Singer Michael Ball won’t put sex scenes in his murder mystery novels because he is frightened of shocking his 90-year-old mum.
The West End star has released two best-sellers called The Empire in 2022 and his most recent A Backstage Betrayal. However he also loves recording the audio books for them.
But he admits if he had added any steamy scenes in the chapters, he would need to read them out loud which he fears would be too much for his elderly mother Ruth.
Michael, 62, explained: “I consciously don’t put sex scenes in my books. The idea of my mum listening to me doing that? She would be mortified. So it’s all good clean fun.”
However when it comes to bad language the Radio Two presenter - who has a new album out soon with tenor pal Alfie Boe called Together At Home - has slipped the odd word in.
He admitted: “In the memoir I did called Different Aspects there was some language in there because there had to be.
“I was explaining how Gillian Lynne choreographed which was filthy so I had to use those words. Now when I came to do the audiobook for that I was going ‘Oh, can I say this word?’ and I thought ‘Yes!’”
Michael says he loves recording audiobooks and enjoys doing all the voices and impressions of his characters.
He said: “I do enjoy reading audio books and I do everything, all the voices and accents.
“In my head I know what the characters sound like but when you are there with the microphone I get nervous trying to do all the voices.
“This latest one has some Middle European accents so I do worry that they might all sound like Dracula. But I love doing it. It is quite a long process. It’s four full days in the studio. I write kind of like I speak. So it is easier for me to do it.”
English (US) ·