English accents on Irish radio

corblimey

Obviously, I'm exposed to English accents on telly a lot, but for some strange reason, whenever I hear one on Irish radio (they'd be rare on Irish TV), they always sound more 'english' to me, like the proverbial plum in the mouth. Perhaps it's the juxtapositioning of the English accent against the Irish/mid-atlantic nasalings of the Irish dj's. Or perhaps Irish radio only has extremely upper class English people on their shows.

Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon (do do do do do)?

r3nu4l

With TV you normally have very stimulating visual clues that prepare your brain for the accent. See skyscrapers and sunny skies on TV and you normally expect to hear an American accent. See a beach, sun and surfboards and you expect an Australian accent, see pints of bitter, pictures of the Queen on the wall in the background or a folded up copy of The guardian on a table in the foreground of the screen and you expect an English accent.

Quite often the visual stimuli go completely unnoticed in your foreconcious but register in your subconcious, so when you hear the accent it's not entirely unexpected.

On the other hand, with Radio, you've been listening to Irish accents from the DJ and advertisers for the last 10 minutes and all of a sudden, bang, an English accent.

On most talk shows they do try to get someone who is an "expert" in the area. If it's politics or history being discussed, the contributor is more likely to be "Professor Henry Charles Worthington-Forsyth the Third" than "Darren, from Battersea" or "Hazel, from Harlow" so the Prof will of course sound 'very distinguished and authoratative".

I find this funny coming from someone with the username 'corblimey', a quintissentially English, nay, cockney expression of glad surprise.

Bondvillain

corblimey wrote: »

Obviously, I'm exposed to English accents on telly a lot, but for some strange reason, whenever I hear one on Irish radio (they'd be rare on Irish TV), they always sound more 'english' to me, like the proverbial plum in the mouth. Perhaps it's the juxtapositioning of the English accent against the Irish/mid-atlantic nasalings of the Irish dj's. Or perhaps Irish radio only has extremely upper class English people on their shows.

Has anyone else noticed this phenomenon (do do do do do)?

Can't say that I have, unless you're talking about correspondents or contributors, in which case, it's horses for courses. Current affairs contributors such as Robert Fisk, David Owen et al sound Upper Class, educated and quintessentially British because they ARE Upper Class, educated and quintessentially British.

(But in many cases, it's a simple case of knowledge combined with (perhaps subliminal) audience recognition and acceptance: Terry Christian will automatically sound more authoritative on the Manchester Scene than Cormac Battle does, Ditto Stuart Clark over Brendan O Connor discussing the birth of Punk with Fanning, and despite probably being less knowledgeable, Tony Cascarino somehow sounds more believable discussing the intricacies of the Chelsea boot room on The Last Word than Mick Martin does...and none of the above could really be described as 'plummy')

corblimey

Most of the time, when there's an English correspondant on, it's someone I've never heard of, for the simple reason that they're an expert in that field, and not someone you'd come across normally in media. But a few weeks back, The Right Hook (I think) brought Simon Hoggart in as an expert on something. Now I used to listen to the News Quiz on Radio 4 a lot when he was chairman, but when he came on, he just sound more plummy than when surrounded by other English people and I wondered if it was perhaps his 'radio voice', or as I said the juxtaposition of Simon vs George.

r3nu4l's post does go some way to explaining it.

Declan A Walsh

It is very true that on talk shows - be it "The Last Word" on Today FM, or various times on Newstalk or current affairs on Radio 1 - there tends to be quite a few "plummy" English accents. This is of course, normally anyway, that these are people with knowledge of what they are talking about, and, of course, they would tend to be more educated. As one contributor said already, Stuart Clarke, a less plummy-accented guy, might be used in relation to, say, punk or rock music. In fact, I have heard him quite a few times talking to Matt Cooper on "The Last Word".

Richard Aldous, resident in U.C.D., has turned up on a number of occasions to stand in for people on Newstalk. I think his voice and his obvious good education brings a kind of levity or credibility to weighty subjects - in his case, it's not just his English accent. He is simply very good at doing these programs.

Interestingly, Phantom have a number of English deejays - none of whom you could classify as "Upper Class" or "plummy" in accent. There is Richie Ryan, presenter of Stadium Rock on Saturday afternoons and Neil Austin, presenter of "Out To Lunch" on weekdays around lunchtime. In fact, their ordinary English accents suits the kind of music-driven programs they present. In Richie's case, he covers various sports results between the music and I suppose the "Tony Cascarino Effect" applies here, i.e. it sounds more believable when you hear him talking about West Ham (his team!) or Arsenal.

mike65

:pac:

Nothing wrong with proper enunciation I say.

Mike.

anotherlostie

The English accent used on the jingles on 2FM drives me nuts. "2FM Weather" - aaargh. Surely they could get an Irish voice over artist? Or if not, Maggie Mooney, the 63 year old fish gutter from Howth would do!

shockwave

One accent I cant stand is Heny McKean on the Moncrieff show but his mother is even worse. shes on that "Oul Wans Discussing The Weeks Papers " slot.

GOD she makes me want to throw the radio off the wall!! Upper class Twat.

you can tell she hasnt a clue about popular culture and has never read a tabloid in her life.

mike65

Good for her!

Mike.

deisemum

Sure what's the problem with their accents, haven't irish deejays been on the UK radios and tv channels for years and been very popular with the UK audience

Mossy Monk

The only English accents that have really annoyed me were the ones on that Kleenex ad a few months back :mad:

FlutterinBantam

Give me any accent except that skangery Doooblin Northsooaide accent of Peader Flanagan, the racing guy.

jaysus... and neauw Victohrious Quee-yan takes the lee-ad ridden boi Barrrrrie Gerrrrattie.

Brings up the stale beer in me crop he does.

juuge

I think the problem with the british accent is that it conjures up images of their condescending attitude to the Irish as was the case in the fifties and sixties.
They don’t seem to realise that things have moved on We Irish are now a more sophisticated, better educated race than they ever were, and the empire has gone.
As the guy said, 'I’ve no problem with british people, it’s the whites I don’t like’

Bondvillain

juuge wrote: »

I think the problem with the british accent is that it conjures up images of their condescending attitude to the Irish

juuge wrote: »

We Irish are now a more sophisticated, better educated race than they ever were, and the empire has gone.

Dear Professor Pot.

I am interested in your "Calling the Kettle black" lectures, and wish to join your movement.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Regards,

B.Villain.