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{{trope}}
[[File:control-
▲{{quote|''Up North,''<br />
▲''Where the beer is best!''<br />
▲''Up North,''<br />
▲''Where you don't wear a vest!''<br />
▲''Up North,''<br />
▲''Where men are men!''<br />
▲''Up North,''<br />
''Up North!''
▲''Ah, I'll say it again,''<br />
To some Londoners, this is anywhere in England north of the Watford Gap, forgetting about [[The Midlands]]. Geographically, the North is usually classed as Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Yorkshire, Merseyside, Lancashire, Durham, Tyne & Wear, Northumberland, Cumbria and parts of Lincolnshire and Derbyshire.
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Northerners are sometimes held in the same low regard as Australians and Texans for being too loud, proud and generally insufferable, like in ''At Last The 1948 Show'''s [[When I Was Your Age|Four Yorkshiremen sketch]]. But surveys have shown that Northern accents (particularly Yorkshire) are thought to be the most "trustworthy", thanks to the no-nonsense stereotype. Unlike [[Eagle Land|America]]'s conservative [[Deep South]], the North of England is generally more left-wing than the South of England is.
The trope name reflects a [
A lot of English-made stories are set in the North, but Americans seldom get the distinction because [[Britain Is Only London]]. (London and The North are also as close together as New York and Boston.) Liverpool is an exception for being the hometown of [[The Beatles (
{{examples}}
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* ''[[Andy Capp]]''
* Several of the stories in ''[[Viz]]'', as the comic originated in Newcastle; most notably the character of Sid The Sexist.
* [[Hellblazer
* Mokera from ''[[Helios Eclipse]]''.
* [[Dan Dare]]'s batman Digby hails from Wigan.
* ''[[
== Fan Works ==
* ''[https://www.wattpad.com/story/173566505-final-stand-of-death Final Stand of Death]'' has United and Red, who speaks in a strong Yorkshire and Scouse, respectfully. Considering they were once two separate women named {{spoiler| [[Spice Girls| Melanie]]}}, Leeds and Liverpool, their accents carried over after their fatal appearance [[Celebrity Deathmatch| on Deathbowl 98]]".
== [[Film]] ==
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** Both are rather depressing.
* ''[[Billy Elliot]]'', a story about a young Northern boy who takes to ballet, much to the annoyance of his gruff father.
* The film ''[[Get Carter]]'' is set
** Also, the famous car park scene is set in Gateshead, just across the Tyne from Newcastle.
* The moors where the werewolf appears in ''[[An American Werewolf in London]]''.
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** Strange really, as Northampton is about as midland as you can get. It's actually less than a hundred miles from London.
** There's even an argument about it.
{{quote|
'''Charlie:''' Northampton's the Midlands.
'''Lola:''' No, Charlie. [[Britain Is Only London|Tottenham Court Road]] is the Midlands. }}
* Mercer from ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' has a heavy Mancunian accent.
* ''[[The Damned United]]'', based as it is on the true story of Brian Clough's management of Leeds United in [[The Seventies]].
* Countess Lisl von Schlaf, in ''[[For Your Eyes Only (
* In ''[[A Hard
* Speaking of [[The Beatles (
* In ''[[Monty
** In ''[[Monty Python and
* ''[[
* ''[[Bridesmaids]]'' has some very stereotypical low-class Northerner roommates living with the main character in a Milwaukee (in the U.S.) apartment.
* The French film ''Welcome To The Sticks'' (Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis) is all about a Southern Frenchman forced to move to the Northern part of France, nicknamed "The Sticks", and learning about how it isn't as bad as the rumours made it out to be.
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* ''Formula 51'', filmed and set in Liverpool.
* ''Liam'' is set in 1930s Liverpool, showing the titular character preparing for his First Communion when his father loses his job, his sister becomes a maid to a wealthy Jewish family, and his father and brother turn to disparate ideologies (fascism and socialism) in response to the family's economic decline.
* Neville Longbottom from the
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Jonathan Strange
* Sgt. Shadwell of ''[[
** He's referred to in the book as hating all Southerners, and by inference to be standing on the North Pole.
** Additionally, the demon Crowley asserts early on in the book that Manchester was his greatest work.
** He also claims the credit for [[Acceptable Targets|Milton Keynes]]. On the other hand, so does his angelic counterpart Aziraphale.
* Although ''[[Wuthering Heights (
* Catherine Cookson's novels (and thus the telefilm adaptations thereof) are almost exclusively set deep in the heart of this trope, specifically Northumberland.
* ''[[
* In Joan Aiken's ''[[Wolves Of Willoughby Chase]]'' and successive sequels, as well as ''[[Midnight Is A Place]]'', Blastburn is a northern 'satanic' mill-town apparently sited in Yorkshire. At one point in the cycle it has broken off from the south and is ruled by a succession of sinister relatives of Dido and Is Twite. Although the series is set in an alternate timeline where the Stuarts maintained their succession and the Hanoverians exist as rebels trying to blow King James III up, most of the early Victorian tropes are there in spades.
* Mrs. Whitlow, the indefatigable housekeeper of the Unseen University in ''[[Discworld]]'' is implied to have this accent.
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* In the book of ''[[Layer Cake]]'', a chapter is actually entitled "Oop North" and recounts the drug dealing protagonist and his associates (all Londoners) going to a meeting with their Northern associates. He frequently refers slightingly to "scousers" and portrays the residents of the region as a bunch of savages.
** "Scouser" is a common nickname for people from Liverpool though, and "scouse" for their accent and dialect.
* Yet another [[Terry Pratchett]] example is Blackbury, the [[City of Adventure]] in the ''[[Johnny Maxwell Trilogy]]'', heavily implied to be
* Frances Hodgson Burnett's classic ''[[The Secret Garden]]'' is very specifically set on the Yorkshire moors, complete with characters speaking in the distinctive dialect of the region.
* [[James Herriot]]'s eponymous novels, set in the fictional town of "Darrowby" (in actuality Thirsk and surrounding areas), deal nearly exclusively with farmers from the Yorkshire Dales. Expect many strong Yorkshire accents, along with the appropriate phonetic spelling, thick enough to cut with a knife. That part of England is now so closely associated with Herriot that the local tourist authorities named it "Herriot Country".
** Author Bill Bryson, who lived in the area for many years, points out that the pre-WWII Yorkshire accent, as found in the Herriot books, is a very different thing from the current incarnation. To his American ears, the older dialect sounded almost like a different language altogether.
* The Sarah Caudwell novel ''[[Hilary Tamar|The Sibyl in her Grave]]'' features a bank director with a very pronounced Lancashire accent, which is commented on numerous times by various people. Most of them talk about how remarkable it is he's risen to his prominent position what with the disadvantages he must have had. {{spoiler|The gentleman is actually very well educated with a First from Oxford and quite capable of speaking with a Southern accent, but found that other Englishmen were more inclined to trust him with the Northern accent. Then he kept it and started exaggerating it - and the "provincial Northerner" persona - to make fun of a snobbish coworker he particularly disliked, but no one ever realised it was a joke.}}
* In ''[[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (
** [
** In the UK audio books, [[Stephen Fry]] gives Tonks a strong Yorkshire accent.
* ''[[Hard Times]]'' is set up north. This being [[
* Elizabeth Gaskell's 1855 novel ''North and South'' is one of the earliest modern examples to contrast the differences between the (newly) industrializing North and wealthier South.
* Learoyd, one of [[Rudyard Kipling]]'s ''Soldiers Three'', is a Yorkshireman.
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* ''[[Open All Hours]]'', about a miserly shopkeeper, also set in Yorkshire.
* ''[[Coronation Street]]'', a [[Long Runners|very long-running]] [[Soap Opera]] about working-class people set and filmed in (Greater) Manchester...
** ''[[
** ''[[Brookside]]'', a [[Soap Opera]] about a housing estate in Liverpool (filmed in a purpose-built housing estate, in Liverpool)
** ''[[Emmerdale]]'', a [[Soap Opera]] about people in rural Yorkshire (and filmed in Yorkshire!)...
* ''[[
* The three ''[[Red Riding]]'' films, which deal with murder and police corruption in Ripper-haunted Seventies Yorkshire.
* Harry Enfield's character Buggerallmoney.
** A [[Self-Parody]] of his Cockney character Loadsamoney.
** When Enfield did a live show in which he was required to play the character in front of an audience of actual Northerners, he called up one of the editors of the aforementioned Viz comic for coaching on getting the accent right. According to Enfield, the show went well, but at the end of the night he asked the audience how his accent had been, and every one of them shouted back "SHITE!"
* Four of the core characters from ''[[Auf Wiedersehen, Pet]]''; Oz, Dennis and Neville (from Newcastle) and Moxey (from Liverpool).
* ''[[Spender]]'', about a Northern detective.
* ''[[The Likely Lads]]'', a pair of Geordies. Also the sequel, ''Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?''
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* The 2006/7 BBC series ''[[Life On Mars]]'' is set in a 1973 Manchester that may or may not be entirely imaginary.
** ''[[Ashes to Ashes]]'' is set in London, but three of the Mancunian characters from its parent show, most notably Gene Hunt appear in this show.
* The Ninth Doctor's accent in ''[[
** In the alternate history universe of "Turn Left", {{spoiler|Donna and many other residents of the South of England are forced to move to the North of England after fallout from an attack on London leaves much of the south irradiated. [[It Got Worse|It gets worse]].}}
{{quote|
'''Donna:''' Don't get all chippy with me, Vera Duckworth! Pop your clogs on and go and feed t'whippets! }}
* The bleak provincial city of Grimble, where ''[[Rumpole of the Bailey]]'' defended a couple of cases.
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* The 1970s miniseries ''[[Flambards]]'' (an adaptation of K.M. Peyton's novels) was set on a country estate in Yorkshire in the 1910s.
** Not unless Essex has been relocated to Yorkshire. (It was made by Yorkshire Television, and filmed in Yorkshire, but very definitely still ''set'' in Essex, as were the novels.)
* Michael from ''[[
* ''[[Waterloo Road]]'' is set in Rochdale, a town that is part of Greater Manchester. Or Lancashire if you ask the locals.
* The ''[[
* Anything and everything involving Peter Kay, whose observational comedy (as seen in ''[[Phoenix Nights]]'' and ''[[Max And Paddys Road To Nowhere]]'', as well as his stand-up routines) draws heavily on the culture of the North-West of England.
* ''[[
* Despite attempt to appear more exotic, [[The Mighty Boosh|Howard Moon]] is "clearly from Leeds". He's occasionally described as Northern in an insulting tone, or it's said that it's the origin of his unsophisticated behavior, despite the fact that Howard is an upright, mild-mannered kind of guy. Julian Barratt, the actor who plays Howard, is also from Leeds.
* [[Boisterous Bruiser|Gunn-Sar]] from the ''[[Blake's
* ''[[Brass]]'' intentional comedy, sending up a number of northern stereotypes and genres. Including [[
* Jeremy Clarkson of ''[[Top Gear]]'' is from Doncaster, but went native as a southerner and rarely brings out his original accent. The phenomenon of "more northern than <s>thou</s> thi" (as in ''[[
{{quote|
** Whether he had any 'original' accent at all. More upper-middle class people tend to have quite neutral accents fairly similar to what Clarkson has now. For example [[
* ''[[When the Boat Comes In]]'', with a lot of Geordies.
* [[Red Dwarf
* Parodied on ''[[A Bit of Fry and Laurie]]'', with a Northerner ([[Hugh Laurie]]) who is determined to prove to a Londoner ([[Stephen Fry]]) that the North is actually quite civilized, thank you very much. This prompts the Londoner to mess with him by claiming that Londoners have developed eternal life by drinking petrol.
* ''[[The League of Gentlemen]]'' is set in the fictitious Northern English town of Royston Vasey.<ref>The birth name of Northern comedian [
* On ''[[
* Parodied by [[Monty Python]] (apart from their reuse of "Four Yorkshiremen" from ''At Last the 1948 Show'') in the "Northern Playwright" [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPSzPGrazPo sketch] on ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus|Flying Circus]]'', with the oft-seen trope of [[Why Couldn't You Be Different?|the father rejecting his son for betraying his background and pursuing a different life]]... only the father's profession is writing plays for the London theatre, and the son's betrayal consisted of moving to Yorkshire to become a coal miner.
{{quote|
* ''[[Brass]]'', a [[
* Claude Rains from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' is from Blackpool, according to the show's PrimaTech Files website, but he has [[Christopher Eccleston]]'s Salford accent. [[Christopher Eccleston]] is like the poster boy for this trope.
* ''[[
{{quote|
* ''[[Queer
* In the 1989 TV 'mockumentary' "Norbert Smith: A Life," the actor being profiled, Norbert Smith (played by Harry Enfield) appears in a kitchen-sink drama entitled "It's Grim Up North," which runs through just about every cliche of the council-estate/Angry Young Man dramas of the period, including out-of-wedlock pregnancy, bitter family rowing, women in head scarves, and ugly flowered wallpaper.
* The ''[[Ripping Yarns]]'' episode "The Testing of Eric Olthwaite" is a parody [[Coming of Age Story]] about a boy in Yorkshire who's so boring (obsessed with rainfall and shovels) that his family leaves him.
* Bill Oddie of ''[[
{{quote|
'''David Hatch:''' What kind of a Moor is that?
'''Bill Oddie:''' [[Incredibly Lame Pun|A Yorkshire Moor]]! }}
** Tim Brooke-Taylor, the personification of an upper-class soft southern Nellie in the Goodies, is also (just about) from Oop North: his family still run the Brooke-Taylor legal practice in Buxton, Derbyshire. (a place which is pretty much at the otherwise ill-defined southern border of "the North". Shading into the Midlands, places like Glossop and Buxton just about squeak in. But Leek and Derby, just down the road, are unanimously considered as being in the Midlands.).
* A lot of Victoria Wood's television work is based in the North. (Her frequent collaborator Julie Walters is originally from Birmingham, though).
* Mister Winterbottom in ''[[
* The Pilgrimage of Grace in Season 3 of the Tudors...even to this American troper, the differences in accents between the rebels and the Powers That Be down south were striking. Also helps illustrate how old this trope is too.
* The original UK version of [[Shameless]] is set in the fictional council estate Chatsworth in Stretford, Greater Manchester.
* ''[[
* The ITV drama ''[[Downton Abbey]]'' is set around a southern Earl and his family, who move to an estate in Yorkshire. Rightfully, most of the upper-class and middle-class characters are from the south, with servants being locals with Yorkshire accents.
* Father Peter Clifford from ''[[
* The TV adaptation of Peter Tinniswood's Brandon family trilogy, 'I Didn't Know You Cared, very definitely places the Brandon family's world as being in Yorkshire. (as above, the source novels were deliberately vague about the location being Lancashire or Yorkshire.) Sheffield was used extensively for filming and local nuances were introduced, for eg the Sheffield Green final sports paper.
* Caroline Aherne's character of Mrs Merton, elderly Northern lady given a chat show, was very firmly based in the North Cheshire town of Stockport. Stockport is right in the top-right-hand corner of the county and is bisected by the Lancashire- Cheshire border which runs right through the town. Opening credits to the short lived spin-off show 'Mrs Merton and Malcolm' (Malcolm, played by Craig Cash, is her adult son) were conclusively identified as being in the Heaton Norris district of Stockport, claimed as Mrs Merton's home patch, and the yardstick for everything good and Northern. A subsequent Aherne/Cash comedy, 'Early Doors', about a grim, grim, pub called the Grapes and its clientele, is also very clearly set in Heaton Norris. (local references...). This is so marked that by about episode two, a Heaton Norris pub called The Hope, a truly grim place, closed down for a major refit and refurbishment, as the brewery company seemed to beleive this was the pub being featured in the show. Caroline Aherne has been thought of in some cirles as the spiritual sucessor to Peter Tinniswood.
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*** Nicola Roberts is from Runcorn, Cheshire. Former Spice Girl Mel C is from a suburb of Liverpool, not the city itself. And Mel B is from Yorkshire.
* [[The Beatles]], obviously, from Liverpool.
* [[Take That (
* [[Jethro Tull]], from Blackpool, inspiring their song "Up The Pool".
** Jethro Tull are an interesting example. The band that later was known as Jethro Tull was formed in Blackpool but when Ian Anderson decided to relocate to London, where the action was, only bassist Glenn Cornick went with him. So the first lineup who called themselves "Jethro Tull" was 2 guys from Blackpool and 2 guys from Luton. However, after Martin Barre replaced Mick Abrahams on guitar, all subsequent personnel changes were accomplished by Ian calling one for one his former band mates, so much that the classic lineup that recorded Thick as a Brick, A Passion Play, War Child and Minstrel In The Gallery was essentially Ian Anderson's Blackpool band with Martin Barre on guitar (and despite that description seemingly making Barre the odd man out, he's actually the only other member ever, besides Ian Anderson, to have been in Tull from when he joined till the present day. Go figure.)
* Both of the [[Pet Shop Boys]] (Newcastle and Blackpool respectively). The song "Sexy Northerner" is about dispelling the negative stereotypes of Northerners as being all about "football and fags".
** ...But it ''is''.
* [[Sting (music)|Sting]] is from Newcastle.
* [[The Hollies]] are from Manchester.
* [[The KLF]], while not being from the North, recorded the song "It's Grim Up North".
* The Hacienda Club in Manchester was largely responsible for "Madchester" era groups such as The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays and New Order. Also had a huge hand in the Acid House movement. Sadly in it's later years the club was plagued with [[Crap Saccharine World|rampant drug use and gang related violence]].
* [[Oasis]], causing a great deal of non-English-speaking fans to try and learn English with a Northern twang.
* [[Pulp (
* [[The Smiths]], formed in Manchester and famously sardonic in their lyrics.
* Little Boots is from Blackpool.
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* Joy Division, from Manchester.
** Joy Division were formed in Salford (which, admittedly, is in the borough of Greater Manchester but isn't the same city).
* [[My Dying Bride]], [[Paradise Lost (
* Before and during World War 2, there were Gracie Fields and George Formby. The latter was the subject of a hilarious Peter Sellers sketch, the All-England George Formby Championship.
* [[ACDC|AC/DC
* [[
* [[Def Leppard]], Originally all from Sheffield, Drummer Rick Allen is from just outside Sheffield, Phil Collen is from London, and Vivian Campbell is from Dublin. Sheffield is their "Home Town Gig" though.
* The two members of the [[Spice Girls]] named Melanie, Brown and Chisholm, are from Leeds and Liverpool, respectfully. Both speaks in the strong accent from their respected areas.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[
** The factory owner Lamb, though, still has a Yorkshire accent that's happily very apparent even in the text version.
* The ''[[
* Many characters in ''[[
* In the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series (or ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics
{{quote|
* In ''[[Dragon Age]]'' (or at least its expansion, ''Awakening''), Amaranthine seems to be home to more northern characters than the rest of Ferelden, and is fittingly located in the North of that country. Like Yorkshire (known occasionally to its locals as God's County) it's seen hard times, but is also valued as a jewel of nothern Ferelden.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[Wallace and Gromit]]''. Its precise setting was [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|kept mysterious]] for a while, but was eventually revealed to be Wigan in
** Though in truth, it was shown in ''A Grand Day Out'' that the setting was Wigan, just had to keep an eye out for it.
* Aardman's other famous work, ''[[
== Webcomics ==
* ''[[Fan Dan Go]]'' is set in Lonchester,
* ''[[Scary Go Round]]'' is set in the fictional town of Tackleford in West Yorkshire. That it has a seafront despite West Yorkshire being landlocked can be put down to [[Rule of Funny]].
* In ''[[
== [[Web Original]] ==
* Jeff from ''[[Warlock Games]]'' is an extreme stereotype of this: as well as his accent, his computer wallpaper is Jimmy Saville, and he prays to [[Ant and Dec]].
* [[The Spiffing Brit]], [[Let's Play]]er and game exploiter extraordinaire, has admitted to being from Oop North.
== [[Real Life]] ==
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* [[Malcolm McDowell]] was from Leeds, Yorkshire. Apparently, his accent used to be ''a lot'' more pronounced.
* [[Patrick Stewart]] is also from Yorkshire, but has no discernible trace of the accent, apart from occasionally truncated vowels. He briefly brought out his very strong childhood accent for an appearance on ''Friday Night with Jonathan Ross'':
{{quote|
'''Jonathan Ross''' ''(bewildered)'': Is that Japanese? }}
** Similarly, [[Ian McKellen]] is from Lancashire (spent most of his early childhood in Wigan) but never uses the accent. He says that he is probably the last Northern actor who felt that he had to erase his own accent and adopt [[wikipedia:Received Pronunciation|RP]].
* Conversely [[Sean Bean]] has a rather pronounced Sheffield accent and which is very distinct in much of his work. It was so prominent that after Bean was cast in the [[Sharpe]] series of tv movies, author Bernard Cornwell was so impressed with his performance that he changed his character's upbringing from London to Sheffield in novels that were written after the broadcast of the series.
* This is very much averted today. For example, Sheffield, which is often stereotyped as a grimy industrial steel city stuck in the 1940s (most recently thanks to ''[[The Full Monty]]''), has the most greenspace compared to urbanspace in Britain. The steel industry shut down back in the seventies and eighties and most of the old, dirty factories have been knocked down and replaced with shops and apartments. Manchester and Leeds have done similar things themselves.
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** And since all the ''old'' steel factories were demolished, more steel is made in Sheffield than at any other time in its history - it just happens to only need three men and a dog to do it.
** This has happened with Manchester largely because the IRA set off a bomb in the city centre in 1996. Although a terrible event at the time, it resulted in a huge amount of revitalisation for the city, since there was suddenly a large amount of open space that could be replanned, and of course, lots of construction jobs suddenly available. Comedian Jason Manford probably puts it best in his gag about doing a gig in Belfast, where he mentioned he was from Manchester.
{{quote|
* [[George Macdonald Fraser]] wrote the history book ''[[
** P.F. Chisholm's series of historical mysteries concerning Sir Robin Carey, an illegitimate grandson of King Henry VIII who is sent to be Warden of the Marches and keep the peace on the border, deal with the same place and period. They're also rather good.
* [[Brian Blessed]], [[The Avengers (TV series)|Diana Rigg]], and [[Top Gear|Jeremy Clarkson]] all come from Doncaster. It's now home to a large college for the deaf.
* Comedian and comic actor [[Lee Mack]] is from Lancashire and occasionally milks his Northerness (or irritation at the Southern view of the North) for comic effect.
* [http://www.youtube.com/all_comments?v=sB3ieNhEsDY This little girl] who's become something of a Youtube hit.
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[[Category:Hollywood Atlas]]
[[Category:British Media Tropes]]
[[Category:
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