Porridge was a BBC program of the 1970's RP English was known too be used in,The BBC,But how come the characters didn't speak with a RP English accent,It didn't seem right they spoke with a Cumbrian accent the characters should have spoken with a RP English accent.
shareMaybe they wanted it to sound authentic?
I doubt many prison inmates walk round sounding like newsreaders from the 1940s. I doubt anybody walked round talking like that in the 1970s, to be honest.
many of them were working class characters, so it would have been unsuitable for them to have RP accents. Fletcher was a Londoner and spoke with a london accent, godber from Birmingham, mclaren from Glasgow etc. there were plenty of other BBC programmes at the time that had non RP characters - dad's Army for example had several non RP characters, and in Whatever happened to the Likely Lads James Bolam has a northern accent, so does Rodney Bewes. Are you being Served? Featured many non RP accents - you can't get much less RP than Wendy Richard for example. And of course Ronnie barker's other successful comedy - Open all Hours, also had mostly characters with northern accents. And of course there was Z Cars, which had been going for many years, and which had characters with Liverpool accents. Dixon of dock green also featured many characters with London accents.
shareName anything from the BBC in the 70's that has RP English in it? Rising Damp? Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em? Last of the Summer Wine?
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What about 70s BBC comedy, The Good Life? Both Margot Leadbetter, played by Penelope Keith and possibly her husband Jerry, played by Paul Eddington spoke with posh accents. Whether or not this was actually RP, is open for discussion.
shareThAt's true. The OP seemed to be implying though that to have a non RP accent was unusual for T v in the 70s, but it wasn't, especially in comedies. The other 70s comedy that i remember as having RP accents mainly is Doctor in the House, though that was ITV. And of course there was yes minister at the end of the 70s.
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Who spoke with a "Cumbrian accent"? HMS Slade was in Cumberland anyway.
shareWhat’s an RP accent??????? Can u stop abbreviating and just write the word.
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