I can't say I could really listen to someone for hours - I'm a miserable old git who'll probably tell someone to belt up if they threaten to talk the length of a David Lean film - but there are certain actors/actresses voices that have certain appeal to them that can seduce the ear that much you probably wouldn't mind them reciting the telephone book.

An obvious one for me is John Hurt, that gravelly voice sounding as if it's had a year's supply of aggregate poured down it, yet compelling when the man uses it to great effect.

Another is Patrick McGoohan, a man whose voice managed to combine such tension and glacial majesty that I wondered if his vocal chords were at war with each other. A terrific, clipped, almost laser-sharp voice.

The ladies? I'd go for Katherine Hepburn's strident, energetic voice, a tone that slaps your face and shows you whose boss.

Any takers?

John Hurt?

Jean Reno; John Hurt with added exoticism.

The Doctors had a few choice pipes to chuck around. It's still a tickle to hear Jon Pertwee's stylish, sharp cat's purr and a laugh to hear Tom Baker's classy fog-horn boom.

Orson Welles, Lorne Greene.

I love Marilyn Monroe's voice, also Judy Holliday's — though I'm not sure I could handle it on a daily basis.

Bobby Mitchum. Hold the calypso recordings though.

James Mason.

Richard Burton every time.

His tribute on a US chat show to his father and his South Wales mining colleagues is almost hypnotic in its rich delivery.

'British Isles':

(Most of the above, plus...)
Richard Burton
Anthony Quayle
Peter O'Toole
Robert Powell
Richard E. Grant
Richard Harris
Sean Connery
Ian McKellen
Patrick Stewart
Cyril Cusack
(But yes - John Hurt is probably my favourite of all)


American:

Sam Elliott
Gregory Peck
Lee Marvin
Marlon Brando
Sidney Poitier
Richard Farnsworth
...and yes - Morgan Freeman


European:

Jürgen Prochnow
Rutger Hauer
Ernst-Hugo Järegård

I wish I could name some Russian actors - I love Russian voices. But I just don't know enough (about) Russian film to name anyone in particular.

Jean Reno
Kris Kristofferson
George Clooney
Ben Kingsley
Kathleen Turner
Amitabh Bachchan
John Ratzenburger
Fred Gwynne
Christopher Plummer
Peter Lorre

Like George, I'm going with James Mason.

I also (and here I suspect i'm in a minority of one) love the smoky sexyness of Joey Lauren Adams' voice.

To bring more ladies into the fray, Susannah York’s voice was pure gold (being in no way deferential to her appearance in the film Gold, where her South African accent was almost as bad as Patsy Kensit’s in Lethal Weapon 2).

Gordon Jackson bossed every scene in Upstairs Downstairs and The Professionals with his authoritative eloquence. Peter Wyngarde may have been hammy for some tastes, but his turn as Klytus in Flash Gordon was articulate and deliciously contemptuous.

Yep, James Mason will be a top ten candidate for all time I reckon.

Max Von Sydow's voice could also be an arresting sonic experience at the best of times.

Peter Wyngarde may have been hammy for some tastes, but his turn as Klytus in Flash Gordon was articulate and deliciously contemptuous.

That's a good call. He also starred in an episode of Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett, who had a distinctive, beautifully-delivered voice.

Pretty much all of the above, but I'd add:

Nicol Williamson
Tommy Lee Jones
James Earl Jones
Christopher Walken
Richard Briers

All of the male regulars in Carry On films, with the exception of Kenneth Connor. And Jim Dale only when he says "Chipping Sodbury" in Carry On Cowboy (and possibly in Carry On Screaming as well).

I second Orson Welles. His radio work with the Mercury Theatre really drives the point home. I mean, it’s an obvious one, but the opening to War of the Worlds “intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic” is just gorgeous in its mellifluousness. Ditto his Professor Moriarty. I always thought Kelsey Grammer would have made a brilliant Welles, as their voices inhabit the same stratum of the register.

I could also listen to Christopher Walken all day, but for totally different reasons.

Peter Kenny. He's a stage actor but also does a lot of audio books and by golly he's got a good voice for it.

In fact, audiobooks are a good way to judge if someone has a voice you can listen to for ages.

My absolute favourite woman's voice, edging out katherine Deneuve and Kirsty Warke isn't an actor, but an astronomer and science communicator called Dr Pamela Gay. By golly every time she opens the Astronomy Cast podcast a small bit of my cerebellum starts gently smoking.(Although by god, I wish she'd pronounce "temperature" properly. She always says "temperchure.")

How could I forget Eric Thompson, narrator of "The Magic Roundabout"?

Michael Alexander St. John

I know he's not an actor as such, but Terry Wogan.