Accents

[rochvelleth]

Last night I watched Long Shot (I'm rewatching Pros all over again with big TV, which is a wonderful experience!), and then by chance today I turned Channel 5 on and the film Rio Bravo was on. And my Mum told me that one of the actors, Walter Brennan, was the very person whose accent Bodie takes off when they're standing on top of the observation

Comments

[moonlightmead]

I feel I should go back and listen to all those clips before commenting, but it's never stopped me before :)

For some reason, I really like it when either of the lads' voices slip a little into what I imagine are natural accents. Bodie puts on that scouse accent (*waves hands* - erm, well, scouse-ish, I wouldn't know the difference between Birkenhead and Liverpool myself) when he's caught breaking in in Slush Fund, but you can hear it less deliberately at other times as well. Principally when he's sounding put-upon or outraged, I think!

I do not think his 'posh' accent is particularly good, but I don't think it's meant to be. I think it's put on for fun and to amuse either himself or (principally) Doyle. It would never pass muster among people who actually speak like that.

Doyle affects a French accent when he's looking forward to le weekend!, and I was watching Blood Sports recently and noticed that he appears to be able to read French (when he comments to Anita on the contents of her letter

[rochvelleth]

Bodie puts on that scouse accent (*waves hands* - erm, well, scouse-ish, I wouldn't know the difference between Birkenhead and Liverpool myself) when he's caught breaking in in Slush Fund, but you can hear it less deliberately at other times as well.

Yes indeed! The accent he puts on in Slush Fund is proper inner-city scouse (or, well old scouse - the scouse accent has changed a lot in the last 20 years or so!), and occasionally he lapses into what are really scousisms rather than Birkenheadisms, as it were - e.g. the 'red'ead' bit in In the Public Interest. And yes, accents do come out properly when you're upset![1] But his overall accent in Pros is, I think, his natural Birkenhead accent. And if you listen to him in interview a lot later (e.g. the Bob Mills one in 1997), his accent is incredibly similar (maybe slightly mellowed), which adds to the impression that it's how he speaks naturally.

Incidentally, the way he speaks in that scene in Slush Fund is very similar to the accent he puts on in Village Hall[1] I heard some

[moonlightmead]

The accent he puts on in Slush Fund is proper inner-city scouse (or, well old scouse - the scouse accent has changed a lot in the last 20 years or so!), and occasionally he lapses into what are really scousisms rather than Birkenheadisms, as it were - e.g. the 'red'ead' bit in In the Public Interest.
See, all of this completely passed me by! Thanks :)

Yes, when I have seen interviews with him, his voice now (well, recently) seems to be closer to what it was as Bodie; whereas through the nineties MS's voice seems to have got much more distant from his Doyle-voice. I'm not sure whether that's a matter of accent, though, or how he... hmm, enunciates? Or breathes? There's a different quality there now, as if it's... um, rounder? And of course his current TV character is a Londoner. (I do enjoy listening to the different versions of Geordie accents in Gently, I have to say. I am a bad mead, I know!)

[rochvelleth]

Yes, I think MS's voice has changed a lot over the years... I think so, anyway, but I haven't really listened to early interviews. But the thing is, some people lose their original accent easily and others don't - and like you say, there does seem to be a slightly different quality, so maybe it's years of doing things like theatre that have changed his voice in other ways?

Those Geordie accents do vary a bit, don't they? *g*