"John Banks is one of the UK's most prolific audiobook narrators, working for the likes of Big Finish, Audible, Random House and Games Workshop.

He is a true multi-voice, creating everything from monsters to marauding aliens.

He is also an accomplished stage and TV actor."

audible.co.uk 2018

Hello...

...I'm John Banks - welcome to my website.

The majority of my working life has been spent in the theatre with companies including
York Theatre Royal, Cheltenham Everyman, Sheffield Crucible, Bristol Old Vic, Manchester Royal Exchange and the National Theatre in London.

Television work includes Emmerdale, Coronation Street, and 'Allo, Allo!'. I have also worked on a number of radio drama and comedy productions with the BBC.

Since March 2009, I have enjoyed playing a huge variety of characters in more than 270* audio-drama stories with Big Finish Productions, together with The Black Library/Games Workshop, details of which can be found in the postings below.


There are also details listed here of the 214* audio books & stories I've recorded since March 2013,
including the unabridged New Revised Standard Version of The Bible, for companies including audible.co.uk, Hachette, Audible Studios, Podium Audio Publishing, HarperCollins, RNIB, W.F. Howes, Little Brown Group, Penguin Random House, Games Workshop, Orion, Fantom Films & Ladbroke Audio.

(*figures at April 2021)

I hope you find something of interest here and come back soon for further updates.


For all posts, reviews and audio samples, please scroll down...

The Runewar Saga: Book 2

The Runewar Saga: Book 2
The Crown of Fire & Fury

The Botanist

The Botanist
Washington Poe Series: Book 5

Skaven Deathmaster

The Babel Books

The Babel Books
The Fall of Babel - click image above for link to audible

Doctor Who: Back To Earth

Throne of Light: Dawn of Fire Book 4

Throne of Light: Dawn of Fire Book 4
Release Date: 13th November 2021

Soul Wars

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Wednesday 26 April 2017

Scythes of the Emperor: Daedalus


The pace of work this year seems to have calmed a little, which, after the last couple of years of craziness, is perhaps, not such bad thing. At least now, I feel able to prepare properly for each upcoming event and I'm currently working on several projects, scheduled for recording over the next few months, which are certainly grabbing my attention. In their quite varied ways, each sets a particular challenge and any notion I might have had of working within a 'comfort zone' has long since been abandoned. That's ok; in fact, it's much more than 'ok', it's great fun and it's why I'm loving work so much at the moment.

Perhaps things are slightly less crazy than in previous years; nevertheless, I notice that Daedalus is my 16th audio recording to be released in the first 16 weeks of the year - and there are more audio books and dramas on the way.

Here are details of the latest from The Black Library:

Scythes of the Emperor: Daedalus

A Scythes of the Emperor audio drama

When a lone Apothecary is stranded with vital supplies of gene-seed that could secure new generations of the Scythes of the Emperor, a squad of his battle-brothers enact a daring mission to save him and safeguard their future.



Waging a bitter war of vengeance against Hive Fleet Kraken across Ultima Segmentum, the Scythes of the Emperor must continue to look to the future if the Chapter is to survive. In a distant system of the Sotharan League, a lone Apothecary has become stranded before a fresh tyranid invasion – and the stock of Space Marine gene-seed he bears is too great a treasure to abandon to the xenos.

Striking from the air, Assault Squad Cassander must push deep into enemy-held territory if they are to mount a recovery mission, facing all the winged spawned horrors of the hive ship Daedalus.


John Banks, Antonia Beamish, Robin Bowerman, Cliff Chapman, Steve Conlin, Toby Longworth & Luis Soto

Written by L J Goulding & Produced by Matt Renshaw

Running time approx. 63 minutes

 


...all for now, more just as soon as it happens!

Thursday 20 April 2017

Doctor Who: Dethras

I think I'm losing all track of time; not especially a problem for me, but it obviously would be if I were a Time Lord like the good Doctor. Public Holidays, as we've just been having and are about to have again at the beginning of May, seem to throw my perception of time completely out of kilter, like an extended form of jet-lag. Strange - but true.

Moving on; another audio release this month*, this one from Big Finish Productions, a Fourth Doctor adventure, featuring Tom Baker and Lalla Ward and here are some details:

Doctor Who: Dethras

In the control room of a World War 2 submarine something strange has started to happen. As the ship runs out of control, its crew begin to fall unconscious...


Finding the submarine in the last place they'd have expected, the Doctor and Romana are confronted by a mystery. Once fully populated, there are now only three men on board. And there's now also a chimpanzee. 




What has happened to the rest of the crew? What are the strange noises they can hear outside the hull?

And most importantly, who, or what, is Dethras? 

Tom Baker The Doctor    Lalla Ward Romana    Alistair Petrie John    Shelia Ruskin Flague  
Josh Bolt Philip    Brian Vernel Robert    John Banks Franklin    Jane Slavin Xankari/ Teacher 

Written by Adrian Poynton
  Directed by Nicholas Briggs  
 

*This title was released in April 2017. It will be exclusively available to buy from the BF website until May 31st 2017, and on general sale after this date. 

Despite the fact that Dethras only became available today, there is already a review - and here is a link to it: Indie Mac User - Dethras Review 

...and a little later in the day, here is another: Red Rocket Rising - Dethras Review 

* * * * *

The next thing to mention in this update, is the Combat Phase Podcast that I recorded just over a month ago, during a week of recording at Games Workshop in Nottingham. The story, in a nutshell, is that I was approached by Kenny Lull, 'podcaster master' and Black Library aficianado, to record an interview about the process of acting in Black Library audio dramas and the recording of audio books with them. 

Suspecting that an hour of me blithering on about the intricacies of acting for audio and boring everyone to tears with gushing mentions of David Mamet and the significance of the Aristotelian Unities of Action, (see Aristotle On The Art of Poetry and David Mamet True and False), it occurred to me that it would be much more interesting to have ace BL producer Matt Renshaw join in too and that between the two of us, we might hopefully be able to give an idea of the recording process and include Matt's wider knowledge of the whole process of commissioning, casting and recording. Whether we've been successful or not is for you to decide by listening to the podcast, which can be found via this link:
 Combat Phase Podcast: Episode 190  Hope you enjoy!

There's more to come later in the month, but that's...

...all for now, more just as soon as it happens! 

Saturday 1 April 2017

Warlord: Fury of The God-Machine...

You'd be a bit of an 'April fool' not to give this latest audio book release from The Black Library a listen. Well, if you're a fan of Warhammer 40k stories that is; if you're not a fan, then you might not like it, you might prefer to spend your hard earned cash on something else and save nine hours of your life for something else... I don't know what else... don't ask me... what do I know?

Anyway, here are some details of this story, which I must say, I enjoyed working on very much. I'm looking forward to hearing it and if it's your kind of thing, (see above!), then I hope you'll enjoy it too.

Warlord: Fury of the God Machine

When the battered and bloodied Pallidus Morr demi-legio of the Adeptus Titanicus is assigned to defend a forge world from Chaos, they find their battle made more difficult by the allies they must fight alongside…


The Battle Titans of the Adeptus Titanicus are towering war engines, striding to war as holy effigies of the Omnissiah. Greatest of all are the mighty Warlord Titans, their weapons bringing righteous death to alien and heretic alike. Still reeling from a near disastrous battle against tyranids, the Pallidus Morr demi-legio is assigned to a new warzone, a nearby forge world which has fallen under the sway of Chaos.

Here their battered war-machines must fight alongside another Titan Legion, the Imperial Hunters. As city after city falls before the relentless tread of Chaos war machines, the Imperium’s only chance of victory lies in the two legios putting aside their differences and fighting as one.


 Written by David Annandale, Produced by Matt Renshaw & Narrated by John Banks

 Running time 9 hours

If you're really into the idea of these gargantuan warrior machines, like pretty much everything mentioned in the huge variety of Black Library stories, it's possible to build and 'game' with 'state of the art' models, which are available in Games Workshop stores around the world and directly from The Forge World - here's a direct link to the web site: Forge World

There's a Titan 'maniple' available should you wish to dedicate some time and money to building what will certainly be a hugely impressive kit, or set of kits. To give you some idea of the sheer scale of these amazing models, I have seen completed kits at Warhammer World HQ and the Titan is about half a metre tall!


I'm happily very busy in various recording studios at the moment and working on a number of projects, some very much 'trickier' and more challenging than others - but more of all that in due course. In the meantime, that's ...


...all for now, more just as soon as it happens!

Dalek Universe 2

Kragnos Broken Realms

Age of Sigmar Dominion

The Moggotkin of Nurgle

Kragnos Broken Realms

Dawn of Fire Book 1: Avenging Son

The Lore of Direchasm

Direchasm

A C'tan Shard Rises 3

Indomitus: Necrons 2

A Lord Among the Stars 1

Angels of Death Preview

Ultramarines

Psychic Awakening

Warcry: Death or Glory

Warhammer 40,000

Flight. Redefined.

Reviews & comments:

The Malazan Empire

Over the course of this 8 book series, the amazing John Banks has had to create and voice 648 distinct characters!

Neil Gardner - producer

The Door In The Wall & War of The Worlds

Not often I buy another version of an audiobook I own, but after hearing John Banks' narration of The Door in the Wall by Ladbroke Audio, I had to buy their version of The War of the Worlds. Banks has a great reading voice.

Andy Frankham-Allen - writer

The Books of Babel: Senlin Ascends, Arm of The Sphinx & The Hod King

Mr. Banks does superb work, and I recommend the audiobooks wholeheartedly!

Josiah Bancroft - writer

Mervyn Stone: The Axeman Cometh

John Banks is a voice genius...

Nev Fountain - writer

Mervyn Stone... played by the note-perfect John Banks.

Matt Hills - Reviews in Time and Space

Dr. Who: The Sleeping City

I also must draw attention to John Banks who is an exceptional voice artist and in this one story performs more characters that I can count. ... it is listening to episodes like this one that really do let his talents shine through.

Tony Jones - Red Rocket Rising

Highlander:

...playing several parts, was the brilliant Big Finish regular John Banks - it was as if there were about 40 different actors in the other booth.

James Moran - writer

I went for the best of the best and brought in voice artiste extraordinaire John Banks.

Paul Spragg - producer

Vienna:

...also features the mind - bogglingly versatile and reliable John Banks

Jonathan Morris - writer

Dead Funny:

The acting is first rate… wonderfully played by John Banks as Richard – his impersonation of Eric Morecambe is worth the admission money alone.

Beverly Greenberg: Bolton Evening News

Mr. Happiness:

This early and unfamiliar play by David Mamet is a character study of a 1930s radio counsellor, dispensing suave advice to his devoted listeners. John Banks brings out the wry comedy of this – comedy quite unappreciated by the character – with a clever range of gesture and vocal tone.

Jeremy Kingston: The Times


All My Sons:

This is a beautifully crafted piece ...and it affords a wonderful opportunity for John Readman* to do his All-American Boy act as Chris Keller. This most polished and well observed performance as the blighted son of a blighted father must rank as one of his finest accomplishments yet. ( * see Profile)

The Stage

The Ordeals of Sherlock Holmes

Kudos should also go to John Banks. Lestrade can be a thankless part, but Banks rose to the challenge, playing a pivotal role in this decades long arc.

Raissa Devereux - SciFiPulse

The Judgement of Sherlock Holmes

John Banks is multi-tasking, both as the superb Lestrade and also the villainous and no doubt moustache twirling Sebastian Moran. They sound completely different and I bow to his talent.

Sue Davies - SFcrowsnest


Further reviews and comments are included with specific postings throughout the site.

The War Doctor

The War Doctor
December 2015