to think Adam from Cold Feet has the wrong accent?

[user1474926891]

Lived in Didsbury since the beginning of primary school, but still had broad Irish accent and irishisms in his speech. No hint of a Manc accent at all.

Hmmmm, aibu to be unconvinced by this?

Primary aged children rarely maintain their accent.

I don't watch Cold Feet but wondered about this recently when some of the characters in One of Us had no trace of a Scottish accent despite having supposedly lived there since they were young children.

I think some people just don't pick up the local accent however long they live somewhere, whereas others change very quickly. There's a mum at DS's school who has what is (to my ears) a very strong NZ accent despite having been here quite a few years. Then there's another friend who has an RP accent despite growing up in the Midlands; in fact she sounds a lot more southern than another friend who is from Kent but has lived here for about 8 years. And did anyone see Giles Yeo on Horizon? He came here from the US when he was about 22 and now sounds almost completely British.

"I think some people just don't pick up the local accent however long they live somewhere, whereas others change very quickly. "

Yes, if they arrive as an adult, not if they arrive as children.

There's also the question of perspective. A person whose moved from region A to region B will sound very region A to people in region B, but back home in region B they'll tell the person that they've lost their home accent and are sounding like people in region B!

I thought that if you moved somewhere before the age of 7 it was more likely that you would pick up the accent than if you moved after. You would have thought though, that 'doing accents' would be part of the job description of an actor!

There's also the question of perspective. A person whose moved from region A to region B will sound very region A to people in region B, but back home in region B they'll tell the person that they've lost their home accent and are sounding like people in region B!

Too true. Both pick up the unfamiliar linguistic traits.

To be honest I'd rather an actor didn't attempt an accent rather than make a pig's ear of it. Accents are very tricky and rarely fully convincing to the bearers of said accent.

Maybe. I have a terrible ear for accents though. If I watch a programme where someone is doing an accent I know isn't their own, it always sounds fine to me, even when other people pick up differences. Maybe its because I was born and brought up in London. There are so many different accents around, often you don't hear a 'true' London accent from one day to the next.

To be honest I'd rather an actor didn't attempt an accent rather than make a pig's ear of it. Accents are very tricky and rarely fully convincing to the bearers of said accent.

I watched about 5 minutes of Peaky Blinders beforer the shite accents caused me to switch off.

Equally I get annoyed that Bob and Terry from Whatever happened to the Likely Lads have completely different accents despite supposedly growing up on the same street. Given they have Yorkshire and North East accents respectively, that street must have stretched well over a 100 miles.

"I think some people just don't pick up the local accent however long they live somewhere, whereas others change very quickly. "

Yes, if they arrive as an adult, not if they arrive as children."

My son has been born and bred in Shropshire but speaks with a very London accent - as both me and his dad do. Everyone he works with assumes he's a Londoner. Yet his sister both speaks with a fairly "posh" neutral accents and his brother speaks less posh but still neutral-ish Everyone's different.

I also managed to grow up without acquiring a local accent, perhaps because my parents weren't from the area and talked about how they disliked the accent. Some friends are similar, i.e. they have a fairly neutral accent and people would never guess they grew up where they did.

Norn Irish accents generally stick like shit to a blanket. Some people are accent chameleons and so can lose it. My Dsis sounded English after a few months in Surrey. Personally I have a strong NI accent from a part of the country I've never lived in. The part my dad was born in but hasn't lived in since he was a child. Go figure.

"I have a terrible ear for accents though. If I watch a programme where someone is doing an accent I know isn't their own, it always sounds fine to me"

I think that's normal if you're not very familiar with the accent they're trying to fake.

The biggest accent fail in Cold Feet has to be Fay Ripley's.

I really hope people know that nobody in Manchester sounds anything like this! How hard can it be to have coaching in this? She's done the role for years. I cringe every time (or toime as she would say) she opens her mouth. It's a midlands sort of accent isn't it? Not remotely northern.

Karen and David's daughters don't have strong Mancunian accents at all! They sounds quite well-spoken actually with a hint of local accent. How is expect girls of that age from Altrincham/Bowdon/Hale to sound actually.

Norn Irish accents generally stick like shit to a blanket

Didn't stick with Paddy Ashdown (real name Jeremy) who spent his early childhood in N.Ireland and was nicknamed Paddy due to his Irish accent which he lost over the years.

Paddy Ashdown wasn't Irish though

Re Adam, his accent is perfect - don't think about it too deeply (& FWIW, I've been in England 20+ years & still sound Belfast through & through!).

No Paddy Ashdown wasn't born there but lived there from toddlerhood til the age of 11 when he was sent to an English boarding school (returning to Ireland in holidays). Far older than James Nesbitt's character was when he moved permanently to Manchester. It isn't realistic that he'd have maintained a N.Irish accent into adulthood.

Can I ask, what age did you move out of N.Ireland op? There's a world of difference between moving somewhere as an adult and a child. Hence I still have a distinct English Midlands accent despite having lived far more of my adult life in Scotland. Ditto all the English people who moved up to Scotland for university and stayed who all still have regional English accents 20 years after moving to Scotland.

In Cold Feet however the character is supposed to have left

Do was born in Glasgow. Moved to Yorkshire at 13. Now sounds as yorkshire as they come. We watched a video of him when he was a kid and he had the broadest Scottish accent. He can't even mimic one now.

It does depend on the parents and socialising, DP parents moved from Ireland to London as a large family unit before DP was born and moved to an area which had ties for them. Whilst he was born in London the first five years where surrounded by Irish family and friends. Once he started school at 5 it was a catholic school where whilst he was exposed to a London/Essex accent there was also other Irish accents. His parents never intended to remain in the uk so also put pressure on their DCs to keep their accent so they could settle back in to Ireland. By the time his Dsis was born they had realised they was very little chance of the going back and she has a London accent.

But Paddy Ashdown had no reason to keep his accent - no socialisation from family around him & imagine going to a boarding school meant fitting in was key, so having an Irish accent (at a time when it wasn't good to be Irish) would have hindered him. I'd be surprised if he didn't deliberately try to lose it.

I went to school with a boy who had an English accent - born & brought up in NI with a Belfast mum etc however his dad was English (soldier) & he had his dad's accent.

Anyway, can't believe I'm arguing about a fictional characters accent . I'm biased as I love James Nesbitt so I'm happy with whatever he's in & love how he sounds!

my dad moved to longsite [manchester ] at the age of 11 from county cork hes 74 now[ long since moved from longsite but still greater manchester] he still has his irish accent but more of a lilt than a broad accent.