It can't have escaped your attention that more and more TV shows on both sides of the Atlantic are now enlightened enough to include foreigners in their cast. In fact, you'd be hard-pushed to find a US TV show that doesn't include at least one person from Britain, Ireland or Australia in their numbers.
Sometimes these actors are allowed to keep their own accents, but other times they're made to fake an accent. So this week's meme is a relatively simple one:
What's your favourite fake accent?
It might be your favourite convincing accent (eg Hugh Laurie in House, apparently), it might be your favourite absolutely appalling accent (eg Phil Glenister in Demons) and it can be from any country in the world. If you're stuck for a TV show, you can resort to a movie if you want.
As always, leave a comment with your answer or a link to your answer on your own blog.
June 24, 2009 | Reply
Mandy Patinkin in The Princess Bride. Lovely accent, fantastic character.
Also fond of Manuel from Fawlty Towers.
June 24, 2009 | Reply
On TV, David Suchet's "Belgian" in 'Poirot'. And it's not just the accent but the phrasings as well. So it's a tip of the hat to the work of both Suchet and his script-writers.
On the distaff side, Kyra Sedgwick as Chief Brenda Leigh Johnson in 'The Closer', all summed up in that "Thank yew; thank yew so much!"
Of course, I've seen both in the last two days, so they're both fresh in my mind.
For a comedic Southern accent, Vicki Lawrence as Thelma "Mama" Harper in 'Mama's Family'.
And it's a bastard child of TV, so I think it's fair to nominate the French Knight in 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'. So bad, but so outrageously funny.
June 24, 2009 | Reply
I think Anthony LaPaglia's accent as Daphne's brother in Frasier has to have a shot at worst ever. Was he supposed to be Mancunian? Cockney? If Cockney, then why, when his sister was Mancunian?
For faultless American, surely you have to go for Idris Elba in The Wire. People still don't believe that Stringer Bell is actually a Brit.
June 24, 2009 | Reply
I have a hard time deciding between Damian Lewis's accent in Band of Brothers (because, dangit, there's no way that can't be anything but real) and Dexter Fletcher's accent in the same (because it's convincing and far improved from the performance he gave in Press Gang).
Then again, most of the performers in Band of Brothers have pretty impressive fake accents.
June 25, 2009 | Reply
Jason O'Mara's American accent in the American Life on Mars was pretty convincing.
June 25, 2009 | Reply
Damn: stu_n beat me on Idris Elba. I was astonished when I found out he was a Brit!
In reverse... I don't know. My brain power deserts me but am sure there was an actor with a British accent who I was astonished to find wasn't British. And now i can't for the life of me think who it is. Grr.
June 25, 2009 | Reply
"My brain power deserts me but am sure there was an actor with a British accent who I was astonished to find wasn't British."
That bloke who played Higgins in Magnum PI?
Spike from Buffy? Er... not him.
I do know someone who claims that Juliet Landau's Drusilla accent is perfectly accurate, but he's clearly on drugs.
June 25, 2009 | Reply
BWAH! Oh Stu, you have made me chuckle... suffice to say, not those examples...
June 25, 2009 | Reply
Could it have been the butler Niles on 'The Nanny'? The actor also played Moriarty on ST:TNG and Shaw (an Irishman) on stage in New York in "Frogs". But Daniel Davis is from Arkansas.
June 25, 2009 | Reply
Spike and Dru's accents are fantastically bizarre. It works I think because they are from another time and maybe they did speak like that...? Well, they get away with it. David Boreanaz's (Angel) Irish really does not though. Terrible. Alexis Denisof (Wesley) is perfect at doing an English accent.
Jamie Bamber (Apollo) is perfect as an American in Battlestar Galactica.
Best accents in film have to go to Christopher Lambert's Scottish and Sean Connery's er... Egyptian Spaniard? Well, Sean Connery just sounds like Sean Connery but Lambert sounds rather bizarre. (Highlander of course).
June 26, 2009 | Reply
Not sure I have a favourite (possibly David Suchet's Poirot), but my least favourite recent accent had to be Philip Glenister's in Demons. Why did he have to be American anyway? It completely stripped away his sex appeal - have always fancied him in everything. But not this.
Btw Bob, you are so right about Highlander, but you gotta love the way Christopher Lambert says I'm Connor McCloud from the Clan McCloud...