At ceremonies before tonight’s telecast, it was announced that Jim Dale won the Grammy Award in the category best “Spoken Word Album for Children” for his audio recording of “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” written by J.K. Rowling. Congratulations Jim Dale!
If you have not yet heard Jim Dale’s voice work for the Harry Potter audio books, be sure to check out these excerpts here from Random House.
I own both Fry and Dale. The first HP audio book I listened to was by Jim Dale. It really made the book come alive for me!! It was wonderful. Then I went to the UK for work and used my per diem to buy all 6 books. I used them for the reading groups in the leaky lounge. It really made the whole experience much more enjoyable. For DH I purchased the Jim Dale edition as Fry was not available in the US, and I swear it took me half the book before it sounded right. It was not that Jim Dale was bad, it was that I was used to Fry. So I think it comes down to what you are used to as both of them do a great job!!
By the way, I think that neither of them do a good job with Hermione, or any of the women characters. The only person I have heard do Hermione well is JKR herself.
If you’re a Jim Dale fan, you might want to track down the podcast of NPR’s “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” radio game show from a few months back (right around the DH release IIRC). He does a short interview with the host and guest panel, which in that episode contained comedienne Paula Poundstone. She mentions how hard it is to read HP to her kids after listening to Dale do it (with all his voices) all these years. It’s a funny show.
I have to hide under the Erumpent Horn with “pottershrink I’m afraid… in my opinion, Stephen Fry just gets it exactly right. He does a lovely “Know-it-all” voice for Hermione, a perfect snoddy “Brummie” twang for Tonks and the way he makes McGonnagall say:”Try not to get too much ash on the carpet, Potter!” is simply wonderful!!!!
Wilkie Twicross and his three “Ds” is another highlight for me and so is Stephen’s Hagrid and, and ..oh I could go on swooning forever.
Not to mention his very, very sexy Snape…
For me, Mr Fry deserves all the awards there are!!!
I own both Fry and Dale. The first HP audio book I listened to was by Jim Dale. It really made the book come alive for me!! It was wonderful. Then I went to the UK for work and used my per diem to buy all 6 books. I used them for the reading groups in the leaky lounge. It really made the whole experience much more enjoyable. For DH I purchased the Jim Dale edition as Fry was not available in the US, and I swear it took me half the book before it sounded right. It was not that Jim Dale was bad, it was that I was used to Fry. So I think it comes down to what you are used to as both of them do a great job!!
By the way, I think that neither of them do a good job with Hermione, or any of the women characters. The only person I have heard do Hermione well is JKR herself.