Lost Voice Guy's Christmas Comedy Club returns to ITV
Lost Voice Guy is to host a second Christmas stand-up special on ITV.
Christmas Comedy Club With Lost Voice Guy will see Lee Ridley joined by "some of the UK's best headliners", with details of the line-up yet to emerge.
Recording on October 30th, at Media City in Salford, the show is once again being made by the fledgling production company Distant Voices, for whom last year's festive special was their debut commission.
The 2021 festive show was billed as a showcase of upcoming, diverse talent, with executive producer Celia Taylor, telling trade website Broadcast that: "It's important that under-represented voices and new voices don't just mean young voices - there are many people out there who have been trying for years and haven't had a break."
However, in the event, Britain's Got Talent winner Ridley was joined by an established line-up of Bill Bailey, Rosie Jones, Omid Djalili and Joel Dommett.
Earlier this year, Ridley unveiled his new Geordie accent.
The comic, who at six months was diagnosed with a neurological form of cerebral palsy, brought about by a brain infection, which affected his movement and rendered him unable to speak, uses an iPad voice synthesiser app called Speak It! to communicate.
Having previously used a generic posh voice, he chose County Durham-based voiceover artist Dan Pye to provide the replacement.
The decision was made after Ridley received more than 500 offers from potential donors, who each sent recordings of themselves reading an extract from his 2019 memoir I'm Only In It For The Parking.
"Having this voice will give me a bit of my identity back," he told ITV News Tyne Tees in February.
"My family are from Consett in County Durham, so I'd like sound as close as I can to that, and I think this voice fits the bill. Of course, I've already started saying all the classic Geordie phrases such as 'ha'way the lads' and 'wey-aye, pet.'"
Scottish-based speech synthesis company CereProc developed the voice and the process involved Pye recording a script for six hours, during which he recreated a range of vocal emotional styles.
"There was nothing wrong with my other voice, except for the fact it sounded very posh" Ridley added. "It sounded like I should be reading the shipping forecast on Radio 4, so it means a lot to me to finally sound like my family and friends."
British Comedy Guide exclusively revealed last year that Ridley is piloting a television adaption of his Radio 4 sitcom, Ability, which he stars in and writes with Katherine Jakeways.
Here's a clip of him performing in last year's Christmas Comedy Club:
The full episode is still available on ITV Hub