Interview with narrator Adjoa Andoh
Category: Press Pack ArticleWhat do you love about voiceover work?
I've listened to stories on the radio since I was a child. The first audio story I had of my own was a seven-inch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs record which came in a little pocket at the back of the book. You had to turn the page when Tinkerbell rang her bell! I've loved reading stories to all my children too – doing all the voices, the adventure of it, the wonder of children’s books; that rapt attention and the willingness to be open to wherever the story goes that children have. My job more or less involves me being a child and playing: we can dress it up with all the other stuff, but essentially, you’ve got to do the playing bit if it's going to work. I do lots of audiobooks, anything from science books to stories for really young children. I believe stories are powerful. We navigate our lives by them, from instructions for how to get to the post office to painful and joyful histories from our grandparents.
What's the key to being a good narrator, as opposed to voicing characters? Do you have to be a bit more restrained?
No, I don't think that at all. You need a sense of the overarching narrative and to know that you're holding the frame together. You have to be the safe space in which the characters can throw themselves around, then you have to pull it back together and refocus the listener’s attention. You have to think about the writer’s intention and what they want to communicate, because sometimes the narrator is unreliable, so you tune into the role within the telling of the story.
What is the trick to narrating while the animation plays out?
I've done a lot of animations over the decades. You come with your own sense of what you think the story is going to be, then you see the animation, then you hear the music, then you hear the other actors – and the roster for Mog is absolutely sterling – then you have conversations with the other creatives in the studio. It's a group effort, but you still have to hold on to your instinctive sense of what your part in the story is, because that's why you've been hired. It's always a collaboration, and that's the fun part.
For Mog’s Christmas, is the narrator playing Mog to some extent?
Absolutely. The world is from Mog’s perspective and, although we hear the human reflection on Mog, actually it's Mog watching these bizarre creatures getting in her way or not feeding her on time, or whatever it is. Children relate to that, because often children feel like they're in the Mog position of being pushed hither and thither by grownups.
How would you describe Mog’s personality?
Very simple, direct and unambiguous. In this story, she sees a tree that walks, it gets in her way, things become confusing and she doesn't like it. She wants a nice, unconflicted clarity: there's my comfy place, there's my lovely toys, there's my delicious fish, there's my boiled eggs. That's the delight, isn't it, in things being confusing for Mog and her trying to make sense of it?
Do you have cats?
No, I love dogs but I'm super allergic to cats. It's not that I don't like cats, and of course they always come and sit on my lap!
You would have been about the age of the Thomas children when the first Mog book came out in 1970. Is it a world you recognise?
Judith’s drawing creates a very familiar late 50s and 60s world that looks gorgeous and very like my childhood. But there's something special about the swagger of this animation combining that Judith Kerr look with music from my childhood and teens. There are, for example, Christmas songs that were popular at the time – Mary's Boy Child was on repeat in those days, but pop songs too! It’s got a timeless quality, visually and musically, and the humour and the characters we meet are all-embracing. You can be a child and watch it, you can be an adult and watch it, which is something all the most brilliant animations achieve.
Did you read the Mog books to your children?
My children are 37 to 26, so the 26 end got the Mogs in the way that the 37-year-old got The Tiger Who Came To Tea and When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. My children are grown up, my grandson is two and they live in Cambodia, so any opportunity I get with him gives me my fix of reading children’s books.
Are you able to read bedtime stories to your grandson over Zoom?
Not really, because the time difference means I'm usually at work when they go to bed, but my daughter was and is a voracious reader, and she and her husband have really passed that on to him. He already has a reading corner in his bedroom, and at bedtime you will not get away with less than nine books! He's very particular about which ones he wants to read. My parents read to me at bedtime, and my dad would also make up stories. I would remember the story he had made up, and if he did it again and tried to skip over any of it, I’d pull him up on it. Hopefully you imbue them with the love of reading that will serve them well for the rest of their lives.
Will you be watching this at Christmas?
Of course I will! I’ll have everybody stapled to the sofa and we'll watch it in real time. I can't wait. All my friends, some with children and grandchildren, will no doubt be tuning in as well.
Are you a very Christmassy person?
I am nuts about Christmas. Already, my family are going, ‘Oh God, here she comes…’ We still have paper chains – the taste of glue in the mouth is never far away. I've still got the paper doily angels the children made when they were at nursery, battered and held together by sticky tape. I've got the nativity scene that was given to my dad by his German pen pal in 1960. Nat King Cole, Harry Belafonte, Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra will all be on the decks, we’ll have fairy lights, all the wooden toys, dressing the tree. I love it all.
Where are you with season three of Bridgerton?
We locked off season three earlier in the summer so that’ll be out in the near future. Before the writers’ and actors’ strikes, we were presuming we'd be back for season four in the autumn. But I was right there in support of the strikes so, when everything is resolved, I’m sure we'll get season four on the go. It’s important because, technologically, we're in a whole new world for actors and writers – without the Judith Kerrs we don’t get the Mogs, and creatives can't live on fresh air.
What’s next for you?
A short film I’ve directed for Good Morning Britain on child carers. Lots of audiobooks, including Live and Let Die for the Ian Fleming estate. A disaster movie in the spring, which I'm unbelievably excited about. I get to be in a snow truck and go in a helicopter. Brilliant! I’m currently editing the film of Richard III which I directed and played Richard in earlier this year. And of course, more Bridgerton.