English Language in England - Examples of Accents Used By Public Figures

Examples of Accents Used By Public Figures

• Received Pronunciation (RP): The Queen's accent has changed slightly over the years but she still speaks a conservative form of RP. Margaret Thatcher, Tony Benn and the Noël Coward films are examples of old-fashioned RP, whereas David Cameron, Boris Johnson, John Cleese and David Dimbleby are examples of contemporary RP.
• Berkshire (a southern rural accent): poet Pam Ayres is from Reading, comedian Ricky Gervais is also from Reading.
• Birmingham (Brummie): the rock musician Ozzy Osbourne (although he sometimes Americanises his speech), Jasper Carrot and Rob Halford. See Brummie for more examples.
• Bristol: Professor Colin Pillinger of the Beagle 2 project, comedy writer, actor, radio DJ and director Stephen Merchant. Presenter and Comedian Justin Lee Collins.
• Coventry: the actor Clive Owen, in the films Sin City and King Arthur. Singer-songwriter Terry Hall, lead vocalist with The Specials.
• Gloucestershire: Laurie Lee, ruralist
• Hampshire (a southern rural accent): the late John Arlott, sports presenter and gardener Charlie Dimmock.
• Hertfordshire: comedian and writer Robert Newman
• Lancashire: comedian Peter Kay, McFly singer and guitarist Danny Jones and BBC Radio 1 DJ Vernon Kay as well as Bernard Wrigley have degrees of broad Bolton accents. The actress, Michelle Holmes, has a Rochdale accent, which is similar to the western fringe of Yorkshire and she has featured mostly in Yorkshire dramas. Julie Hesmondhalgh, Vicky Entwistle and Julia Haworth, actresses in the soap opera Coronation Street, have East Lancashire accents which have a slightly different intonation and rhythm and also feature clear rhoticity.
• Leicester: The band Kasabian have Leicester accents.
• London: listen to old recordings by Petula Clark, Julie Andrews, the Rolling Stones, and The Who (although many of these contain affected patterns). For a clear example, see actor Stanley Holloway (Eliza Doolittle's father in My Fair Lady), or footballer David Beckham.
  • Cockney: the actors Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine. Ray Winstone has quite an old-fashioned Cockney accent, and his replacement of an initial /r/ with a /w/ has been stigmatised. More examples can be heard in the movies Snatch and Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. The Sex Pistols had Cockney accents, with Steve Jones having the strongest.
  • Mockney: used by Guy Ritchie and many musicians, it is a variant of the London regional accent characterised by a non-standard mixture of linguistic and social class characteristics.
  • West London: the journalist Janet Street Porter.
  • Estuary: athlete Sally Gunnell, the model Jordan (Katie Price).
• Manchester: Oasis members Liam and Noel Gallagher, Herman's Hermits, actor Dominic Monaghan, broadcaster/podcaster Karl Pilkington.
• Merseyside
  • Liverpool (Scouse): Liverpool footballers Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher are often cited as having particularly strong scouse accents. Recordings by The Beatles (George Harrison's accent was the strongest of the four), Gerry & The Pacemakers, Echo and the Bunnymen. Also the singer Cilla Black and the actors Craig Charles and Ricky Tomlinson. The British soap Brookside was set in Liverpool so the majority of the cast, including Philip Olivier and Jennifer Ellison, had scouse accents.
  • St Helens: Comedian Johnny Vegas. The comedy band the Lancashire Hotpots sing in a traditional rhotic St Helens accent.
  • The Wirral: Comedian and TV presenter Paul O'Grady alias Lily Savage is from Birkenhead, pop singer Pete Burns of Dead or Alive is from the model village Port Sunlight.
• Salford: actor Christopher Eccleston, bands Happy Mondays and New Order.
• Stoke-on-Trent or The Potteries: pop star Robbie Williams, TV presenter Anthea Turner, ex pop star and TV presenter Jonathan Wilkes has a strong Potteries accent.
• Sunderland (Mackem): the accent of the rock group The Futureheads is easily detected on recordings and live performances and ex-footballer Chris Waddle.
• Tyneside (Geordie): former Cabinet members Alan Milburn MP and Nick Brown MP, the actors Robson Green and Tim Healy, the footballer Alan Shearer, actor and singer Jimmy Nail, rock singer Brian Johnson, television personalities Ant and Dec, Donna Air, Jayne Middlemiss. Singer Cheryl Cole of Girls Aloud fame has a strong Newcastle accent.
• West Country: The Vicar of Dibley was set in Oxfordshire, and many of the characters had West Country accents.
• West Midlands: Phil Drabble, presenter of One Man and His Dog.
• Yorkshire:
  • Barnsley: in the 1969 film Kes, the lead characters, David Bradley and Freddie Fletcher, both have very broad Barnsley accents, which are less likely to be heard nowadays. Coronation Street actress Katherine Kelly, Sam Nixon from Pop Idol 2003, Top Of The Pops Saturday and Reloaded and Level Up also has a Barnsley accent. Also, chat show host Michael Parkinson and ex-union leader Arthur Scargill have slightly reduced Barnsley accents.
  • Bradford: singers Gareth Gates, Zayn Malik of One Direction and Kimberley Walsh of Girls Aloud. In Rita, Sue and Bob Too, Bob has a Bradford accent whilst Rita and Sue sound more like Lancashire.
  • Hemsworth: cricketer Geoffrey Boycott has an accent similar to those found in many old coal-mining towns
  • Holme Valley: Actors Peter Sallis and Bill Owen of Last of the Summer Wine and Sallis in Wallace and Gromit (although Sallis himself is a Londoner)
  • Leeds: Melanie Brown of the Spice Girls and Beverley Callard who plays Liz McDonald in Coronation Street, singer Corinne Bailey Rae, the band Kaiser Chiefs, model Nell McAndrew, actress Angela Griffin, Radio DJ Chris Moyles, Comedian Leigh Francis alias Keith Lemon
  • Wakefield, singer and actress Jane McDonald, Hollyoaks actress Claire Cooper, actor Reece Dinsdale, Coronation Street Helen Worth, the band the Cribs
  • Scarborough: the film Little Voice
  • Sheffield: Sean Bean, the band Pulp. The film The Full Monty, the band Arctic Monkeys