Didn't Timothy Evans come from Merthyr Tydfil?Why does he have a London accent in this latest production?
shareCan't believe they've done this. Evans was Welsh. Wrongfully executed by the English and now they go and erase his identity.
shareYes, the entire English hive mind collective has risen up against the perfidious Welsh and altered an accent.
shareThe man was a real person and has living relatives. His wrongful execution is the reason the book and original film were made. It shouldn't take a Welsh nationalist to think he deserves some respect.
shareI think what Paul was referring to was the way your message reads, as if it was an anti-Welsh plot by the the tyrannical English. Anyway, I found this from the writers in the Radio Times;
We asked the Rillington Place writers Ed Whitmore and Tracey Malon about the accent quirk, and here’s what they had to say: “Tim moved to London from Wales around the age of eleven, his half-sister told us he was very keen to fit in and soon adopted a London 'barrow-boy' accent, but that he could slip back into his childhood accent when around members of his Welsh family. Nico wanted to reflect Tim's malleability and that desire to fit in by using different accents according to who he was talking to.”
I must admit that it did surprise me.
This was demonstrated in tonight's episode when he went to visit his Aunt.
shareHow interesting. But why did John Hurt only do a Welsh accent in the film?
sharePresumably because no one thought to check what accent Evans used in day to day use or, if they did, decided not to affect that usage because it would have been difficult to explain. These days filmmakers and audience can have mass conversations within moments, less so back in ye olden days.
shareMy dad was also an Evans who moved from South Wales to London and lived in Dagenham for most of his life. His Welsh accent was so broad he could never have disguised it to fit in, on the contrary, he was like a foreigner and even I had trouble understanding him at times. Still, the actor John Barrowman is an example of someone who affects an American accent but slips back into Scottish when speaking to his family, so perhaps Timothy Evans was like a Welsh version of him.
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Well it seems they had so much respect that they tried to portray him as accurately as possible, including his sisters information that he liked to affect a cockney accent of sorts in an attempt to fit in. Hooray for the English!
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Well it seems they had so much respect that they tried to portray him as accurately as possible, including his sisters information that he liked to affect a cockney accent of sorts in an attempt to fit in. Hooray for the English!
I couldn't agree more. I was really looking forward to this, but seeing Evans portrayed as if he were a wide-eyed Cockney barrow-boy is a major letdown. What were they thinking of?
shareI'm nothing short of flabbergasted. I went into it expecting to hear some cartoon approximation of a Welsh accent, whether by an English actor or a Welsh actor from the wrong part of Wales, as usually happens. That would have wound me up, but instead I'm furious.
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Where is the "wrong part of Wales"?
shareWrongfully executed by the English
Episode 2 ever odder as he seemed to switch accents from Cockney-English to Welsh depending where he was and to whom he was speaking! When he was in London he talked like a Londoner, but in the scenes with his mother or his aunt and uncle he reverted to Welsh. Was that supposed to imply that Evans was faking an English accent (possibly out of fear of being prejudiced-against in London, or a similar reason - but this remained unclear throughout)? If that was what the actor and director were getting at, then does it have any basis in fact? (I've never researched the case or the people involved, but recall very well that John Hurt portrayed Evans in the 1971 film and used a Welsh accent throughout.) Or was it simply that they decided to pay lip-service to the fact that Evans was a Welshman only in scenes where he's in Wales, and just have him be English for the rest of it? If so, that's really stupid.
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When John Hurt played Evans in the film (which is far better than this series), did he switch from his Welsh accent to a London cockney accent? No! Because he played a Welshman. I can't believe that the actor in this version has a Cockney accent AND a Welsh accent which, incidentally we didn't hear until about the middle of Episode 2! Disgraceful and also disrespectful to Evans, a victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice and also to any surviving family. Any family members left should call the BBC and complain! I would if I were of that family. It also lets the series down.
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Interesting... That clears it up I suppose. Like I said, I don't know anything about Evans's background, and my familiarity with the story comes almost entirely from the 1971 film.
shareThat doesn't quite clear it up because Evans only used a London accent when he was at work and in the pub with his mates (yes he had friends not that you'd know it from this drama). When he was at home he used a Welsh accent and when he visited his family because what they're not showing us here is that his mother, Stepfather and two sisters all lived close by and they used to regularly socialise, sometimes even coming round to the rooms at Rillington Place.
The other thing about the real Evans was that he was quite short, described by some as "a runt" and he had a limp due to a childhood accident - he had to spend so much time in hospital in London and Hampshire that his education suffered badly. The actor portraying him here is really too tall with film star good looks and seems too cocky and confident. None of this helps in convincing me that he is someone who could be easily led.
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he seemed to switch accents from Cockney-English to Welsh depending where he was and to whom he was speaking!
This is totally normal and common
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It is totally normal and it is common, almost everyone I have worked with over many years did it, one accent in London, then they go up North to see their family and their accent changes. Not everyone does it, but many do.
You are correct. I am from the South Wales Valleys and moved to London when I was in my twenties. I found people could not understand me very easily because I spoke too quickly with a strong Welsh accent. Therefore, I learned to slow down my speech and try to speak more clearly. When I went back to South Wales to visit my family, I lapsed back into the Valleys' accent otherwise people thought I was talking "posh". My normal accent now, after years of living in England, still has a slight Welsh accent (which I am not ashamed of) but is far less pronounced than that of my family. But when in Wales, my Welsh accent is certainly stronger!
shareGillian Anderson does it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrQ-RlPDPFo
YOU SHOULDN'T BE EATING SAUSAGES!!
I wondered what the hell was going on with Evans accent too. i didn't even realise it was Evans at first but if he really did switch accents like that then I don't have a problem with it at all.
Walking on water is like finding a non fake female profile on a dating site...a miracle!