Speaking clock actor Brian Cobby dies aged 83

Brian, 83, who was the famous voice of “the time sponsored by Accurist” died peacefully on Wednesday following a series of health problems.

Clive Cobby said that his brother’s dying wish had been to make sure his death was reported in The Argus.

Paying tribute to his brother, Clive said: “He was a man of the world, who loved life and lived it to the full. “He was larger than life.

“He never married and some people assumed he was alone, but he had a large family and was very popular.

“In every sense, he was an actor. He was very outgoing.”

Brian, who lived in Vernon Gardens, had a very successful career prior to becoming the speaking clock from 1984 to 2007.

In the sixties, Brian was known as “The Voice” as one of the nation’s best known voiceover artists – launching a thousand soapflakes, prescribing every headache cure known to man and convincing the country they couldn’t tell the difference between Stork and butter.

He also appeared alongside Madonna in the film Evita. Consummate professional Brian took just one hour to record the 86 words that make up the speaking clock’s 8,640 daily announcements.

Brian’s voice was heard to say “on the third stroke” an estimated 2 billion times and his most famous role saw him regularly stopped in the street and asked the time. 

Following a kidney transplant 15 years ago and a heart attack last year, his health had been deteriorating and he died at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton.

In the last few months of his life the two brothers had been prepar- ing for the end.

Clive is still putting the finishing touches to the send off his brother had asked for – and the funeral will include a show reel of his most famous recordings and the famous words he voiced “Five, four, three, two, one, Thunderbirds are go.”

Clive said: “He had been very clear on his wishes. “The one thing he wanted more than anything was for The Argus to know.

“He said to me in his way as an actor ‘make sure The Argus know’.”