dialects - Identifying accents of British actors


As an American, a large part of my impoverished experience of British accents comes from ancient BBC comedy imports on PBS. I'd very much like to identify the regional accents the following actors are using:



All four have distinct ways of speaking (not necessarily the same, but then that's the problem, I can't tell).


Which accent does each of these four use?



Answer



Apart from Onslow, which is close to the actor's native Liverpool accent, the others are 'generic countryside' — pretty much the same as if an American actor was asked to do 'southern' or 'redneck'


The standard country bumpkin accent is normally west county/sommerset - or at least you just have to pronounce it zummerset and say oo-arrgh a lot.


Interesting aside the english actor who played Darth Vader (David Prowse) is from that area and has a strong west country accent - not quite in keeping with the dark lord of the sith. Even more aside, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is Austrian, wasn't chosen to dub his own films into German - because to a German the Austrian accent is the standard country bumpkin.


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