‘Sly Fox’ Jackie on his game!

The local icon has had many roles in his media career, but now he has swapped the microphone to has taken on the unusual role of a “crafty fox” in a new locally produced video game.

Jackie provides the voice for the main character in Outfoxed – where a fox is tasked with raiding the local chicken farm for lunch and has to pit his wits against a shotgun wielding farmer and his wife who is armed with a knife. The game, which can be downloaded to multimedia-enabled smartphones, was released on Friday.

The idea was hatched by 24-year-old William Barr from Ballymena, who is director of Belfast-based Billy Goat Entertainment.

William said the inspiration came from when he was younger and a fox came onto the family farm and killed all the chickens.

Speaking at a special launch event in Belfast, Jackie told the Times that it was great to help a fellow Ballymena man out. He said: “It’s nice to help out a fellow Ballymena man, if I can give him a leg up in business in any way then that’s good. William and his team are innovative and forward thinking. I hope it is successful because small companies such as his, in these hard times, deserve to find success.”

William said that getting Jackie involved with the project - which took six months - was a great plus: “Getting Jackie on board was a blessing, his voice was perfectly suited to our lead character.

“At first Jackie wasn’t sure whether to do it as himself or as an American, but we told him we wanted 100% Jackie.”

Jackie admits his cartoon role is “strange” in comparison to his normal day job, but said he is “impressed” with the final product.

The experienced BBC broadcaster (68), said he enjoyed his transformation into an animated character, claiming others in real life might refer to him as a “sly fox”.

“It is very exciting at this time in my career to branch out and do different things apart from the television world,” he said.

He added: “It was very flattering to be asked because I would be one of thousands of television performers who don’t really like their voice. So if some people think I have a distinctive voice, that’s very nice.”

On the finished product, he said: “I’m already critical of myself having viewed it but I did smile at times because I am impressed with how it turned out in terms of the animation and the game itself. I think it could be very popular.” Jackie believes some of the younger members of the Fullerton family will be impressed by his gaming handiwork. I will be the coolest grandfather on the planet for my youngest grandchildren, John and Hannah. I can’t wait to watch it with them when they hear grandad’s voice. That will be interesting.”

However, he added: “My eldest grandchildren, Jack and Erin, will probably be slightly embarrassed.”

William added that he hopes the game – aided by funding from the Arts Council – will eventually be rolled out to the Android market as well as its current App version, before being made available on Mac and PC.