Velvet Voices
Seeing the picture of "whispering " Bob Harris, in relation to this weeks podcast, has reminded me of a recent training session at work- when we had to nominate our favourite voices from TV, Film or Radio.
Naturally I would go with Bob's Benson & Hedges voice first, followed by the late DJs Tommy Vance and Roger Scott. Sadly no one had heard of these people in my training course and I was met with blank stares all round. Mind you, incredibly, two people had never heard of Bob Dylan either! How is this possible?
Anyway, back to the voices. From TV, the velvet tones of Richard Briers and "Egg" the guy from "This Life" who does lots of voice over work and of course "the voice of cricket" Brian Johnston.
The lady with red hair from "Coast" also has a lovely speaking voice as does Charlotte Green from Radio 4-both in control and a little school teacher in tone, but comforting at the same time. Whose voice does it for you, dead or alive, voice your favourites here.
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I, too,
enjoy Charlotte Green's voice, but not nearly as much as does the bloke who wrote in asking if she could read more slowly "so we can both finish at the same time...."
Nigel...please
I dunno is it my built in filth-o-meter or what, but something in that post caused me to nearly spit out half a cup of hot tea on my keyboard.
Please, old chap, a spot of warning in future...
Pretty much
my reaction when I heard Charlotte recount the tale on Radio 4. And I think her filth-o-meter was working just as efficiently as yours.
Shipping
Apparently it was when she was doing the shipping forecast that her, ahem, fan, made the request!
Rounds off
the day nicely, I always find......
The forecast,
that is....
Green
Ha,Ha, that's funny, not heard about that!
Black Books
has a scene in which Fran similarly "appreciates" a shipping forecast read by her velvet-voiced ex, played by Peter Serafinowicz. Despite my rugged manliness I have to concede she has a point...
(around the 1:20 mark here, then again at 1:58, and later at around 4:25):
Joanna Lumley
...for the same reasons as for Charlotte Green. Also those female voices with a crack in them - Mariella Fostrup, Sarah Beeney, Dame Judy Dench. You really cannot beat proper actor voices though can you - Michael Gambon, Tom Baker - wonderful darling!
Time Lord
Forgot to mention Tom Baker, wonderful voice-just reading his memoirs at the moment. Very distinct voice.
Tom's voice carries
I was in bookselling when Tom Baker's wonderful book Who on Earth is Tom Baker? was published and once had the pleasure of standing at a till directly behind him while he was being interviewed after a signing.
Of the 2 interviewers one, from local radio, had done her homework and read the book (or at least memorised the press release so she knew what questions to ask). As a result she got full value from Tom, including hilarious speculation that the low turnout at the signing was down Ian Botham's appearance in our shop the previous week having infested the town with headlice. Perhaps you had to be there.
The other interviewer, from a local newspaper, might vaguely have been aware that he was once in some programme called Doctor Who (this was long before its recent regeneration). She was too young to have seen it at the time, and had done absolutely nothing to fill the gaps in her knowledge before talking to TB. She got single word answers in a curt tone from an unimpressed former Timelord.
After the interviews some of we staff and Tom retired to the staffroom for M&S sandwiches and a glass of wine. En route he mentioned the radio interviewer, and I agreed that she had been really good. 'Oh yes,' Tom declaimed, 'SO much better than FUCKING BLONDIE!' Cue startled little jumps and and old fashioned looks from customers up to 12 metres away.
Baker
Brilliant, what a wonderful tale, would like to meet Tom one day!
Jon Pertwee
Velvet voice in a velvet jacket. I met him at an NEC trade fair, he as The Doctor, with my young daughter in tow. She had no clue about Dr Who but asked him if he was Wurzel Gummidge. The good doctor immediately conversed with her as Wurzel, to the delight of all passers-by. A true gent.
Met him
Top bloke, and - as suggested above - a potty mouth of consummate skill. But I'd previously not thought so highly of him after first arriving in London. I briefly worked as a short-order cook at a bijou burger joint on the Fulham Road, where he was a fairly regular customer. All the waiters were gay, or New Yorkers, or out-of-work actors, or all three. One of the latter, who bore a remarkable resemblance to Brains from Thunderbirds (well, he would have if Thunderbirds had been directed by Harvey Fierstein), complained frequently about the poor tippers who always seemed to end up in his section, with the Time Lord, so he claimed, being among the poorest of them all. One evening Brains had had enough. As the good doctor was putting on his coat to leave, Brains histrionically plucked yet another 20p tip off the table, held the single coin aloft in front of him, did a twirl, and declaimed very loudly indeed, "Well, thank you, Doctuh Who!"
If you've never heard it
this is well worth checking out:
http://www.boomspeed.com/kajardine/Tom_Baker-Commercial_Voiceover_Outtak...
It's Tom recording a voiceover for an ad and getting steadily more apoplectic at the producer, railing at him for the inadequacies of the script.
He's so unhip
"when you talk about Dylan, he thinks you're talking about Dylan Thomas. Whoever he was ..."
Anyway. Never let mention of Charlotte Green go by without remembering this sparkling moment, courtesy of Speechification.
Kirsty
Young. A voice seemingly made of rich, dark chocolate. Desert Island Discs is no longer a chore since they replaced the woman in the Police song...
tone and delivery
Joss Ackland and Geoffrey Palmer ring my bell, but not in a Charlotte Green manner.
Kenneth Williams
Kenneth Williams used about five voices per sentence, including a rich, plummy accent that sounded all the more glorious in between the rasping, bitchy Cockney bits. So not uniformly velvet, but you never got bored of it. Example:
(Highly unlikely that any naive young folk are reading, but if they are, Kenneth Williams was a sort of rich man's Russell Brand, with better hair.)
George Sanders
How cool is this; after about 1 minute 20 secs, along comes the epitome of caddishness in tiger form. Who else could have done the voice?
Stirling Holloway too
Stirling Holloway, the voice of Kaa, massages all the sibilants in the brilliant lines "Slip into silent slumber, sail on a silver mist, slowly but surely your senses will cease to resist".
Strangely enough. . .
nobody has mentioned la voix du rock herself yet: Annie - formerly "The Lovely Anne" - Nightingale. Her voice is a bit fag-knackered these days, admittedly, but there was a time when, together with Whispering Bob, she made the Old Grey Whistle Test a pleasure to listen to not just for the music. (After that, of course, the oiks arrived and it all went to pot.)
Fi Glover
The GLR years especially.
Fiona Bruce
Has a lovely voice too...
Frankly
she could sound like Janet Street Porter and I wouldn't notice.
[clears throat, straightens ties, and focuses properly]
The voice of Horizon
Paul Vaughn - used to narrate loads of Horizon programmes, back when it used to cover "proper science". I'd believe anything that his calm, authoritative voice told me, especially if it involved neutrinos, fullerenes or DNA.
A bit of Googling confirms that he also narrated "Threads" - just the kind of reassuring voice you'd want to hear in case of nuclear holocaust...
Alexis Korner
He had a show on BBC radio on Sunday afternoons I was JUST beginning to love when he sadly passed in 1984.
He had a marvellous voice and, more importantly, played a lot of stuff that helped frame a few of my core musical loves. I still have one or two very ropey cassette compilations made from those shows with his voice popping in at the end of a few songs.
Paul Jones plays similar things on Radio 2 on Mondays and has a similar style of delivery though much more actorly (?). Which is fair enough seeing as that's what he is.
Korner's radio programme
It was wonderful. It seems to have slipped from the collective memory (and until I read your post I hadn't thought about it for years) and likewise discovered much great music through Alexis. And yes, he had a great speaking voice but wasn't great shakes as a singer.
Yep
A wonderful champion of blues and authentic R'n'B but a mediocre vocalist in his own right.
No matter, he was a wonderful broadcaster. No-one plays the things he played anymore, I don't think. Rocking Jimmy and The Brothers Of The Night. The Amazing Rhythm Aces. I don't think even the likes of Paul Jones and Mark Lamarr (who do sterling work) plough the same type of furrow he did.
First record I ever bought with my own pocket money...
Tap Turns On The Water by CCS - one of Alexis's other incarnations.
Mediocre slightly unfair - he knew his limitations and sang to them, I think.
One of the best radio shows ever
Probably had more influence on my musical tastes than any other
Can't stand
I like all the usual suspects - Charlotte Green, Fiona Bruce etc etc ................. the one I can't stand is that awful woman Orange have chosen to inflict upon us as the voice of the answerphone etc - apparently she is more "friendly" than the last one who seemed fine to me - "friendly apparently means a liberal dosage of glottal stops and a slightly patronising jaunty manner. The way she saya "Weeeelcum to Oringe" sets me teeth on edge.
Similarly the Observer Tech podcast only appear to employ people who cannot pronounce their Ws or finish words with a T. Even the presenter, who is American, is developing a glottal stop.
Debra Winger
love the croakiness. Ditto Alexa Chung.
Mariella Frostrup...ding dong
Dear Mariella
My boyfriend has become increasingly committed to his Christian faith. Now he's even reluctant to have sex. I'm an agnostic. Do you think our relationship can work?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/31/relationships
What about the delightful Verity Sharpe?
Her voice makes me go all funny, and I saw her once at a train station. I was far too cool and bashful to run up and say "I think you're really great." And Asmah Mir, the woman who does the midday news on 5live also has a really sexy voice and a wonderfully filthy laugh, although she ain't quite up there at Verity levels.
I often wonder how much of Scarlet Johanson's appeal is down to her husky voice?
As for blokes, Humphrey Littleton's voice was wonderful. Those patrician tones could say pretty much anything and I'd either believe it or think it was funny and I also have a real liking for Eddie Mair who can be heard pretty much daily on PM on radio 4. He's sounds smooth but there's genuine mischief which is there as well.
This isn't just food...
Dervla Kirwan brings a certain something to the M&S ads and another vote for Alexa Chung.
John Peel's voice had a certain ring to it and was perfect for a life of grime.
I can't say I've heard Charlotte Green but I think I'll soon rectify that!
It´s not very Rockn´Roll, I know....
...but I have always loved the sound of Peter Alliss doing the commentary for a Golf Tournament.
Couldn´t agree more with the post on Debra Winger´s voice. It makes me go weak at the knees.
Alliss
Peter Alliss's reputation seems to have slipped of late. But he's a professional who generally lets the action speak for itself. And he can be capable of the most acute observation. His comments about the tactics of the Frenchman (whose name I forget) who had the British Open sewn up when he went into the water at the 18th and could have taken a drop but didn't seem to have damaged his reputation most.
But what he said was complete sense, especially as the Frenchman threw the Championship away.
Attenborough!
Although I only have a vague interest in the goings on of invertebrates and such like, there's something about David Attenborough's voice that stops me flicking over. The marvel and wonderment as he whisperingly imparts another fact about the Tunisian Cheese-eyed Death Frog is an absolute delight.
Although perhaps a little less velvety, Brian Blessed has a voice built for the ages. Many a night is spent in our house yelling 'WOULD YOU LIKE A CUP OF TEA?!' up the stairs in Blessed's booming baritone.