Born in Hertfordshire, Roger is a graduate of Queen Mary University of London and holds a degree in aeronautical engineering. He is also a qualified private pilot.
His original ambition was to become a commercial pilot, but when he graduated in 1994 airlines were still suffering the recession of the first Gulf War, and he was too tall to be an RAF pilot!
His other major interest was broadcasting. His broadcasting career began in local radio at Chiltern Radio, serving Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, and Oasis Radio in Hertfordshire (later Mercury 96.6 and Heart Hertfordshire) in 1995.
In 1996, he moved into television working as a continuity announcer for Westcountry Television. In April 1997, he joined Granada Television as a continuity and promotions voiceover. He stayed until July 1999.
Whilst at Granada Television, he was asked to be the temporary announcer for University Challenge for the 1997 series. He returned permanently in 2001.
His voice is heard at the start of every show introducing the presenter (Jeremy Paxman until 2023 and subsequently Amol Rajan), and whenever a contestant buzzes in for a starter question, he announces their college and surname.
The voiceovers are performed live in the studio and his voice is famously known for becoming noticeably more energetic towards the end of the programme.
On 29th August 2022, he appeared on BBC Breakfast to talk about the University Challenge at 60 documentary, which went out on BBC Two that night.
On 13th November 2023, Roger’s 1,000th edition of University Challenge aired on BBC Two.
In 1998, he moved to Leeds and worked as a continuity and trails voiceover for Yorkshire Television, Granada Television, Tyne Tees Television and Border Television.
In July 1999, he was an announcer on Granada Sky Broadcasting’s channels. And later his voice was heard between the programmes on national ITV, following the switch to networked continuity across the English regions.
Every other Friday, he was a regular on-air continuity voice on London Weekend Television, covering the weekends in the London region (June 1998 – October 2002). He provided promo voiceovers for GMTV (October 1999 – June 2002).
As well as voicing radio and TV commercials for Ford and Travelocity, he became the voice of The Hallmark Channel (later Universal Channel) (2001 – 2013) broadcasting to 40 countries. He was also the announcer on Movies 24 in 2006.
Roger has voiced other game shows on various channels, including 80 editions of Family Fortunes (ITV, recorded between 2nd September and 6th December 2002).
Since 2003, producers on BBC TV’s Panorama, have regularly brought him in for vocal contributions for the current affairs programme.
He also provided continuity announcements on BSB’s Artsworld channel (June 2003 – March 2007) and Travel Channel (September 2010 – September 2013).
In 2005, Channel 5 chose Tilling to voice the Man Eaters series of wildlife documentaries, and the science brand, Naked Science.
He is the voice of I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, Formula One and Deep Heat television commercials in the UK. His voice is also heard narrating documentaries for National Geographic Channel, which is broadcast worldwide.
In 2009, Roger revoiced Man Eaters for ITV Global for worldwide distribution.
Other work:
- Voice of satellite navigation systems for Denso (since 2005);
- Shreddies TV commercials (April 2010);
- In-flight entertainment voice, British Airways (since 2010);
- Announcer, Royal Variety Performance (November 2012);
- Soccer AM Head and Shoulders sponsorship stings (Sky);
- Announcer, British Soap Awards.
Roger lives in London and remains busy as a voiceover in television, documentaries, commercials and live corporate events.
Correspondence
Paul R. Jackson corresponded initially with Roger in 2017 but lost touch. Former LWT colleague Trish Bertram kindly put them both in touch again and in October 2023, Paul chatted with Roger about his career.
How did you become an announcer (in 1996) and who were your colleagues at Westcountry?
“At the time, I was presenting a breakfast show at Oasis Radio in Hertfordshire, but I really wanted to move into television continuity!
“I had made up a showreel of continuity junctions and promo styles and sent it to several ITV regions and satellite channels.
“Westcountry Television replied to me first, saying that they were looking for a freelance announcer to work alongside their two main announcers Peter Griffin and Chris Langmore, and asked whether I would like to come down for a couple of days for training.
“I’m pleased to say that it went really well! Peter and Chris were both very happy that they could now take leave whenever they wanted, so I was down in Plymouth on a regular basis!
“Westcountry was a lovely, friendly place to work, and it was a brilliant way for me to make the transition from radio to television.”
How did you get asked to fill in on University Challenge and why did Jim Pope not do the 1997 series?
“It was very short notice! In June 1997 I had just finished a daytime continuity shift in the Granada Television continuity booth and was leaving the studios when security told me that someone wanted to talk to me in the transmission suite.
“I was thinking to myself ‘I’m sure I haven’t said anything rude on air!!’
“Kieran Roberts, the then executive producer of University Challenge was there and told me that Jim was temporarily unavailable and they needed someone to cover the recordings for that series, and would I do it?
“I agreed and I was taken down to studio 6, where an audience was waiting, and so was the mighty Jeremy Paxman, sitting at his desk with arms folded, asking the director if they had found a voiceover.
“I was terrified, but Jeremy asked the audience for a round of applause and I calmed down a little! I couldn’t believe that, at the age of 25, I was working on University Challenge with the mighty Paxo – it felt surreal!”
Were you surprised to be asked back in 2001 and do you think the show has got harder?
“I met Jim some time afterwards, and he told me that I had done a brilliant job, and that they would track me down when he gave it up.
“I thought it was such a kind thing for him to say, but I thought that would be the beginning and end of my time on the programme.
“Sadly, Jim passed away in 2001. I had moved back to London by then, but they did track me down.
“Peter Gwyn, the new executive producer, called me and asked me if I would like to be the permanent voice of the show. I was so excited that I think I yelled ‘Yes!’ before Peter had even finished asking me!
“I don’t think the questions have got harder, and they certainly haven’t got any easier! It is probably becoming harder in the sense that the contestants’ knowledge must always be right up-to-date. There could be questions on this year’s rap music alongside ones on the Jurassic period!”
When you worked at Yorkshire TV, Granada TV, Tyne Tees TV and Border TV did you just do trails and not continuity?
“When transmission and presentation was closed down in Manchester and merged in Leeds (the Northern Transmission Centre) in 1998, I did both trails and continuity.
“I would usually spend two afternoons a week voicing trails for the four regions, and then the rest of the week on live continuity shifts.
“Initially, continuity would be split into Granada and Yorkshire/Tyne Tees, with two booths and two announcers.
“All three regions would have non-networked programmes starting at slightly different times, so if you were on Yorkshire/Tyne Tees you would need select the transmitters via buttons for one region and introduce their programme, and then quickly deselect and reselect the transmitter buttons for the other region and introduce the other – usually with only a few seconds between.”
“It was a nightmare. Eventually they reduced it to one announcer and scheduled the programmes to start at the same time across all regions (so I couldn’t mention a station name, and sometimes not even the name of the programme). Border was then added.
“The ident graphics alone provided the channel’s identity. However, the idents in each region had different music lengths so it sounded awful. That was the point where cost-cutting took priority over quality. It was a shame. My colleagues were Maggie Mash, Bob Preedy and Helen Aitken. I loved working with all three of them!”
When at LWT, did you see much of the other announcers, like Trish and Glen?
“I saw them regularly! They were legends to me before I even started working there, and I loved the social aspect of it! I am still in touch with them both.
“I was so proud to work for LWT – it was an iconic television company, making big entertainment shows in an iconic studio complex on the South Bank of the river Thames, and I was broadcasting across my home region! It was definitely the best weekend job I’ve ever had!”
Any anecdotes from your time at LWT?
“On my first ever trial weekend at LWT, that Sunday’s Morning Worship was a live broadcast. The link started to fail. After about thirty seconds of interference it was decided to abort the broadcast and line up a recorded backup.
“It was my first networked on-air breakdown to cover. It was terrifying, but I had made some notes of the backup programme in case.
“Fortunately, the head of presentation was pleased with how I handled it on air and booked me up from then on. Someone was watching down on me that weekend!
“A lot of my work now is as the ‘voice of god’ at many corporate awards events. Those years of live continuity were valuable experience, as for live events you have to listen to the show director in your headphones whilst carefully monitoring what is happening on stage.
“And like in transmission, things do go wrong and you are expected to cover them when they do, hopefully so that the audience doesn’t even realise.”
Personal information
Clips of Roger on The TV Room
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Online presence
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: Roger Tilling. COPYRIGHT: Roger Tilling.
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