John Leeson

John Francis Christopher Ducker (born 16 March 1943), known professionally as John Leeson, is an English actor, voice artist and freelance wine educator. He is known for portraying Bungle in Rainbow and voicing K9 in Doctor Who and spin-off The Sarah Jane Adventures. Leeson trained at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and his varied stage and television career spans half a century. It includes work in both repertory and West End productions including Neil Simon's Plaza Suite (1969), Flint (1970) and Don't Start Without Me (1971), and character acting work across a wide range of television sitcoms and costume dramas from the 1970s onwards, including Dad's Army, Sorry!, Rings on Their Fingers, adaptations of The Barretts of Wimpole Street and Vanity Fair, Shadow of the Noose, Crown Court and Longitude. He also embarked on a parallel career in voiceover work, freelancing as a continuity announcer with BFBS Television in Germany, BBC Television, and Channel 4. Leeson was first brought on as the voice of K9 in Doctor Who for 1977's The Invisible Enemy. Producer Graham Williams liked the character that the decision was made to retain him as a regular character to appeal to the younger members of the audience. Tom Baker, who played the Fourth Doctor, detested the character of K9, but gets on well with Leeson (when Leeson appeared on Tom Baker's edition of This Is Your Life in 2000, he entered on all fours).