Jon Culshaw

The Phone Call That Fooled National Security

Jon Culshaw called Downing Street's number 10 in 1998 and managed to get put straight through to the Prime Minister. No spy technology or bribes were involved. All it took was nailing William Hague's voice through a headset so that Tony Blair's security team suspected absolutely nothing.

That incident put the British government's protocols to the test. But above all, it showed the public that this Lancashire man was no mere nightclub impressionist. Before that moment, he worked at local stations such as Radio West Lancashire, where he learned to shape his voice to capture every vocal quirk of the political class.

And the gamble paid off.

Because his talent didn't depend on crude parody alone. Culshaw studied the cadence and breathing rhythm of his targets until the difference between original and copy disappeared completely. In 1988, he was already dipping his toes in at Radio City in Liverpool, and soon after made the leap to national television with the puppet show Spitting Image.

The golden age of a thousand voices

In 2000, Dead Ringers was born on BBC Radio 4. It was the project that let him showcase a range of celebrities, from Tom Baker to George Bush. The success was so resounding that the network decided to move the format to television in 2002, with an audience of over five million viewers per episode.

It was a massive hit.

But Culshaw didn't want to get stuck in the latex makeup of the small screen. Unlike many comics of his generation, he preferred to keep one foot in radio so he wouldn't lose the mental agility that live performance demands. So he balanced his television appearances with theater tours where he showed he could switch styles in under three seconds without so much as blinking.

In 2009 he took part in the show The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson, where he refined his physical observation technique. It wasn't about putting on a wig (although sometimes he did) but about adjusting his body posture so the voice seemed to come from a different place in the larynx. His impressions of Boris Johnson or Donald Trump went beyond easy caricature to reach something far more unsettling.

A refuge in science fiction and the stage

His connection to the Doctor Who universe goes beyond work. From a young age he developed an obsession with Tom Baker's era, and he ended up becoming the official voice of the Fourth Doctor for audiobooks from Big Finish Productions. In 2023 he recorded several installments of the The Fourth Doctor Adventures series, where even the most veteran fans can't tell his performance apart from the original actor's.

And he didn't stop there.

In 2024, the Dead Ringers Live tour covered much of the British map with a schedule that included more than thirty cities in just two months. Culshaw still follows a strict vocal care routine that bans certain foods before he steps onto stage. The physical effort of a two-hour show playing forty different celebrities requires an athlete's preparation.

Between 2023 and 2024, he also took part in the stage production The Way of the World, playing Sir Wilfull Witwoud. London critics praised his ability to carry the dramatic weight without relying on the voice tricks that had made him famous on television. His contract for his latest series of audio recordings calls for six-hour daily sessions in a sealed booth with temperature control set to 19 degrees.