This caught my eye today. It's an amazing story, and one close to my heart, because I am a Yorkshireman born and bred but now speak with a pretty much RP accent. In fact, in several castings I have been asked to speak "less posh". Not asked to do any specific accent. Just "less posh". At that point I tend to go into a awful Mockney/Northern cross-breed accent and invariably don't get the job.
I get asked about "losing" my accent all the time, particularly when I'm interviewed for a local paper or something:
"So where are you from?"
"Yorkshire."
"Really? You don't have much of a Yorkshire accent."
"No."
"Why not?"
"Er..."
I don't know exactly why not. It's probably a combination of factors. My parents aren't from Yorkshire originally. I didn't pick up much of an accent at school for some reason, despite the fact that most of my friends had quite strong accents. And then I went to Cambridge, where I've noticed that people seem either to hold on to their accent very strongly or lose it altogether. Plus I've always been interested in stage performing and public speaking, and I think that often encourages you to develop RP.
However, that's not a very interesting or concise explanation. From now on if anyone asks I'll tell them it was the result of brain surgery. Much more exciting.
In other news, I saw a brilliant headline on Ceefax today:
"Churches in gay bishop showdown"
Now that's a confrontation I'd pay to see! I wonder if it's no holds barred?
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