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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Paddy McGuinness

319 replies

percheron67 · 17/04/2021 20:30

I switched BBC 1 on early and am waiting for Casualty. The programme on at the moment is hosted AGAIN by Paddy McGuinness. He is rarely off the screen and I cannot understand it! He has a simply dreadful dialect and will keep sounding a hard G in singing. Apart from that he yells at the top of his (Very unattractive) voice. How on earth does this man keep a job on television?

OP posts:
ShutUpAlex · 17/04/2021 22:59

Is it snobbery to dislike an accent? Surely it’s similar to disliking someone’s singing voice? It’s just what is pleasing to your ear surely?

AnnaFiveTowns · 17/04/2021 23:02

Ive just listened to him saying "singing" and I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about; it just sounds normal to me and I'm not from Lancashire.

Original poster
percheron67 · 17/04/2021 23:02

Ballonsand boobies. Thank you. Ones I can understand!

OP posts:
Original poster
percheron67 · 17/04/2021 23:02

Balloons!

OP posts:
smallgoon · 17/04/2021 23:03

@tttigress

I'm currently living in s foreign country and try to learn the language. I do totally take the point that it would be better for non native speakers to be able to heat standardised pronunciation on national TV.
And???
TheresAnEyeInMeSoup · 17/04/2021 23:03

My mother has a well-spoken southern accent and if I imagine her saying singer or finger I still 'hear' a hard G. I could call her tomorrow and ask her to say it down the phone so I can try to hear what you lot are on about Grin but honestly, I know her accent, her voice, her tone, and it still sounds like sing-ger to me.

Cowssaymoo · 17/04/2021 23:03

@Spiderplantwidow 🤣

@drpet49 That’ll be the Northern accent making him come across as thick, surely?

🙄

TheThingsWeAdmitOnMN · 17/04/2021 23:04

@JSL52

Bloody annoying, he's on everything.
If only the TV had more than one channel....

The only thing I've seen him on is that 'no likely, no lightly, thing. I can't even remember what it was called.

Feduppluckingmychinhairs · 17/04/2021 23:05

I had a very sexy dream about Paddy whilst pregnant several years ago. Can't look him in the eye now while he's on telly 😁

Pupster21 · 17/04/2021 23:06

@PrelovedWithValue

Sing. Grrr Sing. Rrrrr.

Does that help?

This made me think of a West Country accent which doesn’t have the hard G in my head
VexedofVirginiaWater · 17/04/2021 23:06

@Giantrooster

I think English is quite lovely when spoken well, and I know there should be room for various dialects, but the new top gear really is an abomination to listen to.

Just because someone has a regional accent doesn't mean that they don't speak English well. Regional English is just as authentic as RP.

1forAll74 · 17/04/2021 23:06

I quite like Paddy, and like any northern accents. I think he gets all the jobs, as he has lots of likeability. I expect he is good on Top gear, but I don't watch it now, I preferred the old top gear. Schofield is my pet hate, especially those stupid ads that he does. he is a right little jerk.

I just remembered, that Philip Schofield did an interview with Prince Phillip ages ago, they met up at some venue in the countryside, either talking about cars,or aircraft, and Schofield wanted to talk about himself mostly,and it looked like the Duke thought that Schofield was a little jerk too.

AnnaFiveTowns · 17/04/2021 23:06

He comes across as a bit thick

No he doesn't at all. Fucking hell. It's just his accent.

TableFlowerss · 17/04/2021 23:07

@ShutUpAlex

Is it snobbery to dislike an accent? Surely it’s similar to disliking someone’s singing voice? It’s just what is pleasing to your ear surely?
Yes because RP is generally associated with wealth and privilege, where as regional accents generally aren’t. So it’s akin to saying you like the way wealthy people speak as oppose to how many working class people speak...
LizBennet · 17/04/2021 23:07

Well now you have a swathe to choose from.

No. Each example given has individual accents within them too, bizarrely.

Pupster21 · 17/04/2021 23:07

He’s meant to be lovely. My friend knows him and said he’s very nice and down to earth. My Mum said in the pandemic he bought M&S meal deals for all the staff at Bolton hospital as well as his local Cheshire one one day.

Spiderplantwidow · 17/04/2021 23:08

Each example given has individual accents within them too, bizarrely.

Yes, but none of them use the hard G. It is solely a northern thing.

CocktailOnion · 17/04/2021 23:09

@Franklyyes blimey, it's really bad form to make snide remarks about folk in relation to their children(s) disabilities!

ViolaValentina · 17/04/2021 23:09

This thread has annoyed me. I'm no Paddy McGuinness fan and I don't watch any of the shows he presents because they're not my cup of tea (brew?). But the attitude that he's somehow done something wrong by having a successful television career despite being from (shock!) THE NORTH really pisses me off. I love hearing regional accents on the TV, but it seems a few on this thread think we should all know our place... perhaps we should all get back to the mill or down the pit before our mispronounced 'g's Hmm cause further offence.

TheresAnEyeInMeSoup · 17/04/2021 23:10

[quote Banville]@TheresAnEyeInMeSoup I just think it's baffling you can't imagine how words might be pronounced in another accent within your own country. I sometimes think people on MN take a kind of pride in 'saying, nope never heard of that' when it comes to regional differences within their own country. You see it on those evening meal threads. Some people will say they've never ever heard of dinner being anything other than something you eat at 1pm and others will swear blind they've never heard of an evening meal being referred to as 'tea'.[/quote]
Now you're just being annoying and making stuff up. I've been all over the uk and have friends and family all over as previously mentioned. Obvs, that means staying with them when I visit and I pick up accents very easily. I find it baffling that you can't understand that people 'hear' sounds differently to you. I'll put it in a way you perhaps understand.

If YOU were to say singer to me, I wouldn't be able to differentiate the subtleties with how you say it and how my brain translates it. I simply cannot hear it. It does not compute. Even a a Buckinghamshire accent would sound like a hard G to me. A Rosshire accent would sound like a hard G to me.

balloonsandboobies · 17/04/2021 23:10

@Laquila the singer / finger thing is specific to an area of the north west.
To everyone saying people who haven't noticed must have lived under a rock, I only realised about 5yrs ago that singer and finger didn't rhyme. I'm from the NW, but have lived in several other countries (including English speaking ones), have lived in different areas in the UK, and married to a southerner. But I had never noticed until someone pointed it out to me.
If you Google "singer / finger" it's explained. It blew my mind a bit, I don't mind admitting!

PrelovedWithValue · 17/04/2021 23:10

No. Each example given has individual accents within them too

Yup. That's exactly how you have a swathe to choose from!

Anyway, I feel like some people are just never going to hear it, for whatever reason, so I'm bowing out of this thread. It's starting to feel like I'm wasting my time.

Thefamilybusiness · 17/04/2021 23:10

I think the singing thing is a pretty subtle difference, some of you are making out like he's talking a different language! I can hear it (just) I'm in Bolton, he's I've been allowed out once or twice but as I'm literally from The Village I have to be back sharpish.

Can't say I'm overly keen on Paddy, but not because of his accent (which is the same as my dh's, just louder), just because he's so loud. Seems like a nice enough bloke though.

smallgoon · 17/04/2021 23:11

I'm London born and bred and I'd take a northern accent over a southern one every day of the week!

LizBennet · 17/04/2021 23:12

And I was looking for a specific area 🙄 My dad was Scottish and didn’t pronounce finger and singer differently. I’m genuinely curious as to which accent (area specific) pronounces them differently.
Saying “Ireland Scotland and Wales” is incorrect.