Tudor Parry-Jones

Tudor Parry-Jones (aka "The Voice from the Valleys") was a Welsh tenor who joined Alec Gilroy's talent agency in 1990.

Tudor sought out Alec when a mutual acquaintance, Neville Thomas, heard him sing and told him that Alec was the only agent north of Stoke fit to handle a talent such as his. Well-dressed and armed with a bag full of newspaper cuttings, Tudor presented an unusual sight in the Rovers Return. Upon arriving, he handed a folder containing the cuttings to Bet Gilroy to take through to the back, where Alec was busy doing the books. Fearing that their mysterious guest was there to serve a writ on him, Alec breathed a sigh of relief upon reading what were only press reports of Tudor's previous singing engagements.

Always on the lookout for new talent, Alec wasted no time in introducing himself and ushered Tudor through to the back room to audition him. Tudor sang two arias, entertaining everyone in the bar, and even Deirdre Barlow and Phil Jennings at No.1, but his dulcet tones failed to raise a smile from Alec, who grimaced through the performance due to an ear complaint. Nevertheless, Alec signed Tudor.

Over the following weeks, Tudor paid a few visits to the Rovers to discuss business with Alec. In the first instance, he called at a bad time, when Alec was on his way out to pick up Derek and Mavis Wilton from Manchester Airport due to everyone thinking he'd conned them into buying a holiday to Madeira from a bankrupt travel agent. Returning later, Tudor tried to interest Alec in letting him write his own lyrics for Nessun Dorma, the aria which Luciano Pavarotti recently performed in Italian at the World Cup. As the song was out of copyright, Alec was keen - until Tudor corrected his assumption that the lyrics would be in English, stating that in fact he was going to do it in Welsh.

A few days later, Alec suggested that Tudor add Josef Locke's signature tune Goodbye from The White Horse Inn to his repertoire, and struggled to hold down a conversation with Bet while Tudor bellowed out the tune.

Tudor learned his craft from his mother, Madam Gwyneth Parry-Jones, and was teetotal due to a vow he once made to her. At the Rovers, he drank a still orange juice.


 * The character was credited as "Tudor Parry Jones" in all three appearances.

1990

 * Mon 22nd Oct
 * Fri 2nd Nov
 * Mon 5th Nov