How Jim Dale Performs The Harry Potter Audio Books

Lots of folks talk about the level of detail put into creating the Harry Potter books and films, but only a handful know the story behind Jim Dale's performance of the 7 Harry Potter audio books.Were you aware that when Jim performed the audio books, he...1. Did not read the whole book before he began. Jim would generally get a manuscript for a book just 2 or 3 days before being scheduled to start his performance. Meaning that when he began reading a new Harry Potter audio book, he wouldn't know how the story was going to end. In fact, Jim says that he'd generally only read ~100 pages in front of where he's recording. That's pretty cool since it means that when you're listening to the audio books, you can be fairly sure that Jim isn't subconsciously leading you in a certain plot direction with the intonation of his voice.2. Developed more than 200 voices for all the different characters over the 7 book series. He even holds a Guinness World Record for the most voices in an au
dio book - 146 different voices in book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.3. Applies his knowledge of hundreds of accents taken from the entire United Kingdom. Several characters voices are even based on specific friends or relatives of Jim's (e.g., an old Aunt-in law is the inspiration for Professor McGonagall's voice and a giant uncle of his who had a small farm in Devonshire is the inspiration for Hagrid).4. Would be sent a list of every new word or character's name and its exact pronunciation. Evidently the producers wanted an extremely strict interpretation of the text and Jim would often have to record new words (which had been accidentally left off this list) in every intonation imaginable.5. Would spend 2-3 weeks narrating each book. He'd typically go from about 10am to 5pm over the course of this period, totaling about 100 hours of recording time per audio book.Pretty crazy stuff huh? Hope you enjoyed the interesting facts on Jim Dale's recording of the Harry
Potter audio books!

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