Fry or Dale?

I was just listening to Jim Dale's and Stephen Fry's respective versions of Goblet of Fire. Complete novice though I am to audiobooks (this is the first time I've ever listened to one - er, two), I can easily tell that Fry's is the better version.

Fry is at an advantage because he's reading the UK edition of the books - trust me, it does sound very strange when an utterly countrified British voice spouts Americanisms like "I always thought he was a weird kid".

But the major difference between the two is that Stephen Fry reads the book as if he's reading a book, while Jim Dale does it as if it was theatre, acting out all the different voices (most of which sound exactly the same, if you ask me). Not only does this sound very fake, it also forces Dale to put long pauses between the lines of dialogue and the "he said" or "she said" that follows it.

So anyone out there with the inclination and the dough to get the audio books is certainly better off getting the UK version. Well... just my $0.02 worth.