Voice-over king Redd Pepper has had his vocal cords insured - for £10 million.

Barbados-born Redd, 57, is the man whose raspy, bass-like tones have graced film trailers for more than two decades.

But the father-of-six, who lives in Gravesend, has finally stepped in front of the camera to star in Compare The Market’s latest rewards offering, Meerkat Meals, a brand-new bespoke dining reward powered by tastecard.

The £10 million cover protects his vocal cords in the event of ‘accidental damage’ which would leave him unable to utter his chilling, but best-known line: ‘There was a time ….. ‘.

Redd, who has voiced trailers for Armageddon, The Blair Witch Project and The Mr Bean movie among others, said: "It was something I needed to do.

"It means I am covered if I am involved in an accident or if I am for any reason unable to use my vocal cords.

"My voice is my career. I wouldn’t know what to do if I wasn’t able to do voice-overs."

A former Ramsgate resident who has lived in Kent for more than 20 years, Redd was talking at the launch of a hilarious video created to kick off Meerkat Meals.

Within the 90-second video, Redd attempts to announce the launch of Meerkat Meals as “coming soon”.

However, his desire to ramp up the drama gets in the way of the facts leaving the exasperated sound engineer having to correct Redd’s constant slip-ups.

Redd also revealed despite having a full diary, there is one character he always yearned to voice, but never had the opportunity – Optimus Prime.

He added: "I could be an amazing Optimus Prime, but a guy called Peter Cullen does him, and he is fantastic at it, so I will never get that gig.’’

Redd also told how he is best friends with a celeb whose voice is the polar opposite of his gravelly-tone, Joe Pasquale.

Squeaky-voiced Kent panto regular Pasquale, who lived in Higham, regularly meets his deeper-toned pal for coffee.

Redd said: "People who sit close to us always give us strange looks. You couldn’t get two voices which are more different from each other.

"I always take the mickey out of Joe’s voice. He loves it. He is a great guy and we’ve been friends for years.

"We had great fun shooting the Meerkat Meals video."

Starting in July, the scheme will reward customers with 2-for-1 meals at thousands of restaurants up and down the country for an entire year.

Compare The Market’s customers who buy a qualifying insurance product will be able to dine out as many times as they like for breakfast, lunch and dinner from Sunday to Thursday for a year.

Julie Daniels, director of customer rewards and partnership, said: "We’re very excited to launch our most ambitious rewards scheme to date.

"Dining out with friends and family is a special occasion and we hope that our offer will see millions of people head out to take advantage of the fantastic range of restaurants on offer.

"Big chains and local restaurants alike can also benefit from increased footfall earlier in the week as well as larger group bookings."

By presenting their unique membership details via the Meerkat app at the point of payment, up to six diners can benefit from 2-for-1 on starters, mains and desserts each visit.