I liked this movie, but was less than entirely unconvinced by the 'Brits' in it. Were they played by British actors or Aussies? I suspect that some if not all were played by Australian actors. I'm not saying that an Aussie CAN'T play a Brit well, but generally I find that Aussies don't play Brits that well, Brits don't play Aussies that well, Americans don't play Brits that well, etc.
shareUsual lazy stereotypes - Colonel Blimp,
or stuffy upper class twit. Started to lose me at that point.
I swear Passchendaele had the -same- character, a plump, ruddy-faced Englishman who seems to live to scoff at the "colonials." Probably played by the same actor!
Side note: the character, down to the big white mustache, resembles Hubert Plumer, the overall commander. Despite his Col. Blimp-ish appearance, Plumer was unusually aware of the realities of Great War combat and was well liked by his men.
Thanks to the magic of IMDb I can confirm there's only one genuine Brit in the film - Bob Franklin as the cocky fusiliers captain (or major). The colonel Blimp figure was Aussie veteran Chris Haywood and Captain Clayton and the General were both Aussies as well - from Canberra and Brisbane respectively.
I thought Haywood's accent was probably the best but I had no problem with any of them other than Clayton who sounded too put on. I agree Aussies tend to play up the accent a little too much when they do it, but direction would play a factor in it I'm sure.
I suspect the problem is that you have too many paperclips up your nose
Early on in the film the British soldier on the machine gun that gets given the bottle of booze taken from the red house is Bob Franklin who was born in England and moved to Australia as an adult. 100% genuine British accent.
Chris Haywood's character Colonel Wilson Rutledge as far as I know was supposed to be Australian. He pretty much spoke in his normal voice.
"Chris Haywood's character Colonel Wilson Rutledge as far as I know was supposed to be Australian."
I'd agree that Rutledge was supposed to be Australian, not British, though I'm not sure if he was an actual historical figure.
I didn't think there were a huge number of British characters in the movie any way referring back to the OP's query.
From memory Haywood is Australian, but English born.