ONE of York's most famous daughters has been named as having the perfect voice.

Experts say the speech of Dame Judi Dench matches their scientific formula to find the perfect voice.

The research, commissioned by Post Office Telecoms, asked people to rate 50 voices then analysed the results.

York's very own Dame Judi, combined with BBC Radio 4 presenter, Mariella Frostrup, and actress, Honor Blackman, made up the perfect female voice. The deep vocal vibes of actors Alan Rickman, Jeremy Irons and Michael Gambon made up the perfect male voice. The study was conducted by linguistics Professor Andrew Linn, from Sheffield University, and Shannon Harris, keyboard player for Rod Stewart and Lily Allen.

Together they worked out their formula based on a subtle blend of tone, speed, frequency, words per minute and intonation. Their experiments revealed vocal traits associated with positive characteristics such as confidence and trust scored the highest.

After analysing the highest scoring voices the pair concocted a mathematical conclusion on elements the ideal voice should contain.

Apparently it should speak no more than 164 words per minute (wpm), pause for 0.48 seconds between sentences and should fall, rather than rise, in intonation.

According to the study Dame Judi talks at 160 wpm pausing for 0.5 seconds between sentences, Frostrup speaks at a speedy average of 180 wpm also pausing for 0.5 seconds and Blackman converses at a slower pace of 120 wpm.

Irons is the fastest for the men at a blistering 200 wpm, Rickman at 180 wpm and Gambon 160 wpm.

Dame Judi, who has a street named after her in the city and went to The Mount School has starred in many high- profile movies, including several James Bond films. She is also a patron of the city's Mystery Plays.

Nikki Swift, head of the English language and linguistics programme at York St John University, said: "Academics have done research on attitudes to accents in the past, but this is the first piece of research that I know about that looks at the way we perceive speed, pitch and intonation in British English."

She added: "In my view, there's no such thing as the perfect' voice. Our value judgements about a voice will depend on the culture that we belong to. So, for example, which country you are from, how old you are, your gender and educational background could all affect how you react to a voice."