MovieChat Forums > Blue Murder (2003) Discussion > bloody awful accent

bloody awful accent

posted 16 years ago by somepi
13 replies | jump to latest

Caroline Quentin's Mcr accent is SHOCKING. In one sentence, she'll start off with a Bolton accent, veer over to Mersyside, drop down to London and then come back up to Wythenshawe. I mean, it is SO noticeable. Why do they let her do it? They film around Didsbury, so presumably some of the cast and crew are Mancs. Didn't any of them dare say "er, that accent is all over the place"? After all, it's not as if everyone in Mcr speaks like Vera Duckworth. If she'd have stuck to her normal "voice over" voice it'd have been fine. As it is; shocking.

[–] scotthendo 16 years ago

Relax, it all just sounds Pom to the rest of the world!

What we do in life, echoes an eternity!

[–] niobe484 16 years ago

Livin' here in Charlotte, NC I can say "Oi! Sounds foin to me!" It amazes me how many "British" accents y'all have. And I need the captions to understand all those muttered "side comments." Love your shows. They're absolutely tops.
Lane in Chahlotte, NC

[–] wiluxe-2 10 years ago

So true. We Southerners are still struggling with the English language, so it's good to know the Brits are too. And we always use the subtitles.

[–] nicdar24 8 years ago

I think there are just as many variations of accents in North America as there are in the UK. We're just more used to them so don't always notice. I find the more UK shows you watch, the better you are able to understand the accents without subtitles.

[–] patabarca 16 years ago

It sounds fine to us in Los Angeles, California, USA. Now you want to talk about shocking accents, let's discuss how bad Brits do American accents. :-)

[–] klansea-1 11 years ago

Yeh , right ,let's discuss Brits doing American accents

Apparently, according to BBC Radio4, the Boss's of American shows choose Brits,

cos they get there on time, know their lines, CAN do the accents, Oh,and CAN ACT

[–] Flickfan-3 16 years ago

I too am American watching this series on disc via Netflix
I agree that the accents do not always sound the same but it is difficult with DVDs to know if the problem is with the system for reply or the original recording or actors...
unfortunately I can't get the captions on these dvds so I miss several lines each episode just because of their mumbling and other noise intrustion...

"...That's the beauty of argument, Joey. If you argue correctly, you're never wrong..."

[–] LancsLassie 15 years ago

i agree with Charles_Calthrop - her accent is terrible... coming from the lancashire area myself, i am very critical. i also dont know why she couldnt use her own accent.... now lets discuss the dick van dyke (mary poppins) , that is enough to make anyone cringe LOL Its better to burn out than to fade away

[–] r-obsessed 15 years ago

I'm no Manc, but even I can tell her accent is terrible. I don't really get why they think her having a terrible Manc accent is better than having her normal voice - we move around the country with work or with marriages don't we?!

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] hanesydd 11 years ago

I wondered about it too. Even as an American, I thought she sounded a bit too "Estuary English" to be from Manchester, and it wasn't consistent.

[–] et_tu_Brute 10 years ago

I don't believe Ms. Quentin was at all atempting to achieve a true accent reflective of the Manchester and regions. I watched some of the early series with a true Mancunian and she was distinguishing the acents of some of the other cast members and how only a few kilometers apart,could have you tearing your hair out. We agreed that even many Brits from other parts would have stuggled to view this programme if the dialogue was pure dialect, hence to the need to temper the accents somewhat. This is a universal problem for most TV programmes theese days with the intent that they are producing TV for a wider than local audience, and particularly, if receiving co-production assistance from other TV broadcasters abroad. I notice that the accents for the dialogue employed on "Inspector Morse" and the later offshoots "Lewis" & "Endeavour" are heavily tempered to the point of being almost neutral of a true Oxforshire accent. One of the main co-producers of these shows, the US PBS Network affiliate, WGBH Boston's Masterpiece Theatre would be trying and have it maintained as British as possible without it becoming indecipherable.
From the second series of "Blue Murder" I noticed a remarkable flattening of the accents no doubt due to the programme achieving healthy international sales. Of course by doing this, you will naturely attact the purists who expect the show to be produced with a thick Mancunian dialect and nothing less, but then the international sales of the programme would never have been acchieved. The international sale of TV sales (together with foreign producer's capital input) are lucretive for the survival of TV drama, the most expensive TV you can produce. The alternative is the ever-growing & overwhelming influx of 'reality' TV which are so cheap to produce, the production costs 'do not even come within a bull's roar' of the cost of TV drama. While not pure of accent, at least "Blue Murder" presents a reasonable quality crime drama that is set in a location other than London. And that can only be a good thing for Manchester at least.

Cheers

Locked my wire coat-hanger in the car - good thing that I always carry spare keys in my pocket :)

[–] somepi 10 years ago

yes, but the point is, she should either have used her normal voice, or done one accent consistently. Some people in manchester speak like mancs, some speak like scousers, some like irish and some like londerners. because some people in manchester are from manchester, some are from liverpool, and some are from ireland etc. I don't care what accent she chooses, as long as she sticks to it consistently. True, some people accentuate odd phrases or words, but not in every other sentence.

The fact of the matter is because she messes it up so much, it ends up being distracting. In one sentence she would say one clause as if she was mancuinan, another as if she were irish, a third cockney then goes back to her manc accent. no one in the world talks like that. Imagine doing half a sentence in a french accent, some in a texan and some in an indian one. it would completely distract from what you were saying.