Eighty British performers tell PM Andy Burnham: three seconds of audio is all it takes to steal an actor’s voice

Three seconds of audio is enough. That is the duration of sample that modern voice cloning systems need to replicate a performer’s voice convincingly, and it is the number that more than 80 British performers cited this week when they delivered an open letter to Prime Minister Andy Burnham calling for Parliament to make voice ownership a statutory right.

The campaign, Save Our Voices Now, was co-founded by audiobook narrator Alice Sockett and performer Peter Caulfield. Their argument is straightforward: UK law offers no statute specifically protecting a person’s synthesised voice from unauthorised replication. That gap places voice artists, narrators, and actors in a position where their defining professional asset can be copied without consent, without credit, and without a clear route to legal remedy. The open letter is accompanied by a petition on Gov.uk asking for voice ownership to be written into the same category of rights that already govern how a person’s name and likeness can be used.

The list of signatories runs to more than 80 and extends beyond the most recognisable names. Among them are Nicola Coughlan, Matt Lucas, Hugh Bonneville, Siobhán McSweeney, Luke Evans, Jen Brister, and Pearl Mackie. Audiobook narrators and commercial voice-over artists — professionals who earn their living from the distinctiveness of their voice rather than their face — are the cohort most immediately exposed, and their presence in the list is deliberate. Sockett, who launched the campaign through her own experience in the audiobook industry, has described voice cloning as “an existential threat to our entire industry” and says the pace of replication “increases every week.”

The technology behind the concern is not hypothetical. Systems available to the public have reduced the audio requirement to seconds and the output to near-real-time results that audiences in commercial and social media contexts routinely mistake for authentic recordings. The UK is not alone in lacking a tailored legal response, but it is measurably behind at least one peer jurisdiction: Denmark has moved to reform its law to give citizens the right to demand removal of unauthorised AI-generated voice content and to seek compensation when it is produced without consent. No equivalent right exists in British statute.

The campaign is deliberate about what it is not asking for. The open letter states: “We are not opposed to artificial intelligence. We are opposed to theft.” That framing leaves room for licensed voice use — which some signatories presumably engage in already. But it also marks where the legislative challenge sits. Gene Wilder’s estate consented to a voice recreation for a Netflix production; Harry Shearer has separately sought legal protection for his own voice while still working. Any statute that is broad enough to protect unauthorised synthetic use while permitting consented licensing will require Parliament to define consent precisely — across working performers, estates, and commercial contexts the drafters will not have anticipated.

The government’s response so far has been to offer a consultation. Peter Caulfield called that insufficient: the government, he said, is “allowing AI companies to steal and profit from artists’ voices without their consent and allowing criminals to use AI to clone people’s identities and threaten everyone.” Hugh Bonneville drew the line more personally: “My voice is unique, it’s mine, it’s part of my identity.” Save Our Voices Now is asking Parliament to put that statement in writing before three seconds becomes the industry standard it already is.

Tags: Nicola Coughlan, AI creativity, AI voice cloning, Hugh Bonneville, Save Our Voices Now, voice rights