From a drama standpoint, have you ever wondered as you were watching the likes of MI-5, Doc Martin, Scott & Bailey, New Tricks, Case Histories, Call the Midwife, Father Brown or Eastenders how where the show is set will dictate the accents used in the show? How about from a comedy standpoint with Last of the Summer Wine, Only Fools and Horses, Open All Hours or even Moone Boy?

In the States, it’s usually pretty simple to distinguish a Texas accent from a Southern one or an upper Midwest accent and be able to immediately know where a show is set. This particularly came to mind watching Fargo this week and watching Martin Freeman as Lester Nygaard talk like he was from Minnesota. For British telly watchers in America, it’s not so easy to immediately determine where a show is set or where a specific character comes from.

This is a really cool video of professional accent and dialect coach Andrew Jack seamlessly switching between the various accents that are scattered across the UK, demonstrating the subtle distinctions between different varieties of English…
 

 
The next time you sit down to watch Scott & Bailey or Father Ted, maybe this tour of accents across the British Isles performed in a single, unedited take will help.

Cheers.