American Actors, Audiobooks, etc

[Joe Bento]

Is there something about the Queen's English that is absolutely 
pleasant and non-irritating to listen to?  Could English as spoken 
on the BBC (and Jim Dale's reading of Harry Potter for that matter) 
be considered the world standard for neutrality in accent-free 
English?

I've downloaded a number of audiobooks from audible.com, and I own 
all the Harry Potter audio books.  I am finding that the books read 
by British narrators are far easier to listen to for long periods of 
time than those read by an American reader.  

In newscasts as well as radio announcers here in the states, many of 
the reporters or commentators are downright irritating.  

While the Queen's English is easy for Americans to understand, it'd 
be fun to have a book narrated with a Cockney accent.  That's 
certainly the accent I picture Stan having.

As a California native, I certainly don't speak in Queen's English, 
though I certainly appreciate programming where it is spoken.

Joe


 



--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Sarah" <plungy116 at a...> 
wrote:
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, juli17 at a... wrote:
> 
>  It's a (very small) pet peeve of mine that JKR won't allow 
American 
> actors in the HP films. 
> Julie 
> 
> me again now ...
> I don't think that she has necessarily said she won't allow 
Americans 
> in the films, just that she wasn't going to write any American 
> characters in the books.  Maybe I'm wrong.
> 
> I admit that someone like Mike Myers does a great English accent 
(but 
> then he was brought up in Britain for a while), but most of the 
time 
> cross atlantic accents do not work that well.  Alan Rickman's 
> American accent is nothing to write home about, Clive Owen in Sin 
> City just makes me want to curl up and I have to turn off Hugh 
Laurie 
> in House!  Renee Zellwiger as Bridget Jones is horrific, Winona 
Ryder 
> and Keanu Reeves in Dracula ... I could go on ... it's just not 
worth 
> the potential cringe factor.  Saying that, I find Gary Oldman's 
> accent as Sirius a little forced too, and Sean Bean sounds odd when 
> he's not talking in his native Sheffield tongue.  Am I being too 
> picky?  
> I think Americans are better playing Americans and Brits are better 
> playing Brits.  
> And on that note I shall go and hide, masterfully dodging all the 
> flak that will no doubt head east towards me.
> 
> Sarah xx