As arguably the UK’s leading football commentator voiceover artist the big tournaments invariably bring high profile projects my way, and this year was no exception with me voicing large campaigns for LG, Citizen M Hotels and a nice project featuring Mary Earps for Warburton’s.

It also coincided with a very nice repeat booking for the third consecutive year for a gaming application, playing…you’ve guessed it, a football commentator. However unlike conventional football voiceover jobs where there’s a script and often a degree of ad-libbing, in this case there was no script at all, simply 450 sequences of animation that required commentary scripting then voicing in sync to picture. Now the catch: you can’t mention team names, player names, shirt numbers, the score, the stadium, the conditions, the momentum or direction of play. In other words, everything a football commentator might say. Oh, and no repetition.

No problem, it’s times like this where 45 years of going to matches and watching football on TV allowed me to dig deep into my subconscious back catalogue of footballing know-how and commentator-isms; a skill and depth of knowledge that I’m certain leaves me with no direct competitors in the voice over industry.