Peaky Blinders

[Part 2]

right into the late 30s people still had teachers who would twitch and flinch violently at a slammed door. Recall reading in Roal Dahls bio that one of his tutors had such an issue.

I had quite a few teachers like that in the 80s.

 

[Dr Nookie]

I really, really wanted to like this but was really disappointed. I thought the accents were horrendous. And I'm totally not buying this 'they're historically accurate for the time' line either, because if that were true then they would have all sounded 'wrong' to my ears in the same way (I'm Brum born and bred by the way!). But they didn't. Some sounded scouse, others Irish, Helen McCrory sounded like a posh woman who kept suddenly remembering 'shit, I'm supposed to sound Brummie' and throwing a couple of Brum sounding words on the end of each sentence. As for the bloke who played the communist, I've not fucking idea where he reckoned his accent was coming from, but trust me, it wasn't the bloody West Midlands. And anyway, my nan was born in 1919, and I met her mom who lived to almost 100, and she sounded just like the rest of us do. So really not convinced about the casts accents being 'historical' (hysterical maybe!). I just think people can't do Brummie accents unless they're doing some ludicrous 'We wanna be together' parody.
Accent griping aside, I also thought some of the acting and dialogue was totally unconvincing. Particularly the scene where the communist was supposed to be rabble rousing in the factory. It was just totally flat. I didn't believe the fire was in his belly (or his comrades for that matter) for one second. It just felt like he was reading from a leaflet. And one he didn't particularly believe in either. Ultimately, I knew I was watching people acting, and once that happens then you know something has gone wrong!
On the plus side, it looked great (the fact it wasn't gritty and realistic looking didn't bother me. This is showwwbiz!) and Cillian I thought was really good actually.
I'm planning to watch it again today to see if my accent outrage, which distracted me so much the first time I watched, has prejudiced me unfairly. Hoping to enjoy this more second time round, 'cos I really want to like it and genuinely felt excited that a drama was set in my home town, that wasn't ripping the fucking shit out of it for once.
And anyway, even if the accents were ropey, it made me feel homesick in a really nice way!

 

[Red Cat]

PTSD might be a modern idea, but I'm sure people talked at least of shell-shock, if not 'flashbacks'. I'm sure considering the amount of people who fought in that war and the conditions it wasn't exactly a rare sight

I didn't say it was rare.

I think the way it was handled dramatically showed that people couldn't make sense of it, that they were ashamed.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I didn't say it was rare.

I think the way it was handled dramatically showed that people couldn't make sense of it, that they were ashamed.

I think the shame was a big thing, that what we now know as PTSD was cowardice etc.

 

[May Kasahara]

I certainly get that, but that whole flashback scene in the bar just seemed really contrived.

Yes, exactly. It's a quality control issue for me, not a disputation of the need for such things.

 

[purenarcotic]

You kept your mouth shut and got on with it. And even though things are much better there is still a big culture of shame of suffering poor mental health after war.

 

[DotCommunist]

yes and what did they say to him in the pub 'You've got to stop doing this'. Not 'you poor bastard you have to see a head doctor'

 

[Red Cat]

I think the very public nature of the flashback was the point - no one understood what was happening.

 

[DotCommunist]

they knew its had happened before- they did the 'one two three, and down' thing and it was made clear it had happened before. They may not have known what was wrong but they knew something was wrong.

one of the lines from that bloke that got me 'I think the guns blew god right out of my head'

fucks sake man. On a plus note It's got ma involved. She loves the beeb period dramas

 

[Red Cat]

I didn't mean it was the first time for him, I meant it was a new social phenomenon that no one understood, had the tools to understand. Knowing something's very wrong and not knowing what - how frightening that must have been.

 

[blossie33]

I agree with Dr Nookie about the accents, my Nan was born in 1891 and she had a normal Brummie accent (though she was born in Knowle so technically not a Brummie!).
However I would rather the actors use their own accents rather than try to do a Brummie
accent badly.

 

[seeformiles]

PTSD might be a modern idea, but I'm sure people talked at least of shell-shock, if not 'flashbacks'. I'm sure considering the amount of people who fought in that war and the conditions it wasn't exactly a rare sight

My old man told me that when he was a kid there were a lot of severely mentally war damaged people about in the community with various symptoms from twitches to random shouting to cross-dressing but it was largely accommodated/ignored by everyone as they had a good idea as to what they'd been through and there but for the grace of god went they, etc.

The weirdest thing for me was visiting my great uncle Charlie who fought at the Somme. He wasn't very well and had a bladder infection and a temperature which was sending him a bit strange. It was snowing outside and he suddenly announced, "You'd think someone would clear away all those bodies!"
The Doctor asked what he meant and he replied, "The ground's too cold to bury them"
Turns out he was having a bit of a "time slip" or flashback to WW1 - v. strange.

 

[Ground Elder]

BBC article on shell shock

Survivors - Siegfried Sassoon

No doubt they'll soon get well; the shock and strain
Have caused their stammering, disconnected talk.
Of course they're 'longing to go out again',
These boys with old, scared faces, learning to walk.
They'll soon forget their haunted nights; their cowed
Subjection to the ghosts of friends who died,
Their dreams that drip with murder; and they'll be proud
Of glorious war that shatter'd their pride...
Men who went out to battle, grim and glad;
Children, with eyes that hate you, broken and mad.

The "British Boardwalk Empire" publicity hype has done the series no favours. I couldn't thinking how much better it could have been with the space allowed by a 12 episode season rather than the mean 6 the BBC allows.

 

[discokermit]

i've got a friend, black country born and bred, who deliberately lost her accent after moving to london. now if she tries to do her old accent she can't. it just sounds like comedy brummie.
i have never heard anyone not from the black country do a convincing impression. i'm sure it's the same for any accents. if you're from the area it's never going to sound convincing to you. also, this show has obviously got one eye on the foreign market, if they all talked exactly like brummies from 1919, most of this country would need subtitles, never mind the americans.

 

[Pickman's model]

I agree with Dr Nookie about the accents, my Nan was born in 1891 and she had a normal Brummie accent (though she was born in Knowle so technically not a Brummie!).
However I would rather the actors use their own accents rather than try to do a Brummie
accent badly.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/ptop/plain/A496352

 

[Pickman's model]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/new...ummie-accent-voted-least-cool-in-Britain.html

 

[blossie33]

I must confess to having modified my Brummie accent since moving to London in 97 mainly by using the southern 'a' vowel sound like in saying barth instead of bath. My father was quite amused by it.
People can still tell I'm a Midlander though sometimes.

 

[discokermit]

I must confess to having modified my Brummie accent since moving to London in 97 mainly by using the southern 'a' vowel sound like in saying barth instead of bath. My father was quite amused by it.

if i was your dad i would have cut your tongue out. traitor.

 

[blossie33]

if i was your dad i would have cut your tongue out. traitor.

Y

if i was your dad i would have cut your tongue out. traitor.

Yes I know! Shame on me!
I'm still proud to be a Brummie though, we are the best - salt of the earth.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

i've got a friend, black country born and bred, who deliberately lost her accent after moving to london. now if she tries to do her old accent she can't. it just sounds like comedy brummie.

The black country and birmingham accents aren't the same thing.

 

[discokermit]

The black country and birmingham accents aren't the same thing.

no way! call the papers!

that wasn't the point i was making.

 

[blossie33]

The black country and birmingham accents aren't the same thing.

Indeed, it has a similar intonation but Black Country folk have many different sayings like ay it and weem that a Brummie would never use.

 

[discokermit]

Indeed, it has a similar intonation but Black Country folk have many different sayings like ay it and weem that a Brummie would never use.

i think black country goes up and down more as well. brummie is flatter.

 

[blossie33]

i think black country goes up and down more as well. brummie is flatter.

Yes, think you're right about that.

 

[Casually Red]

another thing with the accents, the show is going to be sold onto the United States .

 

[Kuso]

says a lot for the actual content of the show when most discussion's been on the actors' accents!

 

[Casually Red]

says a lot for the actual content of the show when most discussion's been on the actors' accents!

theyre also ommitting the fact that post pygmalion elocution lessons were all the the rage at the time as well . A posh accent could be had for a few quid . And those who had a few quid often did.

Although i think the content is interesting enough .The Brits just like moaning about stuff . Thats authentic anyway .

 

[mr steev]

says a lot for the actual content of the show when most discussion's been on the actors' accents!

Because it's a rarity for something like this to be set in Brum, and the program bigged up the fact that it was not going to be full of comedy cliched attempts like virtually everything before - so that's probably worth discussing.

It's a shame that the page seems to be down at the moment, but the British Library has a collection of audio recordings from of Soldiers with everyday regional accents recorded whilst they were at a prison camp during the first world war. I remember listening to some of them and they don't sound like the accents today.
Here's a bloke from Wolverhampton (Himley irrc)

 

[discokermit]

Yes, think you're right about that.

 

[Espresso]

another thing with the accents, the show is going to be sold onto the United States .

They'll put subtitles on it, though.
Pretty common in the US for programmes in the English language that have been bought from elsewhere.