Deep male tones are preferred by both children and adults for reading aloud - women's voices are often perceived as less likely to aid restful sleep.

Research into the valuable skill of story-telling shows that most of the country's favourite voices belong to men. A two-week, online survey conducted by the internet entertainment site bol.com has revealed that the actor Alan Rickman has Britain's favourite bedtime reading voice.

His rich, dark timbre was chosen by 1,316 voters. The softer voices of some of the country's most accomplished actresses were at the bottom of the charts.

More than 8,000 voters registered their views on the subject after a shortlist of contenders had been drawn up by a panel of celebrities, including writer Jilly Cooper, broadcaster John Peel and actress Joanna Lumley.

The highest polling woman in the survey was broadcaster Mariella Fros-trup, with 884 votes. Adored by many for her provocative huskiness, she came in behind Stephen Fry, who scored 896.

The next highest woman in the poll was Dame Judi Dench on 738, but the rest of Britain's famous female voices languished in the 600s. Juliet Stevenson earned 679 votes, Lindsay Duncan 614 and Prunella Scales 602.

Cooper said she suspected the problem with women's voices was that they sound unconvincing in male roles. 'I am afraid I do have a problem with women readers putting on gruff voices and pretending to be men,' she said.

She picked the actors William Franklyn and Sam West, Prunella Scales's son, as her ideal bedtime readers. They have she said, 'incredibly sexy, soothing voices, so it would be a lovely thing to fall asleep to'.

Despite the clear bias in favour of sex appeal in the survey results, all the panellists believe a good reader has to have more than a sexy voice to make a story come alive.

Lumley said she loved Martin Jarvis's voice. 'It has just enough characterisation - and the late Michael Williams was fab.' Jarvis won 719 votes.

Peel nominated his wife, Sheila, as the one he would most like to read him to sleep and the presenter of Woman's Hour, Jenni Murray, chose the voice of her Radio 4 colleague, Today presenter Sue MacGregor. 'Her voice is soothing, melodious and utterly reassuring. I'm used to being woken up by her, gently, in the morning on the Today programme. I'm sure she would send me to sleep just as effectively, feeling all was well with the world.'

Historically, male speaking voices have been much more regularly celebrated. From the Welsh tones of Richard Burton to the idiosyncratic style of sports commentators John Arlott and Dan Maskell.

Mothers, however, are still on at least an equal footing with fathers when it comes to singing lullabies.

www.bol.com