Alan Dedicoat is an English announcer for programmes on BBC One; he is probably best known as the "Voice of the Balls" on the National Lottery programmes on BBC One, a name referred to him by Sir Terry Wogan. He also read the news on BBC Radio 2 until his retirement on 27 March 2015. Dedicoat is also known as the announcer on BBC One's Strictly Come Dancing and its American version, Dancing with the Stars.
Dedicoat joined BBC Radio Birmingham at Pebble Mill in 1979 as a presenter, before moving to BBC Radio Devon four years later. After his time in the West Country, he moved to London to join the Presentation Department of BBC Radio 2 in 1986 at Broadcasting House, and later became its head, a position he retained until his retirement on Friday 27 March 2015. As part of this job, he read the news on BBC Radio 2's weekday breakfast programme, Wake Up to Wogan, before its demise in December 2009, as well as on Sarah Kennedy's show until she left the station in 2010. He then became the newsreader for Vanessa Feltz, but following a reshuffle of newsreaders in late 2012, his final shift was reading the news on weekdays between 10am and 5pm. He was also the voice of Radio 2's "emergency CD" and their multiple choice automatic phone menu. After 28 years at the station, Dedicoat's final news bulletins on BBC Radio 2 were between 10am and 5pm on Friday 27 March 2015, as he retired from Radio 2 broadcasting. However, he continues voicing the National Lottery programmes, Strictly Come Dancing and BBC's Children in Need, In 2017 he joined Bauer Radio's digital station Mellow Magic, as the breakfast show newsreader for his former Wake Up To Wogan newsreader colleague Fran Godfrey. It was as part of Wake Up to Wogan that Dedicoat acquired the nickname "Voice of the Balls" from Sir Terry Wogan, he also acquired the nickname "The Wealdstone WeatherBoy" due to the town's closeness with Dedicoat's home town of Harrow. On television, as well as his role on the National Lottery, he also takes part in the BBC's telethons such as Children in Need, announcing the totals at certain intervals and also voicing previews and the voice-overs in Strictly Come Dancing on BBC One. Since 2005, Dedicoat has been the announcer for Dancing with the Stars, the American version of Strictly Come Dancing which broadcasts annually on ABC in the United States. Since 2009 he has been the voice-over for the CBBC show Copycats. He was formerly, in the late 1980s and 1990s, a regular voiceover for trailers on BBC Television. Dedicoat also works as an after dinner speaker.
