I appreciate the issue with UK accents (on my frequent visits to lecture in the US I have been introduced as being from Edinburgh in England or Australia amongst others - when my accent is a mildly audible Lancashire one).
Indeed I toured the US with an Aussie once and most people could not tell our accents apart.
Though, of course, I bet most Brits could not distinguish an American and Canadian either - though they are as different as regional accents from say Essex and Newcastle here.
So I do not have an issue with the way UK accents are portrayed. Also I think your average Brit has had far more exposure to American culture and accents because of Hollywood movies and prominently viewed US TV series throughout their lives. Access to British films or TV amongst the average American will be understandably far more limited.
Therefore, we find it easier to absorb and relate to American life and even differences between its regions than Americans do in reverse. From quiz questions on TV many Brits seem to have a reasonable awareness of US states and where the main cities are located. Whereas there is widespread misunderstanding in the US of the differences between the UK, Britain or England, Scotland, Wales and both Irelands.
Oh, and I saw an interesting piece in the press just the other week that indicates strong evidence that tea drinking is dying out in the UK and very soon it will be as rare as in the US, Already for anyone under 40 coffee is much more common.
The dominance of American culture in the UK - particularly amongst the younger generations - is apparently eroding the differences and if you think US TV portrayals are an anachronism now then they will definitely be within a decade or two.
Just to even the balance - how about some excellent US TV portrayals of life in the UK?
(My vote would go to the recent series of Torchwood - where the scenes set in South Wales were very credible despite the show being science fiction - and, indeed, the UK/US cultural differences were generally handled very well). (I realise this had British co producers but was made by an American network and written by the woman who created Warehouse 13 - which, incidentally, has the excellently drawn British character in there of HG Wells as played by Jaime Murray). (f you are not
familiar with this fun show do not ask how or why!)
And dire UK TV episodes set in the US?
(I an not sure the Native Americans will have been overjoyed at the coverage in the Auf Wiedershein Pet series set in Arizona)
I would imagine a far higher % of UK citizens have hollidayed in the US compared to the otherway round - most US residents have no idea what the UK is like to lap up whatever their TV networks feed them.
I would imagine a far higher % of UK citizens have hollidayed in the US compared to the otherway round - most US residents have no idea what the UK is like to lap up whatever their TV networks feed them.
Although to be fair to the americans, 2 weeks at Disney doesn't really tell you anything about the huge swathes of the USA outside the "magic kingdom". Even if you do hire a car and drive around a bit
When ever an adult cartoon (South Park / Family Guy etc) features british people or england it anoys me how they think we are.
There must be another england somewhere because the Americans portrayal of us couldn't be further away from the real Brits.
Seriously, just read back to yourself what you wrote. You are determining what Americans think of Brits from two cartoon comedy shows that take the piss out of everything and everybody.
Spinal Tap got it right with their depiction of Britons, you can't even tell it's three Americans, Harry Shearer's accent slipped a couple of times but that was it.
In a recent episode of "Nikita", she and some others had to travel to London. It was by far the worse representation of London I have ever seen. A women was holding a brown paper bag, traffic lights were on horizontal poles instead of vertical ones and the cars were travelling the wrong way.
I don't like the way alot of American shows depict Britain. One I actually didn't mind was Buffy. Giles was British and thankfully they had a British actor rather than an American putting on a posh accent.
It's funny how America does seem to think most people here speak in a very posh way and drink tea all the time. Lol
Spike was also British (from Ye Olde North London) and played by an American actor putting on a posh accent.
If it makes you feel any better, tv does a bad job of portraying most of the U.S. as well. Since most things are filmed in southern California, there are tons of shortcuts taken to portray other areas. People have mentioned the Friends episodes set in London ... but how about the Friends episodes set in New York (i.e. most of them ....)? No one has a New York accent?
And when you consider that Hollywood is filled with people who have lived in New York, it's even worse for shows set in other parts of the country.
And when you consider that Hollywood is filled with people who have lived in New York, it's even worse for shows set in other parts of the country.
Exactly. For all the complaining by Brits about American TV not getting British accents right (or Irish), the fact is that almost all American TV shows actively avoid depicting American regional accents, which is really something far more inexcusable. American TV has long had an American equivalent of what people in the UK used to call "BBC English." It stresses clarity above all. It is completely unrealistic for shows set in particular cities or areas outside of cites, but nobody in the US cares. Americans are not nearly as obsessed with accents as Brits are, so they just let the matter be.
I remember the Def Leppard biopic with great fondness. This was so obviously filmed in Canada with the minimum of disguise (apart from the red phone box and Mini). Best bits were a sign to the M25 a few miles outside 'Sheffield' and an American bus with doors on the left driving past on the right hand side of the road.
Nobody has mentioned the Charliecentric London episode of Lost yet, which also featured the cavernous London pub with a big Union Jack on the wall (also seen in Ugly Betty).
I also remember an adaption of Stephen King's short story Crouch End from a few years ago, featuring pick up trucks and a tram in central 'London' as well as some very gothic un-East London houses (but there was a red phone box).:D
Ah yes! the dodgy accents and blatent stereotyping, i half expected a leprechaun to emerge from behind a rainbow carrying a pot of gold doing an irish jig.
On the subject of depictions of Britain's next door neighbour, let's
mention the episodes of "Heroes" set in Cork. As a life-long native of that city, I have never heard anyone in "Heroes" speak like its
"Cork people". They sounded like they'd wandered down from
Donegal or Antrim.
One that sticks out is the family guy episode where that british guy opens a pub, and another when they go to london with that American football club. I used to find it a little annoying, but now just funny, since I firgured we must do the same and it's all in good fun. It would annoy if they got the regional accents wrong, but then I'd forgive them that as well as most people south of Manchester assume I'm from Scotland when I tell them where I live, some even trying to argue agasint me when I tell them otherwise
As for that football team, I'd like to see them pit them agasint a rugby one, much fairer.
On the subject of depictions of Britain's next door neighbour, let's
mention the episodes of "Heroes" set in Cork. As a life-long native of that city, I have never heard anyone in "Heroes" speak like its
"Cork people". They sounded like they'd wandered down from
Donegal or Antrim.
You want a bad Irish accent?
Check out this from season 3 of 'Sons Of Anarchy'.
Nobody has mentioned the Charliecentric London episode of Lost yet, which also featured the cavernous London pub with a big Union Jack on the wall (also seen in Ugly Betty).
Was that a shortcut to sat "this is Britain" or did they just film it in a British pub in LA (which would have a reason to put up a Union flag)?
Doesn't Vinnie Jones own a British pub in Santa Monica? Might be that one.
Very sensitive, particularly with the double decker and the 7/7 connotations, no wonder they cut it when it was screened over here, wonder how they'd like it if we made a cartoon with similar jokes about Al-Qaeda and the Twin Towers?
Do people in America complain about Hugh Laurie's accent in House? Seems terrible to me. And remember half the big name actors in Hollywood are actually Canadian.
I haven't noticed that in MODERN films or TV series (the ones I see anyway, as I don't see everything). I recall a lot of old movies with that feature, a kind of visual signature for Britain. I wonder how many places in the US get foggy at all, ever. Just the fact that Britain gets some fog, occasionally, may strike Americans as interesting enough that it has been put in films as something novel.
London fog depicted during the Victorian era was actually smog from coal smoke.
There are a lot of foggy places throughout North America, mostly the coastal areas and the mountain valleys and the Great Lakes, swamps, rain forests, the Mississippi River, the many deltas, San Fransisco, Smokey Mountains, Vancouver BC......
Do people in America complain about Hugh Laurie's accent in House? Seems terrible to me. And remember half the big name actors in Hollywood are actually Canadian.
Don't remember any of the Americans I know complaining about
Laurie's US accent-in fact, one of them was surprising to learn
he was English.
Comments
I appreciate the issue with UK accents (on my frequent visits to lecture in the US I have been introduced as being from Edinburgh in England or Australia amongst others - when my accent is a mildly audible Lancashire one).
Indeed I toured the US with an Aussie once and most people could not tell our accents apart.
Though, of course, I bet most Brits could not distinguish an American and Canadian either - though they are as different as regional accents from say Essex and Newcastle here.
So I do not have an issue with the way UK accents are portrayed. Also I think your average Brit has had far more exposure to American culture and accents because of Hollywood movies and prominently viewed US TV series throughout their lives. Access to British films or TV amongst the average American will be understandably far more limited.
Therefore, we find it easier to absorb and relate to American life and even differences between its regions than Americans do in reverse. From quiz questions on TV many Brits seem to have a reasonable awareness of US states and where the main cities are located. Whereas there is widespread misunderstanding in the US of the differences between the UK, Britain or England, Scotland, Wales and both Irelands.
Oh, and I saw an interesting piece in the press just the other week that indicates strong evidence that tea drinking is dying out in the UK and very soon it will be as rare as in the US, Already for anyone under 40 coffee is much more common.
The dominance of American culture in the UK - particularly amongst the younger generations - is apparently eroding the differences and if you think US TV portrayals are an anachronism now then they will definitely be within a decade or two.
Just to even the balance - how about some excellent US TV portrayals of life in the UK?
(My vote would go to the recent series of Torchwood - where the scenes set in South Wales were very credible despite the show being science fiction - and, indeed, the UK/US cultural differences were generally handled very well). (I realise this had British co producers but was made by an American network and written by the woman who created Warehouse 13 - which, incidentally, has the excellently drawn British character in there of HG Wells as played by Jaime Murray). (f you are not
familiar with this fun show do not ask how or why!)
And dire UK TV episodes set in the US?
(I an not sure the Native Americans will have been overjoyed at the coverage in the Auf Wiedershein Pet series set in Arizona)
There must be another england somewhere because the Americans portrayal of us couldn't be further away from the real Brits.
Seriously, just read back to yourself what you wrote. You are determining what Americans think of Brits from two cartoon comedy shows that take the piss out of everything and everybody.
Difficult one.
Spinal Tap got it right with their depiction of Britons, you can't even tell it's three Americans, Harry Shearer's accent slipped a couple of times but that was it.
I don't think you can count cartoon comedies that depict Canadians with flip-top heads and bizarre 'ye olde english' accents
Spike was also British (from Ye Olde North London) and played by an American actor putting on a posh accent.
I have heard my fair share bad US accents in UK shows, Spooks and DW for example.
And when you consider that Hollywood is filled with people who have lived in New York, it's even worse for shows set in other parts of the country.
Exactly. For all the complaining by Brits about American TV not getting British accents right (or Irish), the fact is that almost all American TV shows actively avoid depicting American regional accents, which is really something far more inexcusable. American TV has long had an American equivalent of what people in the UK used to call "BBC English." It stresses clarity above all. It is completely unrealistic for shows set in particular cities or areas outside of cites, but nobody in the US cares. Americans are not nearly as obsessed with accents as Brits are, so they just let the matter be.
Nobody has mentioned the Charliecentric London episode of Lost yet, which also featured the cavernous London pub with a big Union Jack on the wall (also seen in Ugly Betty).
I also remember an adaption of Stephen King's short story Crouch End from a few years ago, featuring pick up trucks and a tram in central 'London' as well as some very gothic un-East London houses (but there was a red phone box).:D
http://youtu.be/gnsIxA75VTU
On the subject of depictions of Britain's next door neighbour, let's
mention the episodes of "Heroes" set in Cork. As a life-long native of that city, I have never heard anyone in "Heroes" speak like its
"Cork people". They sounded like they'd wandered down from
Donegal or Antrim.
As for that football team, I'd like to see them pit them agasint a rugby one, much fairer.
You want a bad Irish accent?
Check out this from season 3 of 'Sons Of Anarchy'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVIkgK6eyn0
That's pretty bad. I suspect that's an English actor pretending
to be Irish and failing miserably.
Was that a shortcut to sat "this is Britain" or did they just film it in a British pub in LA (which would have a reason to put up a Union flag)?
Doesn't Vinnie Jones own a British pub in Santa Monica? Might be that one.
Very sensitive, particularly with the double decker and the 7/7 connotations, no wonder they cut it when it was screened over here, wonder how they'd like it if we made a cartoon with similar jokes about Al-Qaeda and the Twin Towers?
There are a lot of foggy places throughout North America, mostly the coastal areas and the mountain valleys and the Great Lakes, swamps, rain forests, the Mississippi River, the many deltas, San Fransisco, Smokey Mountains, Vancouver BC......
Don't remember any of the Americans I know complaining about
Laurie's US accent-in fact, one of them was surprising to learn
he was English.