The actor Barry Clayton – whose deep bass voice was behind movie trailers and the introduction to the Iron Maiden song The Number of the Beast – has died at the age of 80.

An Islington resident for 40 years, Clayton was also a pioneer of black television and radio programming.

He produced the Black Londoners radio programme for the BBC – the first black daily radio programme – from its first airing in 1974 until 1988 when he left to join Capital Radio.

He also arranged for a Christmas link-up with Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad for a Channel 4 special in 1981.

Clayton cut his teeth at Joan Littlewood’s famous theatre school after training in Poland. He did a stint as a producer for Granada’s north-west mag­­­azine TV programme, People and Places, and narrated the children’s television programme Count Duckula.

This was reported by London’s Islington Tribute, and a full tribute will appear on it next week.

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