Television Examples of Different Accents

Very Bored

An Italian friend who lives in England has asked me if I could advise him on which TV programmes could help him in terms of understanding different English language accents. He's doing an IELTS course and he knows that the exam will feature different accents (including English speaking people doing mock foreign accents - why exactly I don't know). I've come up with this list, I know a few are pretty general because Ireland, Wales and Scotland doesn't have the same accent throughout for example, but would be grateful for any suggestions.

London:
Only Fools and Horses
Eastenders

Manchester:
Coronation Street

Birmingham/Scotland/London:
Porridge (Fletch - London, Godber - Birmingham, Mr. Mackay and Maclaren- Scotland

Liverpool:
Bread
The Liver Birds

Newcastle:
The Likely Lads
Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads
Ant and Dec

East of England/Wales:
Gavin and Stacey

Ireland (perhaps a northern one would be useful):
Father Ted

American:
Friends

Australia:
Neighbours
Home and Away

Yorkshire:
Emmerdale

Mock foreign accents:
Allo Allo

Scotland and Birmingham I'm struggling on.

darkpagandeath

Fair city if you are sadistic.

Very Bored

darkpagandeath wrote: »

Fair city if you are sadistic.

He lives in England so he's blessed that he can't get it haha!!!

Osborne

Birmingham - Peaky Blinders
Scotland - Rab C Nesbit

darkpagandeath

Very Bored wrote: »

He lives in England so he's blessed that he can't get it haha!!!

Ok then hollyoaks :pac:

Very Bored

Osborne wrote: »

Birmingham - Peaky Blinders
Scotland - Rab C Nesbit

Forgot about Rab C Nesbit... I could tell him they always have someone who speaks like that in the exam lol.

Jimbob1977

Rab C Nesbitt for Glasgow

Trainspotting for general Scotland

Byker Grove or Our Friends in the North for Newcastle

Jasper Carrot for Birmingham

Inbetweeners for the Home Counties (Bucks, Herts, Surrey)

mikom

A lot of accents covered in this classic.........

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tklaMNH7IA

Sheep Lover

"Sminky shorts" for very accurate Irish accents.

Very Bored

Jimbob1977 wrote: »

Rab C Nesbitt for Glasgow

Trainspotting for general Scotland

Byker Grove or Our Friends in the North for Newcastle

Jasper Carrot for Birmingham

Inbetweeners for the Home Counties (Bucks, Herts, Surrey)

Jasper Carrot made me think of Billy Connolly for Glasgow thanks .

Into The Blue

Were they all Scottish in taggart, or just taggart himself?

Very Bored

Into The Blue wrote: »

Were they all Scottish in taggart, or just taggart himself?

All as far as I'm aware.

Sheep Lover

When your friend thinks they know how to understand various accents fairly well, test them out on a strong Liverpool accent. And watch their confidence drain away..

Reiver

Second Sminky Shorts. They do a whole host of them.

Into The Blue

He could YouTube the regional news of each area.

The Backwards Man

Into The Blue wrote: »

Were they all Scottish in taggart, or just taggart himself?

Na, they were all displaced aliens from the planet Zog.:P

Very Bored

What is Sminky Shorts? I looked it up on YouTube and all I could find was stuff about elephants and cows.

Into The Blue wrote: »

He could YouTube the regional news of each area.

Good idea.

Sheep Lover wrote: »

When your friend thinks they know how to understand various accents fairly well, test them out on a strong Liverpool accent. And watch their confidence drain away..

I've always been puzzled by the bewilderment at scouse accents. I spend a lot of time over in Liverpool and find it very easy to understand (though that could be familiarity). Its Newcastle I find hard.

cml387

Glaswegian accents in their rawest form seldom make it to tv due the fact that subtitles would be needed (probably Rab is the closest equivalent).

Matt Lucas is from Bristol (yeah but no but) and occasionally wanders over the border to his Welsh village of which he is the only gay.

The Backwards Man

cml387 wrote: »

Glaswegian accents in their rawest form seldom make it to tv due the fact that subtitles would be needed (probably Rab is the closest equivalent).

Matt Lucas is from Bristol (yeah but no but) and occasionally wanders over the border to his Welsh village of which he is the only gay.

A lot of accents are like that though. If I was to meet anyone here in real life, they'd most likely find me incomprehensible.

refusetolose

Very Bored wrote: »

What is Sminky Shorts? I looked it up on YouTube and all I could find was stuff about elephants and cows.

you found the right videos then

Very Bored

The Backwards Man wrote: »

A lot of accents are like that though. If I was to meet anyone here in real life, they'd most likely find me incomprehensible.

Where are you from?

cml387

The supreme exponent of Geordie speak is not on TV, but is Sid The Sexist in Viz.
The writing is so well tuned to the accent that you can acquire it just by reading it out loud.

The Backwards Man

Very Bored wrote: »

Where are you from?

Dublin 4.

Very Bored

cml387 wrote: »

The supreme exponent of Geordie speak is not on TV, but is Sid The Sexist in Viz.
The writing is so well tuned to the accent that you can acquire it just by reading it out loud.

The Fat Slags are the same with the Nottingham accent.

Very Bored

The Backwards Man wrote: »

Dublin 4.

Can't imagine you're that hard to understand then .

riffmongous

Get some Taggart into him, I also like a few sketches from Limmy's Show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtX2IToSuHY

Alpha Romeo

Greame McDowell interview - American

efb

'Allo 'Allo Anglofranco

lizzyman

cml387 wrote: »

Glaswegian accents in their rawest form seldom make it to tv due the fact that subtitles would be needed (probably Rab is the closest equivalent).

Is this a Glasgow accent? I like to think I can understand most accents but after the first few seconds he might as well be speaking a different language

razorblunt

Still Game is a handy one for the Scottish too.

For Edinburgh accents try one of the series based on Ian Rankin's Rebus character (mainly the criminals).

frostyjacks

Dad's Army would have a mixture of regional and class accents.

The Backwards Man

efb wrote: »

'Allo 'Allo Anglofranco

I was pissing by the door, when I heard two shats. You are holding in your hand a smoking goon; you are clearly the guilty potty

razorblunt

lizzyman wrote: »

Is this a Glasgow accent? I like to think I can understand most accents but after the first few seconds he might as well be speaking a different language

Aye, thats a "Weegie".

Very Bored

lizzyman wrote: »

Is this a Glasgow accent? I like to think I can understand most accents but after the first few seconds he might as well be speaking a different language

Yeah, its Glesga alright. Strange thing is I have no problems understanding him. I guess it depends which accents you're used to. I've spent a lot of time around Glaswegians and Scots in general.

Thanks to everyone suggesting videos and series, I'm sure it will help him out.

Very Bored

The Backwards Man wrote: »

I was pissing by the door, when I heard two shats. You are holding in your hand a smoking goon; you are clearly the guilty potty

I can't wait for him to see Captain Berterelli.

Especially the one where he's in the tank and it explodes and he stumbles out... whata mistakea da makea...

efb

Rab C Nesbitt for Scottish accent

biko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyyT2jmVPAk

dubscottie

Lenny Hernry for Birmingham and the movie The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie for an Edinburgh accent.

The film Red Road is good for Glasgow and Gregorys Girl for the annoying halfcast weggie accent from places like Livingston.

ArnoldJRimmer

Northern Ireland - Give my Head Peace
West of Ireland - Tom Cruise in Far and Away

galah

Been a long time since i did the ielts, but as far as i can remember, they wont ask you to identify the accent - you just have to listen to a piece of text and answer a few questions. Think back then it was a generic British accent, a Scottish one, and possibly American. Definitely nothing 'out there' or hard to understand.

The whole thing (to me) was a bit of a joke, really...:rolleyes:

cml387

I read once somewhere that accents are formed partly from environmental factors. North east England is subject to biting winds off the North Sea so that people speak with a clenched up mouth.
Cork city and South Wales are both hilly, giving a sing song note to the voice that follows the hills up and down.
And as for the Irish Midlands and the fens of Norfolk, well we say they're flat accents for a good reason.

Very Bored

biko wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyyT2jmVPAk

She's good at getting the essence of an accent but she's not spot on. If she thinks dats bleedin Duhblin den she needz da fink aghen. I'd say she's more than enough for my friend though so thanks.

In terms of the IELTS they don't expect you to identify the accent, at times that would be hard even for a native speaker. But they do throw in, lets say educated regional accents, for example they will have someone from Liverpool but they won't have a true scouser and certainly not a wacker.