--- name: "John Sparkes" canonical: "https://film.one/person/john-sparkes" fi1m_id: "john-sparkes" imdb_id: "nm0816950" tmdb_id: 1212388 wikidata_id: "Q6258580" roles: ["Actor"] born: "9 January 1954" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 78 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-10-03T00:39:22.017080+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # John Sparkes ## Identity John Sparkes - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/john-sparkes - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** john-sparkes - **IMDb ID:** nm0816950 - **TMDB ID:** 1212388 - **Wikidata ID:** Q6258580 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sparkes, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6258580, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0816950/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1212388 Actor. Born 9 January 1954 in Swansea, Wales, UK. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 9 January 1954, Swansea, Wales, UK - **Active:** 2015–present - **Frequently works with:** [Justin Fletcher](https://film.one/person/justin-fletcher.md), [Kate Harbour](https://film.one/person/kate-harbour.md), [Mark Burton](https://film.one/person/mark-burton.md), [Paul Kewley](https://film.one/person/paul-kewley.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 78, as actor, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 2010s 79 (2), 2020s 77 (1) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 78 to 77 across 3 titles - **Score spread:** 1 at 80+, 2 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 3 of 3 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Adventure 3, Animation 3, Comedy 3, Family 3, Horror 1, Science Fiction 1 - **Screen time:** 4 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $149m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sparkes, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q6258580, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0816950/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1212388 ## Streaming the US now - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Shaun the Sheep Movie*](https://film.one/film/shaun-the-sheep-movie.md) (80) - **Netflix:** [*A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon*](https://film.one/film/a-shaun-the-sheep-movie-farmageddon.md) (78) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on John Sparkes > John Sparkes has spent nearly two decades saying almost nothing and being understood perfectly. The Farmer's grumbles and Bitzer's sighs in *Shaun the Sheep* are a sketch comedian's timing with the words taken out, and they carry the only human sound in the films. The Farmer in *Shaun the Sheep* has never said a word we could write down. He grumbles in syllables that are not quite English, with a light Welsh tilt to them, and we know at once whether he is cross about the tractor or the sheep. Bitzer the dog gets a bark and a sigh. Both are John Sparkes, standing at a microphone making noises, and those noises are the closest thing to speech that Aardman's flock is ever allowed. It is an odd place for a comedian to end up. Sparkes came out of the 1980s sketch circuit, as the anorak-wearing poet Siadwel in *Naked Video* (1986) and then in *Absolutely* (1989–1993), before fronting his own Welsh series, *Barry Welsh Is Coming* (1996–2004), as a hapless chat-show host. Those were talking parts, built on a character saying the wrong thing at length. From the mid-2000s he turned almost entirely to children's animation: the narrator of *Peppa Pig* from its first episode in 2004, plus Mr Rabbit, Mr Potato and Uncle Pig; several parts in *Fireman Sam* from 2005; and the Farmer and Bitzer from 2007, through the *Shaun the Sheep Movie* (2015) to *The Beast of Mossy Bottom* (2026). The Shaun work is the one to judge him by, and it is harder than it looks. A grunt has to land on the beat of a stop-motion gag that was built frame by frame months earlier, and it has to tell a child who speaks no English exactly what it tells one who does. Sparkes gets this right so consistently that we stopped noticing he was doing it, which is the point. In *The Beast of Mossy Bottom*, where Cox and Walker turn the farm into an old Universal horror picture for 81 minutes, we caught ourselves following every one of the Farmer's complaints without hearing a single word, and were faintly unsettled by how easy he had made it look. The cost of doing it this well is that nobody leaves talking about him. Voice work on children's programmes is treated as a job rather than a performance, and Sparkes seems unbothered: "I get invited to come down to the recording studio and record some noises that's basically it." We would put it a little higher than that. His one live-action film most people will have seen, *Calendar Girls* (2003), gave him a part called the Welsh Photographer, and everything he has done since has been more particular than that and a good deal less visible. The next Shaun film, whenever it comes, will not need him to say anything either. It will need him to grumble in the right place, and we cannot think who else could be trusted with it. ## Biography John Sparkes is a Welsh actor and comedian. He voices The Farmer and Bitzer in the *Shaun the Sheep* television series (2007–) and its feature films, including *Shaun the Sheep Movie* (2015), *A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon* (2019) and *Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom* (2026). He also provides the narrator voice and other characters in the children's series *Peppa Pig* (2004–). Sparkes began performing comedy in the 1980s after earlier work in banking and teaching. His television credits include sketch shows *Naked Video* (1986) and *Absolutely* (1989–1993), as well as the HTV Wales series *Barry Welsh Is Coming*. In film, he appeared as the Welsh Photographer in *Calendar Girls* (2003). He has voiced characters in other animated series including *Fireman Sam* and *Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom*. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom* (2026), Fi1m 77, as The Farmer / Bitzer (voice) — [page](https://film.one/film/shaun-the-sheep-the-beast-of-mossy-bottom.md) - *A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon* (2019), Fi1m 78, as Farmer / Bitzer (voice) — [page](https://film.one/film/a-shaun-the-sheep-movie-farmageddon.md) - *Shaun the Sheep Movie* (2015), Fi1m 80, as Bitzer / The Farmer (voice) — [page](https://film.one/film/shaun-the-sheep-movie.md) ## Complete filmography (42) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom* (2026), as The Farmer / Bitzer (voice) — Fi1m 77, [page](https://film.one/film/shaun-the-sheep-the-beast-of-mossy-bottom.md) - *A Little Death* (2026), as Death / Edgar (voice) - *Shaun the Sheep: Fleece Navidad* (2025), as The Farmer / Bitzer (voice) - *Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom* (2025), series, as Mister Elf - *Shaun the Sheep: Poultrygeist* (2025), as The Farmer (voice) - *Peppa Meets the Baby Cinema Experience* (2025), as Narrator (voice) - *Shaun the Sheep: Shirleyverse* (2025), as Bitzer / The Farmer (voice) - *Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl* (2024), as Additional Voices (voice) - *Peppa Pig: Wedding Party!* (2024), as Narrator/ Mr Fox / Mr Rabbit (voice) - *Peppa's Cinema Party* (2024), as Narrator / Mr Rabbit / Mr Fox / Mr Pony / Mr Stallion (voice), Daddy Cat (voice) - *Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas* (2021), as The Farmer / Bitzer (voice) - *Peppa Pig: Peppa's Christmas Visit* (2020), as Narrator - *A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon* (2019), as Farmer / Bitzer (voice) — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/a-shaun-the-sheep-movie-farmageddon.md) - *Peppa Pig: My First Cinema Experience* (2017), as Narrator (voice) - *Shaun The Sheep: Happy Farmer's Day* (2017), as Bitzer, The Farmer, Farmer, Shaun, Timmy - *Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas* (2015), as The Farmer / Bitzer (voice) - *Peppa Pig: The Golden Boots* (2015), as Narrator / Mr Potato (voice) - *Shaun the Sheep Movie* (2015), as Bitzer / The Farmer (voice) — Fi1m 80, [page](https://film.one/film/shaun-the-sheep-movie.md) - *Peppa Pig: The Holiday* (2013), as Narrator / Mr. Rabbit / Uncle Pig (voice) - *Shaun the Sheep: Shear Madness* (2012), as The Farmer / Bitzer (Voice) - *Shaun the Sheep: Mossy Bottom Shorts* (2012), series, as The Farmer / Bitzer (voice) - *Shaun the Sheep: The Big Chase‎* (2011), as Bitzer/The Farmer - *Wallace & Gromit's World of Invention* (2010), series, as Goronwy (voice) · Writer - *Shaun the Sheep: Party Animals* (2010), as The Farmer / Bitzer (Voice) - *Shaun the Sheep: One Giant Leap for Lambkind* (2010), as The Farmer / Bitzer (Voice) - *Shaun The Sheep: Spring Lamb* (2010), as Bitzer, The Farmer, Farmer, Shaun, Timmy - *HiT Favorites: Winter Wonderland* (2007), as Fireman Sam / Elvis / Station Officer Steele / Trevor Evans / Dilys Price / Norman Price / Dusty / Tom Thomas (voice) - *Shaun the Sheep* (2007), series, as Bitzer / The Farmer (voice) - *HiT Favourites: Happy Children's Favourites* (2006), as Fireman Sam / Elvis Cridlington / Station Officer Steele / Norman Price / Dilys Price / Dusty (voice) - *Peppa Pig* (2004), series, as Narrator (voice), TV Presenter (voice), Uncle Pig (voice), Movie Camera (voice) - *Calendar Girls* (2003), as Welsh Photographer - *The Strangerers* (2000), series, as Bilbo - *Jolly Roger* (1999), as Captain Roger - *Jo Brand: Like It Or Lump It* (1997), series, Actor - *Barry Welsh is Coming* (1996), series, Actor - *The All New Alexei Sayle Show* (1994), series, Actor - *I, Lovett* (1993), series, as Roger - *Angry George Irons* (1993), Actor - *Absolutely* (1989), series, Various Characters, Writer - *Melancholia* (1989), as Roger Dere - *Fireman Sam* (1987), series, as Male Voices (voice) - *Ben and Holly's Little Kingdom: The North Pole*, as Mr. Elf (voice) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/john-sparkes