Peaky Blinders

[Smokeandsteam]

That may or may not be true mr steev but my point is that Pol's accent is like no Brummie accent I know. I laughed out loud when I heard it. The guy who plays Arthur Shelby seems to think shouting means you might miss the cockney twang. Cillian Murphy is much better (the writer of the programme allegedly took him on the ale round Small Heath for a weekend so he could imbue the accent).

I think the serious point I am making is that Birmingham/the West Midlands is so under represented on TV and so rarely shown/portrayed that the accent might as well be a foreign language. Similar problems don't exist for drama set in Liverpool. Manchester, Glasgow, London etc. On a more positive note I did notice in the last series that some of the young squad seem to be played by actors from here.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

So they were saying the dodgy accents were deliberate? Yeh right! if so the accent of my late granddad who was a young lad around this time must have 'evolved' also.

Exactly. And the Shelby's are supposed to have been long established.

 

[Pickman's model]

That may or may not be true mr steev but my point is that Pol's accent is like no Brummie accent I know. I laughed out loud when I heard it. The guy who plays Arthur Shelby seems to think shouting means you might miss the cockney twang. Cillian Murphy is much better (the writer of the programme allegedly took him on the ale round Small Heath for a weekend so he could imbue the accent).

I think the serious point I am making is that Birmingham/the West Midlands is so under represented on TV and so rarely shown/portrayed that the accent might as well be a foreign language. Similar problems don't exist for drama set in Liverpool. Manchester, Glasgow, London etc. On a more positive note I did notice in the last series that some of the young squad seem to be played by actors from here.

i don't suppose many people from outside brum will care greatly about the accent.

i've certainly never seen any complaints here about the fucked up cockney accents of numerous nineteenth century dramas, when back then so many londoners would say eg wery instead of very.

 

[Smokeandsteam]

i don't suppose many people from outside brum will care greatly about the accent.

If there were loads of shows set here then neither would I probably. But given that Peaky Blinders if the first programme set in Brum in a long time - and with such a strong emphasis on place - the bad acting does my head in.

 

[dolly's gal]

the accent that annoys me most is Grace's. it's fucking appalling. I don't think she could sound less Irish if she tried. plus it's supposed to be northern Irish, right? if anything it occasionally has a southern Irish lilt but mostly it just sounds plain weird.

ETA: i've just found out she's - the actress is - fucking chris martin in real life. no words

 

[Spod]

Before I knew that I almost felt sorry for her as by the second series, the writers were obviously bored of her character. She might as well as not been in it all. I prefer the 'posh gal' love interest dynamic anyway. BTW SHE has got better taste as she is with Tom Hardy in real life.

 

[dolly's gal]

Before I knew that I almost felt sorry for her as by the second series, the writers were obviously bored of her character. She might as well as not been in it all. I prefer the 'posh gal' love interest dynamic anyway. BTW SHE has got better taste as she is with Tom Hardy in real life.

oh yes May is great. If he ends up back with Grace because she's pulled the prego card, i'm going to lose my shit. I'm def in the team May camp here.

interesting re: Tom Hardy. yes, much less insipid IRL coupling. well, i mean, who wouldn't??

 

[DotCommunist]

that new krays film he done was shit

 

[dolly's gal]

not seen it. still, he's gotta be better than Chris Martin, whatever shit films he's in, right???

 

[DotCommunist]

not seen it. still, he's gotta be better than Chris Martin, whatever shit films he's in, right???

if I leant that way it'd be Hardy over Martin any day of the week.

 

[mr steev]

So they were saying the dodgy accents were deliberate? Yeh right! if so the accent of my late granddad who was a young lad around this time must have 'evolved' also.

I'm not defending it. Just saying that I read that the creators said they had paid attention to the accents (as Smokescrean says, taking actors drinking in the area) and Carl Chinn's remark that the accent was mutating with the influx of Irish and Scousers

As I said a couple of years ago though, I did think it was good that they made a distinction between the Black Country Accent and Brummie. One actor I remember did the face/fairce thing which I don't think I've ever heard on tv. It's usually just a generic brummie drawl.

 

[Spod]

Did they? was that during the bit with black country boys who run the canals? That's difficult and hardly anyone could tell, just the odd word. The main differences to my mind is yam-yams (black country) say 'yam' for 'are you', 'cor' instead of 'can't. Another one ive never heard outside of Dudley is 'mon' instead of 'Man'.

As I said a couple of years ago though, I did think it was good that they made a distinction between the Black Country Accent and Brummie. One actor I remember did the face/fairce thing which I don't think I've ever heard on tv. It's usually just a generic brummie drawl.

 

[krtek a houby]

if I leant that way it'd be Hardy over Martin any day of the week.

Indeed. Kiss me, Hardy

 

[mr steev]

Did they? was that during the bit with black country boys who run the canals? That's difficult and hardly anyone could tell, just the odd word. The main differences to my mind is yam-yams (black country) say 'yam' for 'are you', 'cor' instead of 'can't. Another one ive never heard outside of Dudley is 'mon' instead of 'Man'.

Yeah, the black country boys episode. I can only really remember the face/fairce thing though tbh, but do remember at the time that they'd made a bit of an effort.
'Yam' is 'you are' btw, 'are you' would be 'am ya', and 'mon' is used a lot around Bilston too

 

[Smokeandsteam]

I'm not defending it. Just saying that I read that the creators said they had paid attention to the accents (as Smokescrean says, taking actors drinking in the area) and Carl Chinn's remark that the accent was mutating with the influx of Irish and Scousers

The writer of Peaky Blinders is a Brummie, he was determined to set it here and he deserves massive credit for that as I'm sure it would have got more media support if it had been set somewhere else. But the majority of the series is filmed in Liverpool and (I think) Leeds with a few bits at the Black Country Museum. The reason for this is that there is just no infrastructure for making stuff like this in the West Midlands. It was for this reason that the second and third series of Line of Duty wasn't filmed here (also written by a Brummie and the first series was filmed here).

At the risk of sounding like a moaning twat I can't think of any other comparable city/area where there is no infrastructure for TV/Media, where filming is so prohibitively difficult - no sets, no established media hub, tiny BBC presence etc - and therefore rare, where actors can't even get the accent right (roight!) and where the area is almost airbrushed out of popular consciousness (unless a really thick and slow character is needed for cheap laughs).

 

[Smokeandsteam]

And by the way, where does this influx of Scousers come from? Irish yes but I'm not aware of mass migration down from Liverpool?

 

[keybored]

if I leant that way it'd be Hardy over Martin any day of the week.

Would you join in though, or just watch?

 

[dolly's gal]

^^^ join in what? Martin and Hardy are not getting it on in this scenario!

 

[Smokeandsteam]

It's back, next Thursday!!

 

[DotCommunist]

prepare to smoke twenty fags in 1 hour!

 

[trabuquera]

prepare to tok loike thisss...

 

[Pickman's model]

prepare to smoke twenty fags in 1 hour!

lightweight

 

[D'wards]

Sewing razor blades into me cap in anticipation

 

[Plumdaff]

And by the way, where does this influx of Scousers come from? Irish yes but I'm not aware of mass migration down from Liverpool?

Yeah, I don't get that. What I can hear in both Scouse and a proper Brummie is the influence of Irish on the accent, maybe it's that similarity people are commenting upon.

 

[Santino]

Very good.

 

[Espresso]

Yeah, I don't get that. What I can hear in both Scouse and a proper Brummie is the influence of Irish on the accent, maybe it's that similarity people are commenting upon.

I think you're right there, probably to do with the times the railways and canals were being built, Irish immigrant labour on the big navigation projects - navvies.

I enjoyed tonight's programme I must say. Arthur still wound as as tight as a drum and Thomas till as cool as forty seven cucumbers. Aces.

 

[D'wards]

I can't remember a thing about series 2 - i'll have to read up, as i couldn't remember who Grace was, or why the IRA wanted to kill Thomas

 

[rutabowa]

I just started watching this series from the start, so came to read this thread from the start too.... have people been talking about the accents continually for 3 years? Or is there a digression somewhere in the middle of the thread?

 

[DotCommunist]

digression

I thought it was OK although Shelby's taking money from White Russian agents is not good. Ada appears to have turned into some sort of radical liberal, not as red as she was

 

[rutabowa]

ayo in the first series I noticed when they went to the Cheltenham races the band was playing "hot jazz"... been as this was barely just being invented in the US at the time (1919) I think it is very unlikely a function band a race track would have been playing this style of music in Cheltenham. danny la rouge would know more though.