question...

[m31andy]

Phil Glenister's normal accent just sounds like a working class Northerner trying to sound posh, y/y???

This post is brought to you by watching TV (specifically Dave) for the first time in six months.

Posted via m.livejournal.com.

Comments

[draycevixen]

He sounds like the London suburbs to me unless my ear is badly out of tune which is more than possible.

[m31andy]

I know my ear is out as well, but it is sounding a little ... forced at the moment. He's been doing adverts and he sounds like Gene Hunt has stuck a plum in his mouth - and I mean that literally.

[draycevixen]

If you impersonate an accent for long enough strange things can happen. I recently saw Hugh Laurie interviewed and even he was sliding in to those softer American vowel sounds.

[chamekke]

I generally avoid chat shows like the plague, but I did catch one in which Hugh Laurie admitted that his American accent on "House" often slips in subtle ways. It's often more a matter of stress placement than actual pronunciation. He gave the example of "tomato sauce"; he'd nail the "tomayto" part, but would place the stress on the word "sauce" rather than on the "tomato".

This sparked a rather entertaining discussion between husband (Brit) and me (Canoodle) as to where the stress "belongs"... and whether it primarily refers to (1) ketchup or (2) that-red-stuff-you-put-on-your-spaghetti. (I seem to recall that when it's the latter, it is barely permissible to put the emphasis on "tomato" :-)

[lozenger8]

Nope. London all the way.

When he was playing Gene he'd inject some Gene staccato and lilt into his speech and that would be confusing.

John Simm on the other hand...

[m31andy]

It's not sounding very convincing at the moment - he's doing adverst and it's sounding slightly more dodgy. I can't place the London accent at all and, as I've said to Drayce, it sounds more like Northerner who's trying too hard. Which, as I know he was (I think) born within the M25, is slightly odd...

John is ... definitely different...

[lozenger8]

I'm with Drayce --- he's been doing Gene's voice for so long, it's slipping into his real accent. He might have been asked to make it sounds more Gene-like.

[m31andy]

It's okay... I'm also reeling stunned from the idea of Jack Davenport having an "American accent" in an American Drama. I think I'm going to retire from British for this.

[constant_muse]

Funny you should say that - on a rare foray into TV I watched the first part of BBC "The Secret Life of the National Grid", and was surprised at the credits to see that Philip Glenister was the narrator. Not that it sounded hugely posh, but posher than I would have expected.