![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
As can be heard here - http://goo.gl/dY5hv
Words cannot properly express how much this meant to me when the Doctor said it. My home town, insofar as Britain is concerned, is a small town about half-way between Liverpool and Manchester. People who talk like me do not appear often on TV, and when they do, in a show not set in the region, people who talk like me tend to be the bad guys. I shouldn't complain too much, there's a least one person on my f-list whose home region gets it even worse than mine, but it does grate after a while.
And suddenly, here was the revamped version of one of the big British good guys, and he talks like me.
I suspect that a lot of the praise for this ought to go to Russell T Davies, a man who's never been afraid of setting his shows in somewhere that is not London. I certainly suspect that I wouldn't have loved Queer As Folk half as much if it hadn't been set in Manchester, and more than that, a Manchester I recognised.
Now Christopher Eccleston wasn't the first Doctor from round these parts, both Tom Baker and Paul McGann are of the North West, but he was the first to be allowed to sound like himself. It was wonderful. And I thought, hey, maybe the BBC has realised that the regions are there for more than just local colour.*
Then came the 10th Doctor.
And, I have my issues with the 10th Doctor as a character and so on, but one of my earlier issues was the terrible mockney he put on. I'm not blaming the actor, but it's a terrible choice for an accent, because it suggests that the person is not from London, but is from Greater London or the Home Counties and is trying to hide that fact. They are, to pinch a phrase, trying to sound street. However, and most annoyingly, it's become the modern day version of RP, where it's become the "neutral" dialect. Which is annoying because it sounds ghastly**.
This is particularly annoying in the case of David Tennant because his "real" voice is lovely. And the mockney-ness of it stands out when they then cast an actor whose "real" voice and accent is from those parts, and sounds lovely with it, as the 11th Doctor.
So yes, I am pleased to hear reports that 12 is sticking with his accent :)
* And despite the rest of this post, I do actually think they're getting better.
** Your actual South 'n' East London accent, which is the basis of mockney, doesn't.
( Other Days )
Words cannot properly express how much this meant to me when the Doctor said it. My home town, insofar as Britain is concerned, is a small town about half-way between Liverpool and Manchester. People who talk like me do not appear often on TV, and when they do, in a show not set in the region, people who talk like me tend to be the bad guys. I shouldn't complain too much, there's a least one person on my f-list whose home region gets it even worse than mine, but it does grate after a while.
And suddenly, here was the revamped version of one of the big British good guys, and he talks like me.
I suspect that a lot of the praise for this ought to go to Russell T Davies, a man who's never been afraid of setting his shows in somewhere that is not London. I certainly suspect that I wouldn't have loved Queer As Folk half as much if it hadn't been set in Manchester, and more than that, a Manchester I recognised.
Now Christopher Eccleston wasn't the first Doctor from round these parts, both Tom Baker and Paul McGann are of the North West, but he was the first to be allowed to sound like himself. It was wonderful. And I thought, hey, maybe the BBC has realised that the regions are there for more than just local colour.*
Then came the 10th Doctor.
And, I have my issues with the 10th Doctor as a character and so on, but one of my earlier issues was the terrible mockney he put on. I'm not blaming the actor, but it's a terrible choice for an accent, because it suggests that the person is not from London, but is from Greater London or the Home Counties and is trying to hide that fact. They are, to pinch a phrase, trying to sound street. However, and most annoyingly, it's become the modern day version of RP, where it's become the "neutral" dialect. Which is annoying because it sounds ghastly**.
This is particularly annoying in the case of David Tennant because his "real" voice is lovely. And the mockney-ness of it stands out when they then cast an actor whose "real" voice and accent is from those parts, and sounds lovely with it, as the 11th Doctor.
So yes, I am pleased to hear reports that 12 is sticking with his accent :)
* And despite the rest of this post, I do actually think they're getting better.
** Your actual South 'n' East London accent, which is the basis of mockney, doesn't.
( Other Days )
