MovieChat Forums > The Hour (2011) Discussion > Dominic West's accent

Dominic West's accent



He seemed to be slipping into Jimmy McNulty at times.

"Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything."

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I got the idea from Freddy's tirade that Hector was upper-middle to his boots, minor public school, guards, etc - although of course he may have allowed Freddy to give this general impression if this is the image he had always secretly cultivated, of course! His parents seem quite distant, but that wasn't necessarily abnormal for that time. Perhaps they died young/ he was determined to go into journalism and they couldn't help him apart from introducing him to some television people socially. Or yes, the big reveal is that his folks are like Freddy's, with quite a basic standard of living.

I can imagine that his wife's family has titles in it, at least, perhaps in the manner of Lord Reith?

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Clearly appearances are deceptive. One of Freddie's failings (being an outsider) is that he doesn't realise eveyone else is acting. That's why Clarence put on such a performance to Bel - she was treating her job as an accessory rather than an estate to be maintained and increased. Freddie's days are numbered and hers will be too if she doesn't stop, which is why she did it - to assert herself and to have a false alibi for ending it. [As well as getting her end away.]

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

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to assert herself and to have a false alibi for ending it

I don't quite understand what you mean there? Good idea about her job which can be maintained and increased. She doesn't necessarily have that awareness of a career in that sense given her youth, gender and the time period.

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She cops off with a bloke who isn't for her - he's married, she's compromised by working with him etc so obviously she'll get pressured to end the 'dangerous liaison', which will give her a false alibi. She ends it 'because they made me' so she gets her end away and the casual nature of the nudie prod games is elided by the abrupt nature of the orders from above.

She's like the women in Norman Wisdon films, always posing as the disappointed mother.

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

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Thanks for that - she is avoiding emotional responsibility by having an affair rather than trying to work things through with Freddy - or anyone else, for that matter.

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Perish the thought. Hector couldn't work things out with another person if you gave him a full set of written instructions and stood over him with a cattle prod.

As we see in the last episode.

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She rose a bit in my estimation when she didn't cut the programme off but then fell when she blithely announced she'd transfer to another part of TradBBC.

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

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I didn't see it that way, I thought she was being scornful of what (she thought) she would be offered ... she'd be "parked" sideways in a dead end, for being too "dangerous" ...

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I don't think Clarence could actually fire her from the Beeb as he wasn't that sort of boss. That's not the way it worked back then. She'd be put out in the long grass, producing programmes about the history of ballet shoes for The Home Service. In reality, she'd be off to ITV and they'd grab her.

Of course, the birth of ITV might be a tricky subject for BBC drama. Another reason, I think, we won't be seeing more.

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Perhaps the real mole is the bloke with glasses who fancies the wench. Perhaps he's the Electrician's Union rep?

Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.

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Yup, Douglas sacked Bel... but Freddy's story about a mole might give them some room to maneouvre. Clarence actually confessed to him, remember, and encouraged the publication of the story.

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In the first episode, Hector says his father had pretensions of being a scholar and his mother died when he was 10. Money wasn't mentioned.

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"He seemed to be slipping into Jimmy McNulty at times."

Interesting, since Dominic West is not only English but an Old Etonian. I would have thought he could pretty much play Hector with his natural accent, since they seem to come from a fairly similar background.

I have to say, I never noticed him slip into anything resembling a Baltimore accent, but I don't really listen out for these things.

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Is he? From what I've heard his natural accent sounds nothing like Hector.

"Unless Alpert's covered in bacon grease, I don't think Hugo can track anything."

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I've just listened to an interview with him, and I really can't hear a noticeable difference between how he sounds on The Hour and how he sounds in real life. He is a possibly a touch posher on The Hour and his intonation is more "stiff-upper-lip" due to the character he is playing and the lines he is delivering, but there is not so big a difference that it would be at all noticeable to me if he slipped into his natural speaking voice.

Here's a clip - to me he sounds exactly like he could be a well-spoken newsreader with plenty of gravitas. He sounds the typical well-to-do Englishman. I am English btw, not sure where you are from; I know sometimes it's hard to 'hear' accents as well if you're not used to them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JopucowsQPY

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He sounds typical British. And by that I mean an English accent without any type of regional accent. Kind of like a Nebraska accent is supposed to be a typical "American" accent because it's unaffected. Or at least that's apparently why companies look to set up call centers there.

Obviously everywhere has a regional accent. Being from Texas I can tell you there are numerous ones, and not just one "Texan" accent, a Southern accent is actually made up of every state in the South and then varies by city, and of course that happens in England as well, a Northern accent isn't just northern you have a Manc accent, a Yorkshire accent, etc. my ear for French is nothing like my ear for British accents but apparently they too can tell if someone is from Brittany or Paris for instance.

But I don't hear any posh in his. It's sounds typical Estuary, not RP.

But of course that doesn't mean anything I guess. Zara Phillips apparently talks in an Estuary accent. I don't think you can get any more posh than being the Queen's grandchild.

And of course Waity Katie has an overly affected, put on posh accent that sounds way more posh than William's (which is kind of impossible considering their backgrounds). What is it the Brits say, sounds like they have marbles in their mouths? If you want to compare, YouTube Waity's [fake] posh accent and then listen to the Queen, that should give you an understanding of a posh accent.

It does seem odd that an old Etonian such as himself doesn't have something more RP. Perhaps Mr. West learned to downplay his so he could have better roll choices? Just as it probably opens doors for him, I can imagine it can probably close a few in London's West End set?



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I lived in southeastern France, and there is definitely a local accent that is very different from the Parisian accent which is, in turn, different from the Alsace-Lorraine accent, etc. I'm a native US English speaker and, to this day, I am told I speak French with a southern (French) accent. It's the accent I picked up when I lived there.

Most non-North Americans can't tell the difference between US English speakers and Canadian English speakers (British productions have been known to use Canadians to play characters from the US). I know I can't tell the difference between Australians and New Zealanders, but I absolutely can tell the difference between someone from, say, Leeds and someone from Aberystwyth. It all depends on what you are used to.

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