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Guy Martin's Spitfire.
ironjade
Posts: 10,010 Forum Member
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I have no idea who Guy Martin is or what his talents are but TV presenting doesn't appear to be one of them.
This potentially interesting documentary is not improved by his presence or by my having to fast forward through his bits as they are delivered in an undecipherable accent.
This potentially interesting documentary is not improved by his presence or by my having to fast forward through his bits as they are delivered in an undecipherable accent.
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For anyone who's not seen Closer to the Edge I'd recommend a watch, one of the best Motorsport documentaries ever made.
I suppose that I could have guessed that someone complaining about accents would be from London. It seems on DS that if you do not have a London accent then you are unintelligible.
I remember his awful canal barge programme.
Not that they didn't do an excellent job on it though.
Any programme that has Julia Bradbury, Kate Humble and the likes with "equal billing" in the title, means that I won't watch it.
I'm afraid he's one of them.
I must admit, though, I do wish they could 'turn him down' a fraction. Not too much, just a little.
For us, it's his quirky personality that makes him so watchable. He does seem genuinely enthusiastic about being able to get stuck in, but perhaps I'm just getting that from his book that I recently read. He has his faults, we all do, but I think he's quite a breath of fresh-air on the telly... and even if he is a lot like Fred Dibnah, is that really such a bad thing? I think it's great that somebody as young as Guy (I know he looks older, but he's only 33!) shares some of the values of Fred, much better than spraying yourself orange and pretending you can sing so that a screaming iphone-waving crowd can boo at you.
Fred, because Guy would probably crash
His accent is absolutely fine and I like that accent of that area anyway.
I have no problem with Guy or his accent; both me and my wife can understand him without any problem. Some of the strong accents you hear in London are bloody awful.
What a ridiculous thing to say. Im a Londoner and I find accents very easy to hear, including his. Keep your prejudices to yourself.
It's usually clear and understandable.
Any regional accent can have some words that are spoken in a way that is difficult to understand.
Wasn't much left of it to be fair:
http://www.iwcp.co.uk/Files/Images/l04%201N3200%20Sangatte%20Beach%20Spring%201986%20Image%20by%20JP%20Duriez%20Peter%20R%20Arnold%20Collection%2001.jpg?width=2500&height=1708
They said about 9 mins in that they were able to extract a few bits from the original plane but obviously the airframe itself was so rusted and fragile that they wouldn't have been able to use that. So it did have some original parts inside it but mostly it was a reproduction following the original plans and building techniques.
Doesn't matter where you're from, some people find it easier than others with accents generally.
I know my working class London accent and the speed at which I talk is hard work for East Europeans, but it's very very rare that they 'speak up' and tell me to slow down, they just stare baffled instead
As I haven't worked in an Office or on the Phones for 10 years, I've reverted back to my South London accent more and more.
Anyway I've watched all of Guy's recent outings for Channel 4, including his passion's program over Christmas, the 'problems' I've had with them aren't down to his accent.
I mean it needed some enthusiasm cos Iain Glenn's commentary was dry as to leave you gasping for water.
Oddly enough I thought Iain Glen's v/o was terrific (although I thought it was John Nettles).
Can't find the thread for this program the first time it aired.
It was full of holes and not up to much IMO.
IMO it's hard to beat enthusiastic people being enthusiastic and excitable, I've watched a few docs about subjects that don't really interest me, because of the enthusiastic people fronting it.
Still needs the 'dry' voice over for those who want some, less excitable factual content.
I thought it was a bit cheeky putting Guy in the title the way they did, but, it doesn't matter how good the doc is if nobody's watching.
There's a lot of content out there, need to do something to catch the eye, I suppose.
Oh for those who don't know or didn't watch his Passions program, he's got a Royce Merlin engine from a Lancaster.
Took him something like 4 years to save for it IIRC.
He decided to see what it sounded like at full power 2800 rpm?? instead of 1500 rpm one day in the Truck workshop, the engine took off, took a wall out, cut the stairs, chopped his bicycle into bits and launched some bits at a truck and damaged it.
Balls of steel that man.