Ken Barrie, the voice of children’s television show Postman Pat, has died at the age of 83.
Barrie, who was born Leslie Hulme, provided the voice for Pat and many of the other characters in the animated series, as well as singing the famous theme song. His daughter, Lorraine Peterson, told the Press Association that he died peacefully at home in Denham, Buckinghamshire, of liver cancer.
Barrie, who was born in Tunstall in Stoke-on-Trent, voiced the famous postman from 1981. He also had a successful singing career, performing on an album with Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby and on advertising jingles for Smash and Martini.
Paying tribute to her father, Peterson said: “He was the master of different characters and voices. He was very reserved about what he did, but he loved it and got to work with his heroes.”
The children’s series followed the adventures of a postman as he carried out his mail rounds in the fictional village of Greendale. Barrie got the job after recording his voice on tape, at the suggestion of the guitarist working on the show’s music. He later said he never imagined the programme would be so popular.
Peterson said: “We are celebrating his life today. He was very proud of what he did for children, but his legacy is not so much Postman Pat – he did a lot more and he loved singing after starting in the late 1950s.
“When you ask me what dad was most proud of, it was his closest family. We were very close, and he provided for us really well, but particularly his son and my brother, Paul.
“We used to go to work with dad when we were growing up, and Paul ended up a successful and accomplished sound engineer in the same industry, but sadly he passed away in a road accident aged 38.”
Barrie lent his voice to 31 episodes of Postman Pat between 1981 and 2005, as the narrator, the famous postman and other characters. He also worked on Postman Pat: Special Delivery Service in 2008.
He appeared in TV drama Centre Play and Christmas Eve with Val Doonican, and later topped the charts as part of Peter Kay’s Animated All Star Band on the Official BBC Children in Need Medley single in 2009.
