I'm sort of curious, did any of the other viewers from North America have a bit of trouble understanding what Chris, Shaz and Ray were saying sometimes? I didn't have this problem with Gene, Alex, or Keats.
Is this a regional accent, perhaps?
Probably a bit of confusion is from the huge amount of slang they use. I've watched British shows for a long time and I still had to look several of them up!
shareI don't have a problem with the accent so much as the volume of Marshall Lancaster's voice. He speaks somewhat softly at times, so I can' always hear what he says. I understand enough of the slang to fill in the gaps, when they occur. Mind you, I've been watching British programming since before the time period of this show.
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No on Shaz. On rare occasions, though, both Chris and Ray will mumble a bit. When they do it while using slang, there have been a few occasions when I've had to backtrack and listen to the line again. But by and large, no. I watch a lot of British television.
shareThe slang in this show is just amazing. Like the episode where Chris' corruption comes out and he has to "wait inside a jam sandwich" for his handlers. A jam sandwich was a 1980's nickname for a police car because they were white with a red stripe through them (jam is what we call jelly, so a jelly sandwich.) I had not heard that term in like 15 years.
On a similar note 'jam jar' is rhyming slang for any car, so you could say the jam sandwich chased the speeding jam jar. What oddities we are on this little island...
I would expect the majority of this show to go way over a north american's head so respect due if you understood some of it :)
krashd
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I'm Canadian and I had no problems understanding it at all, mind you, there's a chance I may have watched more Brit television than I have U.S. in my life. Probably not quite, but I'm probably about as immersed in U.K. culture as anyone who hasn't actually stepped foot on the land can be and no don't get me wrong, I'm not saying there aren't things I don't know, just I honestly get surprised sometimes when people point out to me that I sound like I'm actively trying to use British slang and I'm so used to it that I don't realize that it's completely uncommon in these parts. haha
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As an American, I didn't have a problem with hearing the words but I did get a further education in slang! I watch a good bit of British tv, but this show used so much slang I learned to keep a slang dictionary up on my computer while watching. :)
shareI always have to watch the British shows with captions. Be it Doctor Who, Inspector Morse, Life On Mars and even Top Gear. Without the captions I will miss half of what they are saying. And, also, I do have to look up some of the slang to get what they are talking about. Even with these I still enjoy British shows more than American shows. The intelligence factor just seems to be a few notches higher. And that is sort of confirmed because British shows are only shown on PBS and BBC America. Two stations I would not want to live life without. I just wish I could receive all the BBC channels. And please bring back Law & Order: UK. But with crimes from across the pond. There were too many remakes of American Law & Orders.
shareI'm Canadian, had no problem understanding the accents although occasionally I had to infer the meaning of "rhyming slang" by context. I find folks in Canada generally understand thick English accents, however I did have a girlfriend who couldn't understand Brits whatsoever. This is definitely not typical here, while I believe it is in the USA (they seem to use rendered subtitles in documentaries/TV for most accents, even when clearly comprehensible).
shareAs an American viewer I did. Especially when they used British slang. When Gene said that City would beat United, I had to rewind it several times to understand what he said. Of course I didn't know hat that meant until I related it to British culture and soccer. It was the same for me when I watched the Young Ones in the 80's. Still an awesome show.
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