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Adric
Registered: 05/17/06
Posts: 34
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 Thursday, May 18 2006 @ 05:51 PM EDT |
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please pardon my American ignorance of the UK, but can someone please explain the comment about the Doctor's Northern Accent? I generally understand this as commentary about his perceived background in England, but this reference escapes me.
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hdutch007
Registered: 12/27/05
Posts: 340
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| Thursday, May 18 2006 @ 06:02 PM EDT |
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I'm gonna take this one, and I'm an American, so if I screw it up, someone correct me.
A London accent is very different from a Manchester accent, or a Liverpool accent. The further north you go, the "thicker" perhaps some accents become. I understand that there is a certain amount of stereotypes that concern the north of England. Working class comes to mind.
let's take the word "RUG." A northern accent, if thick, could perhaps pronounce the word "roog." Well, I hear it in my head, but I'm not sure that makes sense.
It's a bit like in America, there is a stereotype about the south. I live in Alabama, and we don't all say Y'all and kiss our cousins, but there certainly is a stigma associated with the deep south. I think that some people in southern England think of Northern England in sort of the same way (not the cousin kissing, mind you) in that there is a lot of manual labor history.
again, correct me if I am oversimplifying things, or just mucking it up outright.
I think it was an interesting choice for Eccleston to play the Doctor with this accent. I think it's an absolute shame that David Tennant, who is a Scot, didn't keep his native accent. |
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Heath Holland
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Abersoch
Registered: 11/27/05
Posts: 395
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| Thursday, May 18 2006 @ 07:40 PM EDT |
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In England having a "northern" accent has a whole series of connotations traditionally associating the speaker with the working classes - eg hard manual labour, less affluent people living in cheaper housing, having a poor diet of fried food and pursuing traditional careers in industries closely associated with the area in which they live (eg coal mining, factory work, car building, production lines, shipyard workers, etc, etc, etc).
In a nutshell - if you come from the north you're hard working and common and if you come from the south you're posh and well educated and a soft southern poofter, etc, etc. Oh, and the Government apparently always puts its money into the south and doesn't give a toss about the north. Plus those bloody BBC weathermen in London always have a grin on their faces when they say it's going to rain anywhere north of Watford. This is the essence of the North-South Divide in the UK.
Of course these are all stereotypes and while the legacies of these communities still exist (most northerners in Britain, for example, would argue stongly that they have the closest communities for example, which is not strictly true) they should not be taken as hard and fast rules for each area. Southern cities like London also have their fair share of working classes, unemployment, poor living conditions, etc. But the cost of living in Britain tends to go up the further south you live.
As far as Doctor Who goes, it was well known in Britain that Christopher Eccleston (being from Manchester) is a huge proponent of what you would call northern values and being proud of "our" heritage. He viewed Doctor Who (somewhat incorrectly) as always having been played by southern actors who spoke "posh" and was determined that he would play his Doctor in an entirely different manner from those who had gone before. So when the Doctor says "lots of planets have a north" you are hearing a sort of in-joke that the writers put in there specifically with Christopher Eccleston in mind.
Abersoch
P.S. If you want to know where North and South are in the UK - South is generally classed as everywhere south of a line between London and Bristol, North is generally everywhere North of a line between Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds and everywhere in between generally gets called the Midlands (Birmingham, Nottingham, etc). Wales doesn't fall into those areas since they prefer to keep their own Welsh national identity (although they have their own North-South Divide). And the Scottish view everyone in England as southerners.
Simple isn't it? |
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hdutch007
Registered: 12/27/05
Posts: 340
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| Thursday, May 18 2006 @ 08:00 PM EDT |
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well, I actually think I got it pretty much right, then.  |
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Heath Holland
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Adric
Registered: 05/17/06
Posts: 34
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| Thursday, May 18 2006 @ 10:02 PM EDT |
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Interesting comments all...never knew this was so complex.
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James
Registered: 07/21/05
Posts: 115
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| Friday, May 19 2006 @ 03:36 AM EDT |
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Everything that Abersoch and hdutch has said is pretty much true.
Would you like us to do a segment on the podcast about it? Is there anything else anyone would like to see explained in terms of the differences between UK and US culture? |
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Most planets have a North!
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actorguy
Registered: 01/07/06
Posts: 207
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| Friday, May 19 2006 @ 10:57 AM EDT |
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| [Quote by: James] Would you like us to do a segment on the podcast about it? Is there anything else anyone would like to see explained in terms of the differences between UK and US culture? |
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Yes, please do an in-depth, at least hour-long explanation of the difference between "fries," "chips" and "crisps."
Ok, just kidding.
Pat |
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"Don't play as if you've swallowed the metronome!"
-- Nadia Boulanger
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tarashnat
Registered: 08/17/05
Posts: 3062
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| Friday, May 19 2006 @ 10:59 AM EDT |
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I'll have two pints of lager and a packet of crisps, please... |
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Daleks don't accept apologies! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!
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actorguy
Registered: 01/07/06
Posts: 207
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| Friday, May 19 2006 @ 11:08 AM EDT |
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::Begin Andy:: Do you do crisps? ::/Andy::
Pat |
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"Don't play as if you've swallowed the metronome!"
-- Nadia Boulanger
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stjohnny
Registered: 02/16/06
Posts: 326
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| Friday, May 19 2006 @ 01:54 PM EDT |
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all points are true except one;
Everything north of Cambridge is regarded as 'Up North'
(unless you're a through and through Londonder, then it's everything north of Watford lol) |
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Drink
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tarashnat
Registered: 08/17/05
Posts: 3062
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| Friday, May 19 2006 @ 05:53 PM EDT |
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[Quote by: actorguy] ::Begin Andy:: Do you do crisps? ::/Andy::
Pat |
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Crisps, chips, pork snacks, and some stout! |
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Daleks don't accept apologies! YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!
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Adric
Registered: 05/17/06
Posts: 34
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| Friday, May 19 2006 @ 06:12 PM EDT |
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| Actually that might be an interesting podcast topic... |
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DarthSkeptical
Registered: 03/11/06
Posts: 1129
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| Saturday, June 24 2006 @ 06:20 AM EDT |
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[Quote by: James] Everything that Abersoch and hdutch has said is pretty much true.
Would you like us to do a segment on the podcast about it? Is there anything else anyone would like to see explained in terms of the differences between UK and US culture? |
| | I actually think a segment on this would be interesting and helpful. A neat tribute to Eccleston, really. His (slightly?) daring choice to play the character with a Northern accent is lost on most non-Britons, and it was a defining characteristic of his Doctor. You really can't understand him without understanding the significance of the accent. |
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"I think of myself as ambitious in casting terms, and I know that Bonnie [Langford] has the potential to make the part totally unirritating . . ." — JNT, 1986
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Doctor Whoovie
Registered: 04/26/06
Posts: 794
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| Saturday, June 24 2006 @ 07:47 AM EDT |
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[Quote by: Abersoch] And the Scottish view everyone in England as southerners.
Simple isn't it? |
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Thanks, you saved me from having to point that out |
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In the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed are Kings
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Magpie
Registered: 06/29/06
Posts: 519
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| Thursday, June 29 2006 @ 10:18 PM EDT |
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| I reckon a Northern English accent is among the most appealing, I thought the "Lots of planets have a north" joke was pretty funny. You all do make a good point here with this thread, that sometimes the British "in" jokes can fly right over the head of people who've never lived on the other side of the pond. My frame of reference is so confused from living abroad that I really don't notice region specific comments/jokes until I see the confused reaction of American friends/family. |
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If Worzel Gummidge and the Third Doctor had a fist fight - who would win?
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