You may not know his name or recognise his face, but you’ll have definitely heard his instantly-recognisable voice.
Voice-over king Redd Pepper has voiced trailers for countless films including The Blair Witch Project, Armageddon, Men In Black and Space Jam.
Now, he’s insured his most valuable asset – his vocal cords – for £10 million.
The £10 million cover protects his vocal cords in the event of ‘accidental damage’ which would leave him unable to utter his chilling, but best-known line: ‘There was a time…’
Redd said:
It was something I needed to do. It means I am covered if I am involved in an accident or if I am for any reason unable to use my vocal cords.
My voice is my career, I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t able to do voice-overs.
Barbados-born Pepper, 57, was talking at the launch of a hilarious video created to kick off Meerkat Meals.
Within the 90 second video, Redd attempts to announce the launch of Meerkat Meals as ‘coming soon’, however his desire to ramp up the drama gets in the way of the facts leaving the exasperated sound engineer to correct Redd’s constant slip-ups.
You can watch it here:
Redd also revealed, despite having a full diary, there is one character he always yearned to voice, but never has the opportunity – Optimus Prime.
He added:
I could be an amazing Optimus Prime, but a guy called Peter Cullen does him, and he is fantastic at it, so I will never get that gig.
Redd also told how he is best friends with a celeb whose voice is the polar opposite of his gravelly-tone, Joe Pasquali.
The pair live close to each other in Kent and regularly get-together for coffee.
Redd said:
People who sit close to us always give us strange looks. You couldn’t get two voices which are more different from each other.
I always take the mickey out of Joe’s voice. He loves it. He is a great guy and we’ve been friends for years.
Starting in July, the scheme will reward customers with 2-for-1 meals at thousands of restaurants up and down the country for an entire year.
Compare The Market’s customers who buy a qualifying insurance product will be able to dine out as many times as they like for breakfast, lunch and dinner from Sunday to Thursday for a year.
Redd said:
We had great fun shooting the Meerkat Meals video.
Julie Daniels, Director of Customer Rewards & Partnership at Compare The Market said:
We’re very excited to launch our most ambitious rewards scheme to date.
Dining out with friends and family is a special occasion and we hope that our offer will see millions of people head out to take advantage of the fantastic range of restaurants on offer.
By presenting their unique membership details via the Meerkat app at the point of payment, up to six diners can benefit from 2-for-1 on starters, mains and desserts each visit.
Participating restaurants include some of the UK’s best loved eateries such as Pizza Hut Restaurants, Prezzo, Giraffe, Ask, Zizzi, Handmade Burger Co and Strada, as well over a thousand of independents up and down the country.
To find out more and be amongst the first to receive Meerkat Meals head to comparethemarket.com
If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via stories@unilad.co.uk
Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.