James Bond's voice

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Comments

  • I never missI never miss EnglandPosts: 47MI6 Agent
    Totally agree that Benedict Cumberbatch is too posh - he irritates me quite a bit these days and I'd be mortified if he became Bond.
    It's fantastic that the Bond actors voices have been so diverse. My personal favourite example being the classic "things were abooot to turn nasstee" Eee oop chuck, that's grand work that is.
  • JoshuaJoshua Posts: 1,138MI6 Agent
    I think James Bond can put on funny voices as disguise. Here is Sean Connery undercover doing this:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0BtN6aRxkg
  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    Totally agree that Benedict Cumberbatch is too posh - he irritates me quite a bit these days and I'd be mortified if he became Bond.
    It's fantastic that the Bond actors voices have been so diverse. My personal favourite example being the classic "things were abooot to turn nasstee" Eee oop chuck, that's grand work that is.

    Big Dalton fan, but that somehow jars with me. It strikes me as a deliberate choice as Dalton does not sound like that in his everyday speech.
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • Rintoul16Rintoul16 Posts: 7MI6 Agent

    Hello,

    Do you know where I might be able to get hold of a copy of the David Rintoul audiobooks?

    Thanks.

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 38,281Chief of Staff

    I take it you've looked at the usual sources such as Amazon and eBay?

  • Rintoul16Rintoul16 Posts: 7MI6 Agent

    Yes, but no luck unfortunately - they seem quite rare. I've noticed that a few people on this forum seem to have copies, and was wondering if they'd be able to help me out.

  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 38,281Chief of Staff

    That's okay, but please don't post any more asking about it. 6 times is more than enough.

  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 3,024MI6 Agent
    edited December 2024

    Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon enacting Roger Moore's dialogue with Christopher Lee from the lunch scene in TMWTGG is indeed spot-on!

    I saw Coogan tonight at the theatre in 'Dr Strangelove' (The Noel Coward Theatre). Coogan plays all the characters Peter Sellers played in Stanley Kubrick's film, plus the B52 pilot. He's not as good as Sellers in it, but it's a different medium and it's impressive that he manages all the character transitions on the stage. Giles Terera almost steals the show as General Buck Turgidson. The production is pretty faithful to the film and there are some cool visual effects. Of course, the dark satire of 'Dr Strangelove' resonates ominously again today, given our current geopolitical situation.

    Ken Adam's design is tributed by an angled circular construct above the War Room set.

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 3,024MI6 Agent

    And Christmas Day viewers of BBC2 may have enjoyed a new context in which Coogan is the voice of James Bond!

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,027MI6 Agent
    edited December 2024

    Interesting to see this thread again: I would say I disagree with the ranking of the first post quite a lot though. Putting Brosnan above Craig seems all wrong to me: Brosnan has quite a whiny, high pitched voice with a very strange mid-Atlantic nowhere accent, and I could never put him above Craig's effortless, relaxed baritone. He's kind of got the ideal voice for Bond I think, and I'd put him right up near the top. Likewise Dalton I'd put below Craig; he's not bad, but veers towards the theatrical stiff-lipped clipped way of talking, and is unable to stop his northern England roots popping out from time to time, unlike Craig.

    Roger obviously has a wonderful voice: a bit too smooth and laid back for Bond? It's arguable, but I think he's terrific and it works for his Bond. Connery is obviously fantastic: if we're going back to Fleming should Bond have a slight speech impediment? It doesn't matter; arguably he shouldn't really have much of a Scots accent either, but no-one minds that. (Bond's upbringing was entirely out of the UK until he was 11, at which point he went to live in Kent. Yes, he went to Fettes a year or two later, but the King was educated in Scotland too and doesn't exactly sound like Connery 😄 )

    I guess it's kind of hard to say what his accent should be like after all that: maybe he'd pick up more of a posh-ish English accent from his time in Fettes and the military?

  • Shady TreeShady Tree London, UKPosts: 3,024MI6 Agent
    edited December 2024

    A good analysis, there.

    Sean Connery often brought a carnal, kind of post-coital drawl to his vocalisation as Bond, fitting the character's sensuality; but he could also sound sharp and authoritative when Bond is issuing instructions to allies or challenging the heavies, reflecting the character's background as a naval officer.

    Roger Moore just gave Bond Roger Moore's voice, with an accent which the actor had acquired at RADA and established on TV. (As this year's 'From Roger Moore With Love' points out, Moore didn't become James Bond; his Bond became 'Roger Moore', a persona the actor had already created.)

    Daniel Craig seems to import to Bond the accent and vocal style of his character in 'Layer Cake', albeit levelling off the mockney. It's pretty close to his own voice. In CR06 and QOS, his choice of accent seems suitable as a reflection of where this English, ex-SAS-style Bond may have come from. Perhaps by SF it's no longer quite the right fit, given that the character's family home turns out to have been in Scotland.

    @emtiem I think you're mainly right in your observations about Dalton's and Brosnan's uses of voice. Of course, they bring to Bond traces of their Welsh and Irish accents respectively.

    Critics and material I don't need. I haven't changed my act in 53 years.
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,027MI6 Agent

    Thanks; but as I often do as it's a bugbear of mine, I'm not sure Dalton has a Welsh accent: he grew up in Derbyshire.

  • hehadlotsofgutshehadlotsofguts Durham England Posts: 2,116MI6 Agent

    You get more hints of a Welsh accent in Licence To Kill. Especially during the conveyor belt scene and the final confrontation with Sanchez.

    He moved to Derbyshire before his 4th birthday. When is it at a point in your life, that it's decided that you're going to speak a certain way for the rest of your life?

    Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?"

    " I don't listen to hip hop!"
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 6,027MI6 Agent
    edited December 2024

    I'm not sure it's three, I would think a kid growing up in Belper is going to have a Derbyshire accent.

    My nephew lived in Australia when he was about that age, came back and has lived in the UK ever since, with a strongly-accented Aussie as his dad, you wouldn't be able to tell he was anything but English from his accent.

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