Rivals stars David Tennant and Danny Dyer lend voices to audiobooks for blind

Rivals stars David Tennant, Danny Dyer and Katherine Parkinson are among the famous faces who have recorded extracts from their favourite books for a free audiobook service.

The actors were joined by their co-stars Victoria Smurfit, Alex Hassell and Rufus Jones to mark the 90th anniversary of the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)’s talking books service.

Irish actress Smurfit, who plays glamorous Maud O’Hara in the award-winning Disney+ drama, is president of the charity and has recorded an extract from children’s classic 101 Dalmatians.

Tennant has chosen scientist Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History Of Time, while former EastEnders star Dyer will read from Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel Casino Royale.

Parkinson has opted for Rivals, the novel by the late Dame Jilly Cooper on which the hit television series is based.

Other actors taking part include Bobby Lockwood, Oliver Chris, Brendan Patricks, Jonny Weldon and Olivia Poulet.

The recordings also feature extracts from E L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey, Paula Hawkins’ The Girl On The Train and George Orwell’s Animal Farm, read by Eliot Salt, Lara Peake and Guy Siner respectively.

Smurfit said: “Audiobooks are a popular escape for many of us, but they’re also an essential accessibility aid which allow blind and partially sighted people to access literature on a par with sighted peers.

“Listening to literature doesn’t just give people with sight loss the chance to enjoy fiction but it provides access to information and education, which in turn, can lead to employment for people who can’t read standard print.

“It’s a form of entertainment which is widely used in modern society but was created out of the need for equity and access to literature – and there’s something really special about that.”

The anniversary comes as research commissioned by the charity and conducted by YouGov found that 65% of UK adults would not listen to an audiobook narrated by artificial intelligence (AI).

The survey also found that the English accent was the most popular choice among respondents when selecting between English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh and Northern Irish accents.

Meanwhile, 26% said they would stop listening to an audiobook if its narrator had a strong accent, and 42% would stop listening if the narrator was a celebrity they disliked.

The RNIB’s talking books service was established in response to veterans returning from the First World War who were unable to read printed literature as a result of their injuries.

The service remains a resource for people with sight loss and currently has 56,000 titles available.