Ref. 28533-20A VOICE coach who has helped vicars pep up their preaching has had his work praised in a church newspaper.

The current edition of Three Crowns, which covers Church of England affairs from Swindon to Bristol, says John Williams can help with everything from projection to posture.

Mr Williams, 61, of Stroma Way in Highworth, is an actor and community theatre director as well as being a voice coach, but also worked for several years as an operating theatre technician.

Originally from the Rhondda in South Wales, he arrived in the Swindon area from Potters Bar in Hertfordshire in the mid 1980s.

His clients he will not name them out of courtesy have included teachers, lecturers and even a man planning to make a wedding speech, as well as clergy and lay preachers from three Swindon churches.

He said: "Most vicars are good at delivery but, like everybody, they can sometimes fall into certain speech habits.

"Lay readers can sometimes be unaware of faults in their delivery, and need gentle feedback on how they might modify that."

Mr Williams' acting abilities have led to many television appearances.

Following the September 11 atrocity, he appeared in a dramatised section of a documentary about Flight 93, whose passengers overwhelmed their hijackers at the cost of their own lives. Mr Williams played the first passenger murdered by the terrorists.

Last year, he appeared as a barrister in the BBC's Anatomy of a Crime series, and he has also had supporting roles in long-running Welsh language soap opera Pobol y Cwm (People of the Valley).

He said: "When I came to Swindon, I moved into working on a project involving helping unemployed people aged over 40.

"I was helping them with presentation skills and life skills, but later I went on a course in London which concentrated on speech and drama."

Mr Williams has won the praise of the Rev Steve Oram of St Sampson's Church in Cricklade, although the Rev Oram is not a client.

He said: "Mr Williams is making a valuable contribution to the ongoing training of preachers.

"He helps both lay and ordained clergy to get their very important message across."

And Bishop of Swindon Michael Doe said: "There is an art to public speaking, and most clergy will remember the personality who taught them to speak up and project their voice to the back of the church."

Barrie Hudson