Former UK Speaker John Bercow Joins Fallout: London Mod Cast

'The cherry on the top' for Fallout: London is having the robotic Speaker of the House played by a former Speaker of the House

John Bercow held the role from 2009 to 2019, going viral several times for his wit and ever-so-plummy tones. Bethesda's "next gen" update for Fallout 4 didn't change much about the game itself, but it did manage to cause problems for pretty much every mod out there. The most high-profile casualty was the hotly anticipated Fallout: London, an enormous project that was initially set for release on April 23 (St George's day, of course), but was subsequently delayed while the team set about fixing things. The good news there is that per the dev team "the end is in sight" (unless you're playing on Epic Games Store), with the mod set to release as soon as the devs and distributor GOG have done their due diligence on the release build. In the runup to release, project lead Dean 'Prilladog' Carter has been revealing some of the features players can look forward to, and prime among them is a prominent UK politician that, during the Brexit years especially, went viral for his habit of shouting "order" in a manner that sounds more like "OR-DAH!" I speak of John Bercow, the eloquent former Speaker of the House (2009 -- 2019), who performed one of the crucial roles in the British Parliament. The speaker's job is to maintain order as the various parliamentary parties of the day argue back-and-forth across the house, granting members leave to speak and, where appropriate, censuring their more ill-advised pronouncements. Bercow's time as speaker happened to coincide with the UK's decision to leave the European Union and, as such, he was in the chair during some of the most spectacularly bad-tempered moments in Parliament's recent history. Britain being Britain, Bercow's put-downs involve saying "you are over-exciteable and need to contain yourself" in immaculately plummy tones to angry red-faced MPs. Well if you thought Brexit was bad, and Truss somehow worse, get ready for some order in the post-apocalypse. Prilladog has announced that Bercow will be the voice actor for Fallout: London's robotic speaker of the house, and even shared a little clip: "Imagine being Fallout: London and feeling so lucky having all the talented voice actors on the team," writes Prilladog on the mod's Discord server (first spotted by VG247). "But then boosting it further with the fact that we have [two] Doctor Who actors as VAs... then Neil Newbon messages us and also wants a role. "But the cherry on the top? Who better to represent our mod's version of the Speaker of the House, than a robot version. Voiced by John Bercow himself." The robotic Speaker will presumably be found around the Houses of Parliament in-game, and the audio clip shared has nuka-Bercow barking "protect and survive" (a slogan taken from a real British public information campaign about nuclear war), "error" and of course "order" with a familiar inflection. Sadly in 2024 there is an obvious question: is this real or some AI tomfoolery? "We don't use AI voices," said Prilladog in response to the query. Surprisingly enough for someone with such rich and mellifluous tones, this appears to be Bercow's first foray into voice acting. The former speaker joins the likes of Neil Newbon (Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3), and two former Doctor Whos: Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker.

Fallout: London mod cast will include former Speaker of the House John Bercow

Former Speaker of the House John Bercow voices a character in the forthcoming Fallout: London mod. Bercow was Speaker of the House in the UK Parliament, known for yelling "Order!" at rowdy MPs during his tenure. More recently, you may have spotted him in second season of The Traitors US. Next he'll make an appearance in Fallout: London as, fittingly, a robot Speaker of the House. His inclusion means he will join the likes of Neil Newbon (Astarion in Baldur's Gate 3), Anna Demetriou (Sophia in A Plague Tale: Requiem), and two Doctor Who actors: Sylvester McCoy and Colin Baker. The mod team made the announcement on its Discord. "Imagine being Fallout: London and feeling so lucky having all the talented voice actors on the team. But then boosting it further with the fact that we have two Doctor Who actors as VAs... then Neil Newbon messages us and also wants a role," wrote project manager Dean "Prilladog" Carter. "But the cherry on the top? Who better to represent our mod's version of the Speaker of the House, than a Robot version voiced by John Bercow himself." The announcement includes a short clip of Bercow in action, although it seems his robot is having a bit of trouble - the clip quickly distorts into repeating "order!". And, as VG247 pointed out, while some comments suggested this is an AI rather than Bercow himself, Carter replied shortly: "We don't use AI voices". Yesterday, the mod's distributor GOG confirmed Fallout: London won't work with versions of the game bought on the Epic Games Store due to its lack of rollback features. The mod is based on Fallout 4, but set in an alternate London with all-new locations, weapons, and a James Bond twist.