasion I was doinga recording of a Walter Scott
novel.
I mean as a drama rather than asa narrator, being in it.
And we're having a drinkafterwards and she said, Oh, I
had a funny day.
She said, I've just been talkingto the Ian Fleming estate and
(05:52):
asking if the solo recordingradio rights were available for
any of the James Bond novels.
And they said No what do youwant?
She said Oh, right! I'll haveGoldfinger and From Russia With
Love.
And they said, Fine, you've gotit.
And there was just a slot then,this is talking about the 80s,
it was a slot then- Storytime Ithink it was called- at
quarter-to-five to five o'clock.
David John (06:12):
And that's Radio Four is it?
David Rintoul (06:12):
Radio Four.
Yeah.
A solo reading slot.
And she said, well, I've askedSean Connery's agent and he
says, no, not interested.
She said I do not know who toask and I was sitting there
having a drink with her and Ikept completely schtum, I didn't
say a word.
But twenty minutes later shesaid, Ah David, do you want to
do that?
I said I'd love to.
Of course I would.
(06:33):
So I did the two things.
Um, I was able to be on a chatshow with Alan Titchmarsh, with
Honour Blackman and I was ableto say, do you realize, Honour
that you and I are the only twopeople in the world ever to play
Pussy Galore?
So after that I did these two-
David John (06:51):
So that was for radio not as audiobooks?
David Rintoul (06:57):
That was for Radio.
But then Shivers Press, as was,who were up in Finchley, said,
well, do you want to do whatturned out to be, all the James
Bond books?
And that, those are the first 40books I ever did, which was a
fantastic start! And that was in1983.
Um, and so since then I've doneabout 250 audiobooks.
(07:18):
And it's been a large part of mycareer and a great joy.
I mean, I absolutely love it.
David John (07:23):
Yeah.
And I guess at that period, theearly eighties, it was growing.
David Rintoul (07:26):
It was great.
David John (07:27):
I mean nothing to what it is now.
That was the beginning, wasn'tit?
David Rintoul (07:30):
Yeah.
I mean, I think technicallypeople were actually literally
cutting it with a razor blade,stitching the tape together.
That of course it was issued onas cassettes but so that was the
start.
David John (07:44):
And with this downloadable thing now it's just
completely exploded.
So, you say you get great joyfrom audiobooks, is that, that's
one of your favorite audio jobs?
David Rintoul (07:54):
I think it is.
I mean, it's very hard work.
David John (07:58):
But a good book I guess is a cracker.
David Rintoul (08:01):
I think I've been lucky with the books I've got
and I've been asked to read.
I mean, you know, you do yourfair share of stuff that you
think, no, this is maybe notsomething I normally enjoy
reading just for myself, butactually not many of these.
Most of the stuff I've had toread up I've been really
interested in.
And also it gives you, it givesyou books to read.
(08:22):
Um, you know, it introduced meto books I might not otherwise
[have read].
David John (08:27):
And of course as a reader it's that thing, if the
book is well written, even ifit's not something that you may
read, it's still a pleasure toread it.
David Rintoul (08:35):
Yeah.
Yeah.
It also depends on genre aswell.
I mean, I've read some very goodhistory books for example, and
theyare difficult because thereisn't a story as such.
It's a succession of facts.
Um, and you're not quite asengaged in it.
It's, it's much more of a job, awork.
Still enjoyable, but I mean, Isuppose what you, what I enjoy
(09:00):
most about it is that good oldfashioned thing of storytelling,
which goes back centuries.
David John (09:04):
And that's the skill of it, doing a history book is
you, you have to tell the storyso people will engage and listen
to you.
David Rintoul (09:10):
Yes.
In as much as you can with it,an academic book.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
David John (09:14):
So, let's talk about games because you've been doing
a lot of work in computer games.
Again, something that's explodedin the last, would you say five,
ten years maybe?
I mean, it's just incredible.
And, you've done a lot of work.
So how do you find working oncomputer games?
David Rintoul (09:32):
Well, and again, I enjoy it.
This has happened through Neiland Voice Squad.
have a kind of what I call aconventional agent as well.
I do film and TV through that.
(A theatrical agent.) But I'vebenefited hugely from working
with Neil and Voice Squadbecause he's introduced me to
(09:53):
all kinds of different thingslike video games and, well,
they're very high energy.
They tend to be very highenergy.
I tend to get rather high energycharacters! I specialise in
dwarves! One of my very regularcharacters, is a Yorkshire
dwarf, but I've also done myshare of Scottish dwarves as
(10:14):
well and all sorts.
And I suppose what I enjoy, oneof the things I enjoy, is you
don't know really what you'regoing to come up against.
You know, you'll get the callfor this video game and you say,
what are the characters?
And you may be told about thecharacters beforehand or you may
not.
Sometimes you just turn up andthere is an image on the screen.
(10:35):
What do you think this charactermight sound like?
And you go, Oh, well, um, whatabout this?
What about this?
What about this?
And you've got to work quitequickly to find a voice, an
appropriate voice for thatimage.
If everyone agrees with that, ifthat's a good voice off you go.
So it's very much in the moment.
Um, and I enjoy that about it.
David John (10:52):
Yeah.
So that's kind of using all theold skills that you get from
theatre, bringing the actingskills and having to work
quickly?
David Rintoul (10:59):
I guess it is.
I mean, I never thought that I'dreach my great age and be a kind
of Mynah Bird actor.
And indeed I'm not a greatmimic.
I can, if you give me a voice, Ican do an approximation of it,
but mimicry is a real separateskill I don't possess.
But what I can do, I guess isinvent voices and come up with
(11:22):
the voices that amuse me orexcite me.
And you know, do that.
David John (11:27):
Yeah.
And that's all about making thecharacter believable for the
game.
The players now demand goodperformances from their
characters or they don't believeit.
David Rintoul (11:37):
That's right.
I mean, yeah, the player entersinto the imaginative world of
the game and you as a performersort of that's your job is also
to enter into the imaginaryworld of the game so that you
take the player along with youand you both enter into that
kind of imaginative world.
David John (11:56):
So as it's growing, obviously you're getting a lot
of work.
There are a lot of other peopleinterested in getting this work.
I mean as well as what you'vejust said about the way you have
to quickly think of a characterand work on it then and there.
What other kind of advice couldyou give for say a young actor
coming in?
David Rintoul (12:13):
Big advice.
Big advice is very often at theend of a session or sometimes
during the session they say, canyou do things like: you have
been stuck in the chest with aspear(or) you are being thrown
off a bridge screen.
All those general kinds ofthings.
Combat noises, roars as you gointo battle.
(12:34):
My strong advice to any otheractor is leave that to the end.
Because if you do it at thebeginning of a session, you tend
to rip your voice to bits.
Um, and then you don't have theaccess to the subtlety of
dialogue.
So do all the dialogue first andthen do your screaming and'man
falls off bridge' and'spearthrough head'.
David John (12:54):
Very wise.
It's what we say with ADR aswell with the dubbing, you know,
always do that stuff at the endbecause you can't really cheat
it if you're dying and fallingoff somewhere in your throat cut
.
You have to scream as if you'redying and falling, you know?
David Rintoul (13:09):
And again, I mean , you fall back into theatre
resources there, you use yourdiaphragm, you try to get off
your throat.
But inevitably, usually I walkout of a video game session with
a fairly tired voice.
You've got to watch it.
Because quite often I do a lotof theatre.
(13:30):
You know, if you've had a reallyhard day on a video game, you've
got to watch it if you've got abig show that night.
David John (13:38):
Yeah.
So I'm just popping back toaudiobooks.
Have you got a particulartechnique for preparing, because
different actors prepare inslightly different ways.
What do you generally do?
David Rintoul (13:53):
Now I use an iPad.
I've been using one for yearsand years and years.
I used to ask the company toblow it up onto double sided A4.
I would mark up each voice in adifferent coloured ink.
I would make my pronunciationlists and then I'd research
pronunciation.
When I was in the studio, Iwould have this thing, the
(14:15):
double A4 like a conveyor belt.
So when I made a mistake, I'dshift it on.
If I was on a run you'd have towatch it because you're kind of
leaning off the chair back intothe mic to stay on mic.
But you know, on a page of A4it's very seldom you get through
that without making a mistakeand having to do it again.
So now it's on iPad and I use anapp that I can underline and
(14:39):
make notes.
I've stopped underlining eachvoice laboriously which I could
do with an electronic app, butactually it's usually pretty
obvious who's speaking.
If it's really difficult, then Iwill underline just to draw
attention to who it is.
But I still make thepronunciation lists.
So what I do is I'll make thepronunciation list, underlining
(15:03):
in red each of the words I don'tknow, usually foreign words, but
some obscure English words aswell.
I will then write them all outlonghand on blank sheets of
paper and then I'll research it.
And now sometimes I can researchit with a dictionary.
(15:24):
Sometimes they use Forvo orother pronunciation guides.
Forvo's good for some languages,not so good for others.
It's good on German for example,but you know, et cetera.
But usually I try and get itfrom the horse's mouth.
So I had a lot of Polish wordsand I went to Justyna, who's in
the agency, who is Polish,recorded her, but that's not the
(15:47):
end of the process.
Once I've recorded her, I goback to my handwritten and
against each word in red ink, Iuse my own particular kind of
phonetics.
Um, so there it all is in order.
I give a copy to the person onthe other side of the glass of
both the written and therecorded, versions so they can
(16:08):
check through as well.
So it's quite a laboriousprocess.
I mean it's luck of the draw.
Some books you have a very shortpronunciation list, but others
very, very long pronunciationlist.
I suppose my biggest was aDorothy Dunnett historical epic
about who the original Macbethwas and it's 850 pages.
(16:32):
And I think I had something like600 pronunciation queries in
Scots Gaelic, Irish Gaelic,Welsh Gaelic, old Norse,
Icelandic, you name it.
And so that was a huge piece ofresearch.
But you know, you take the roughwith the smooth and, and it's an
education.
David John (16:51):
It is.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is sometimes hours andhours and hours of preparing
often more than the actualrecording of the book, isn't it?
(16:59):
So what we usually do is ask a few kind of quick fire questions
that we ask everybody.
So just to get a picture of whatyou feel about certain things.
Yeah.
So just before we go- are you acat person or a dog person?
David Rintoul (17:12):
We've got a cat and I'm fond of both.
Dogs are more difficult to keepin a way.
Cats.
We have a neighbour who looksafter our cat, Oscar.
David John (17:20):
Does the cat sitting.
Yeah.
Good.
Good.
Oscar.
Good name.
Favourite ice cream flavor?
David Rintoul (17:28):
Ah, I'm rather fond of a vanilla and salted
caramel.
David John (17:34):
Very good.
Yeah.
Um, okay.
Here's a good one.
What is your favourite movie ofall time?
David Rintoul (17:40):
Seven Samurai.
Well, I'd have to juggle, but Isay that and Les Enfants du
Paradis as well.
David John (17:47):
Yes.
Yes, yes.
Two classy bits of work.
So last time you went to thetheatre, what did you see?
David Rintoul (17:53):
It was two nights ago I went to see Ibsen's
Rosmersholm.
And it was very, very good.
It's a weird play.
Ibsen is an extraordinary writer.
I've played Peer Gynt and I'veplayed Allmers in Little Eyolf,
but he's very weird.
But that was a good production,I enjoyed that.
David John (18:07):
And where's that on?
David Rintoul (18:08):
Duke of York's.
David John (18:08):
Yeah.
Okay, good.
And now to London where you'velived since?
David Rintoul (18:13):
Since oh'60 (1960)...Oh wait a minute.
'69,(1969).
David John (18:20):
And was that coming down to RADA?
[Yes.] Okay.
So what is your now yourfavourite place in London?
David Rintoul (18:25):
Goodness.
Uh, it's a good question.
I'll tell you what- my favoriteplace(is) the river.
I love the Thames and I'm luckyenough to live in Fulham.
I can get the boat from Putneybridge down to work, if I'm
working in central London.
I quite often taken the boat into work, so I love the river.
David John (18:44):
Yeah and that covers an awful lot of London, of
course.
Great.
Okay, David, thank you so much!
David Rintoul (18:52):
Great pleasure.
David John (18:52):
Very interesting talking to you.
Next week we'll be talking toKobna Holbrook Smith.
He's a Voice Squad artist.
He's gained a lot of attentionfor his work in movies recently.
He was in Mary Poppins Returnsand also Paddington 2.
He's recently been working inthe West End as Ike Turner in
Tina the Musical, verysuccessfully.
(19:14):
Award-winning, actually won an[Olivier] award.
He's read a lot of audiobooks,in particular the Rivers of
London series.
Rivers of London! There we are.
He'll be talking to us, youknow, in more depth about his
work in particular withaudiobooks and also everything
else he does.
If you want to find out any moreabout Voice Squad or listen to
(19:36):
any of the artists, listen toDavid's reel or Kobna's reel,
then please visit the website.
Please check us out on Twitter,Facebook, and LinkedIn.
And if you enjoyed the episode,please subscribe, rate us
wherever you listen to thepodcast and come back and listen
to the next episode.
Squadcast is a Voice Squadlimited production hosted by
(19:58):
David John, devised by NeilConrich.
It's produced by Emma Samuel andalso edited by Emma Samuel.
If you've got any questionsplease drop us an email.
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