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Fake Brit: Difference between revisions
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A subtrope of [[Fake Nationality]], and cousin to [[Fake American]].
See also [[British Accents]], [[The Queen's Latin]], [[Not Even Bothering
{{examples}}
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== Anime and Manga ==
* 4Kids Entertainment seems to like this trope a lot.
** Ryo Bakura from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' is played in 4Kids' English dub with a rather [[Accent Adaptation|thin British accent]]. ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series
*** Repeated with Daichi/Bastion Misawa in the dub of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX]]''.
** Dren (Kish) in ''[[Mew Mew Power]]'' too. When he debuted fans of the original ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' balked. On one forum someone complained "Whoever heard of a British alien", [[Gracie Lizzie]] had to resist the temptation to sign up just so she could say "[[Doctor Who|Oh, we have quite a few thanks]]".
*** Ren and Jun in the 4Kids dub of [[Shaman King]]. They gave the brother and sister a consistent British accent, but um... they're Chinese. And then, for some reason, they chose to not give a British accent to Lyserg... ''who actually is British''.
* In ''[[
* In the dub of the anime ''[[Saber Rider and
* Subverted with Integra [[Hellsing]] as Victoria Harwood is truely British. Played straight with Seras, though, as K.T. Grey is an American.
* Kurama of ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' also has a thin British accent in the US dub.
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* The English dubs for the assorted ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' anime series have the voice actors for Negi, Eva, Chachamaru and Anya providing British accents for their characters. Aside from the fact that Negi (and probably Anya, although its mentioned she's spent time in London) should have a ''Welsh'' accent instead of an English one, they're quite good.
* In the original Japanese version of ''The Adventures of Kotetsu'', the series' diminutive [[Fiery Redhead]] protagonist, Lynn "Kotetsu" Suzuki, hails from Kyoto and she has a Kyoto accent as a result. However in ADV's English dub, she is given a generic British accent.
* The ''[[
* Zentraedi advisor Exedore in Robotech was given a fake British accent by Ted Layman. Probably to play up on his frail appearance and detached, intellectual demeanor. Alien scientists types are almost always given Brit accents, even when they are good guys (Exedore defects to the good guys). This is probably to keep them from all sounding like Mr. Spock, who is noted as being the progenitor of the trope but not speaking with a Brit accent.
* In ''[[Naruto the Abridged Series]]'' Kabuto and Chouji have British accents.
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== Film ==
* The most (in)famous example -- cited for almost forty years now in anecdote, song and story -- is Dick Van Dyke as Bert the chimney-sweep in ''[[Mary Poppins]]''. The almost universal negative reaction to his overly fake Cockney was probably the reason that the next time he played an Englishman -- Caractacus Potts in ''[[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]'' -- he [[Not Even Bothering
** This was actually a pragmatic decision. Dick van Dyke ''tried'' to do a realistic Cockney accent. And tried. And tried. And failed. And failed. Finally, he decided that since he could only do a bad Cockney accent, he'd do a hilariously bad one.
* Notably averted in ''[[The Great Muppet Caper]]''. A particularly reckless taxi driver comments about having lived in London his whole life. When asked why he doesn't have a British accent, he nonchalantly responds that he's lucky to even have his driver's license.
* In the [[Steve Martin]] movie ''[[
** In-universe, Trudi accuses Sara of this--and Sara is British!
* Don Cheadle plays Basher Tarr with Cockney abandon in the remake of ''[[
{{quote| '''Basher:''' So unless we intend to do this job in Reno, we're in barney. (''everyone looks confused'') Barney Rubble. (''still confused'') Trouble!}}
** This is subsequently [[Played With]] in ''Ocean's Thirteen'' when Basher has to suddenly impersonate a Rick James/Evel Knievel-type stuntman.
* Elijah Wood as Frodo in ''[[The Lord of the Rings (
** With Sean Astin bringing up the rear with his portrayal of Sam.
** Other Americans donning fake accents of ''[[Lord of the Rings]]'': Brad Dourif as Grima Wormtongue, who never used his normal accent in order to maintain it and only stopping when filming ended, which caused Bernard Hill (King Theoden) to wonder why he was suddenly using "such a fake American accent"; and [[Liv Tyler]] as Arwen, whose voice was so low that her own father wondered who the voice actor was. And also, Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn.
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* And let's not forget Gwyneth Paltrow, who has portrayed British characters in ''[[Emma]]'', ''[[Shakespeare in Love]]'', ''[[Sliding Doors]]'', and other films.
* [[Johnny Depp]] has made an entire career out of this:
** The title character in [[Tim Burton]]'s ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (
** Victor Van Dort in ''[[
** John Wilmot in ''The Libertine''.
** J.M. Barrie in ''[[Finding Neverland]]''.
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** Captain Jack Sparrow from the ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]'' series, where he does a pretty good impersonation of Keith Richards. Keef played Captain Jack's father in later films.
** Ichabod Crane in ''[[Sleepy Hollow]]''
** The Mad Hatter in 2010's [[Alice in Wonderland (
** [[The Tourist]] {{spoiler|as the key to its [[Twist Ending]].}}
* ''[[The Queen]]'' has a cast that's almost entirely British - except for Prince Philip, played by Los Angeles-born and Manhattan-raised James Cromwell. Prince Philip himself is a naturalised Briton having had to renounce his Greek ties before he was allowed to either marry the Queen or be served a peace-time Naval commission.
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** In fact, he originally auditioned for another character, and when he couldn't do a good enough British accent he was assigned a character whose accent is described in the film as "not Irish, not English, just, well, just Pikey."
* ''[[A Knight's Tale]]'' has [[Heath Ledger]] (Australian) and Alan Tudyk (American) putting on English accents.
* Alan Tudyk (of Plano, Texas) also plays a fake Brit in the British ''[[Death
* [[Kevin Costner]] in ''[[Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves]]'' was excoriated and lampooned for his half-hearted attempt at a British accent, which mainly consisted of him missing out an "r" here and there.
** Parodied by Cary Elwes in ''[[Robin Hood: Men in Tights]],'' who says, "Unlike other Robin Hoods, [[Take That|I speak with an English accent]]!"
** And poked fun at by British stand-up comedian [[Eddie Izzard]]: "I'm Raa-bin Hood! Where is the Maid Ma-ryan?"
** Made all the more jarringly hilarious when he says "This is English courage" with a thickly American twang.
* Claire Danes in ''[[Stardust (
* [[Scarlett Johansson]] plays a British showgirl in ''[[The Prestige]]'', a veritable treasure trove of fake accents. Oddly enough, her character was American in Christopher Priest's novel.
* In the film ''[[Bram
* Given ''[[The Other Boleyn Girl]]'' portrayed events in English history and focused on an ''English'' king and his ''English'' love interests, you'd think they'd get British actors, at the very least, to play the lead roles. Not so, with the result that the vast proportion of English audiences spent the entire film wincing at the attempts the cast made at their accents (when they actually bothered to make an attempt, of course).
** And when they weren't wincing at that, there was also the horrible mauling of history.
* ''[[
** She does a better job with in ''[[The Prestige]]'' though.
* [[Anne Hathaway]] as British author [[Jane Austen]] in ''Becoming Jane''.
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* The made-for-TV movie ''Sherlock: Case of Evil'' cast New York native Vincent D'Onofrio as Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty with an accent that's just plain embarrassing.
* American Michelle Williams sounded very natural in the part of Holly in film ''Me Without You'' playing opposite Anna Friel (who is English, from Greater Manchester) as they both play Southerners (Received Pronunciation accent). In fact Williams pulls off the accent even better than Friel.
* In the 2009 adaptation of ''[[Sherlock Holmes (
** He also played the title role in ''Chaplin''. Another character makes a snotty comment about his low-class accent, and he purposefully progresses to a more 'posh' tone as he gets more successful and famous. ("'Be'ah.' ''Betterrr.'' * snort* Bitch.")
* ''[[Logan's Run]]'' has some British actors (Michael York, Jenny Agutter) playing roles with, interesting, transatlantic accents.
* ''[[The Piano]]'' has some of the worst Scottish (or Scortash) accents committed to celluloid. They range from 'reasonable' (Holly Hunter) to 'just plain bizarre' ([[Harvey Keitel]], who accidentally sounds a bit Geordie at times). It was made in New Zealand with a largely Kiwi supporting cast but even so - it makes [[The Simpsons|Groundskeeper Willie]] look like [[Robert Carlyle]].
* The version of ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' with [[Keira Knightley]] has varied accents - not surprisingly, veteran Canadian actor Donald Sutherland (renowned for his inability to do any accent but his own) does a dreadful job whilst young American actress Jena Malone (as Lydia) does perfectly well.
* French actress Eva Green uses a particularly good British accent as the Bond girl Vesper opposite [[Daniel Craig]]'s Bond in ''[[
** She's not doing an accent. That is how her voice really is now.
* American [[Edward Norton]] puts on a terrible one in ''[[The Illusionist (
* Chris Egan uses an accent somewhere between his native Australian and "posh" British in ''[[Letters to Juliet]]''.
* ''[[
* [[The Rocker]] has a scene at the end where {{spoiler|after finally confronting Vesuvius, Fish realizes they all have British accents now. They all deny ever having been American. Later on in the scene the person who replaced Fish points out to him that he actually is British.}}
* How can we forget little, innocent [[Lindsay Lohan]] [[Acting for Two|as one of two twins]] in the remake of ''[[The Parent Trap]]''?
* [[This Is Spinal Tap|Nigel Tufnel]] and [[The Princess Bride (
* An in-universe example in ''[[Just Go
* Not counting the Texan rat couple and the French [[The Dragon|Dragon]] frog villain, all of the characters from ''[[Flushed Away]]'' are voiced by predominantly British actors, except Roddy, who is voiced by [[Hugh Jackman]] (an Australian).
* ''[[My Fair Lady]]'' contains the interesting idea of casting [[Audrey Hepburn]] as Eliza Doolittle - a character whose entire plot is based around her cockney-RP dialect shift. An ''interesting'' casting choice, that. Mind you, squire, she din't do an arf bad job.
* In-universe with the gentleman's club scene in ''[[Mystery Team]]''.
* ''[[
* Heather Graham in ''Miss Conception'' attempts received pronunciation and botches it horribly. Inexcusable really as they're in London and her co-stars are British.
* ''Dead Man on Campus'' has an in-universe one with Matt Noonan, who gives off the impression of a suicidal goth rocker complete with British accent. When one of his friends finds out He is actually a happy go lucky guy who sings showtunes, his accent slips and his friend is shocked to find out he is American. He is played by Australian Corey Page.
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* [[Selena Gomez]] in [[Monte Carlo]] as two separate characters. The first, her portrayal of the fictional British heiress Cordelia Winthrop-Scott and then her portrayal of an [[Identical Stranger]] from Texas, Grace, posing as Cordelia. Grace's fake accent is not entirely convincing, but that's kinda the point; Cordelia's accent is a bit better but that might just be because she had fewer lines and Gomez had less opportunities to mess up.
* [[Reese Witherspoon]] appears in the 2002 film adaptation of [[The Importance of Being Earnest]]
* ''[[
* Americans Edward Norton and Liev Schreiber play nineteenth century English gentlemen in the 2006 adaption of ''[[The Painted Veil]]''. The accents are pretty good. They at least avoid sticking out compared to actual Brit Naomi Watts.
* Americans Jaimie Alexander as Sif and Josh Dallas as Fandrel in ''[[Thor (
* In ''[[Hugo]]'' - set in Paris, but everyone speaks with a British accent - American Chloe Grace Mortez pulls this off impeccably.
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** Alexis Denisof (Wesley), a Maryland native who lived in the UK for much of his early career, is the Buffyverse's most convincing fake Brit; even British fans don't always realise he's not British as long as he doesn't use the typical trip words such as 'data' where it becomes painfully obvious even to Britons who were previously fooled. Drusilla, on the other hand, spends a lot of time talking about "Spoik". In fact, Juliet Landau sounds like she's doing a particularly bad impersonation of [[Steptoe and Son|Harry H. Corbett]].
** Also, ''both'' of the "British" potential slayers, one with a bad Cockney similar to Drusilla, and another with a bad RP accent. God knows how genuine Brit Anthony Stewart Head could put up with filming with them.
* Sark from ''[[Alias (TV series)|Alias]]''. In one episode, his character put on an American accent, which was David Anders' own.
** To be fair, Sark is not supposed to be an Englishman. He was educated in Britain and had spent a lot of time in southern Ireland. In-universe, his accent was observed to be a mix of different cultural influences as a result. He's also eventually revealed to be the son of a Russian diplomat and the reason he was sent to Britain for educating is because his mother wanted him to escape his abusive father.
** Anders was also Adam Monroe from ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'', making him the most English man ever to come out of Oregon.
* Niles from ''[[The Nanny]].''
** A story goes that viewers of this show in the UK wrote in to complain about the "fake" accent used by Charles Shaughnessy (a real Londoner) and praising the "real" accent of Daniel Davis (Niles), a native of Arkansas.
* James Doohan, first generation Canadian Irish descent, as Montgomery Scott in ''[[Star Trek:
** His audition for ''[[
* Connor MacLeod from ''[[
** They intentionally gave Lambert a non-Scottish (non-anything, really) accent to show that he's been all over the world, and his accent has evolved into something fairly unrecognizable re: geography.
*** Ditto with Duncan [[Mac Leod]] from ''[[Highlander the Series]]''. Adrian Paul used a Scottish accent in the flashbacks of Duncan's early years, but made it more generalized in the more recent flashbacks.
* While Daphne Moon of ''[[Frasier]]'' was played by British Jane Leeves, her brothers Simon and Stephen were played by Australian Anthony LaPaglia and Swazi [[Richard E. Grant]]. While Leeves' 'Mancunian' was a rather generic [[Oop North]] accent, the brothers didn't even sound like they were from anywhere near there.
*** None of the Moon brothers with speaking parts - or her father - were played by Englishmen.
** Any of Daphne's 'chim-chimerny' boyfriends from early series - clearly played by American actors who think saying 'cheerio' makes them English. Embarrassing.
** Her mother was at least played by Millicent Martin who comes from London and does a fairly convincing Mancunian. She was once quoted as saying she could have done a ''more'' convincing Mancunian, but [[Take That|then she wouldn't have sounded like she was Daphne's mother]].
** Martin Crane (played by John Mahoney, originally from Blackpool) could deliver a good Daphne impression.
* John Hillerman, a native Texan, played British ex-military vet Jonathan Higgins on ''[[Magnum,
* Used and [[Inverted Trope]] in a ''[[CSI]]'' episode in which a man plays [[Sherlock Holmes]]. When his friends, who were invited, first show up, they all speak in British accents. When they realize their host has died, they drop their accents, except for one--who turns out to be English.
* Lampshaded in ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]''. Probably written when the role was assumed to be going to an American actress.
{{quote| '''Rita''': I hate it when they hire Yanks to play Brits, you can always tell.<br />
Of course, Theron is South African, so the whole thing starts to get rather baffling. }}
* John Hart from ''[[
* Alan Dale, who is from New Zealand, plays British character Charles Widmore on ''[[
** He also played King Arthur for a time in the West End production of ''[[Spamalot]]''.
* Amanda Tapping in ''[[Sanctuary]]'', while she was born in England (Rochford, Essex to be precise) has lived in Canada since she was 3.
** Lampshaded in "Bank Job" when she reverts to her Canadian accept and the bank teller (Gary Davies who plays Sgt. Harriman in ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'') comments "I knew that British accent was fake".
* The three-part episode of the [[Adam West]] ''[[Batman (TV series)|Batman]]'' television series where they end up in London, sorry, ''Londonium'', for a while featured so many atrociously bad British accents and fundamentally stupid errors (''Ireland'' Yard?) that one can only hope it was intended as a parody.
** [[Camp|Of course it was a parody, it was the Adam West]] ''Batman''. Anyway, Scotland Yard is in London. ''Ireland'' Yard is in ''[[No Communities Were Harmed|Londonium]]''. You might as well expect to see the Statue of Liberty in [[Big Applesauce|Gotham City]] instead of the Statue of Justice...
* ''[[Seinfeld]]'' - Jerry tries on a Cockney accent, where "Not bloody likely!" comes out as "Nawwt blooudy loiklay!" Kramer criticizes it, but his is no better.
* American actor Patrick Heusinger played Blair's boyfriend Marcus, a British lord, in season two of ''[[Gossip Girl]]''. Extra twisty points for the fact that Marcus pretended to be an American throughout most of his first episode. Later on his British accent was copied by Chuck, who wanted Blair to think he was Marcus. Chuck, an American, is played by a British actor...
* ''[[
** Oddly enough, Claudia Black's Australian accent is so close to British that Aeryn uses her natural voice.
** Black also notes in an early interview that other people playing Peacekeepers weren't entirely sure what type of accent to use since Black's odd conglomeration of Australian and British was their baseline. This is probably why the end result is a wide gamut of native Australian to faux-Brit, with the occasional faux-American.
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** The episode commentary from Morena Baccarin and Jane Espenson contains some fine [[Fake Brit]] moments. Both figures praise [[Summer Glau]] for her ability to do accents very well (unfortunately, most British people would disagree on her supposed London accent). Espenson also goes on to mention her love of British slang words and how she likes to use them in her work. The example used is the word 'palaver' - meaning 'an unnecessary fuss'. She pronounces it erroneously as 'par-layver' (it's 'puh-lah-ver' (or 'puh-lah-va' if you're from the South of England).
* ''[[The Tudors]]''. The two that immediately spring to mind are [[Jonathan Rhys Meyers]] as Henry VIII and Sara Bolger as Princess/Lady Mary Tudor. Both are Irish but are playing Brits. Pretty sure there's others as well, since the show is filmed in Ireland.
** Sarah Bolger is a very convincing Fake Brit, whereas David O'Hara, playing the Earl of Surrey, is [[Not Even Bothering
** Princess Elizabeth is played (as of season 4) by Dublin born actress Laoise Murray, meaning that most of the actual Tudors on the show are played by Irish actors. No information on whether Eoin Murtagh (Prince Edward) is Irish or not but that is a pretty Irish first name.
* Lampshaded in ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'', where the Jerseyite [[Dr. Jerk]] played by a Brit calls a hospital several times trying to get info. At one point, he uses an English accent, to which the operator responds "And that's the worst English accent I've ever heard!" Brilliantly done by Laurie, as he wasn't using his native British accent, but was indeed using an exaggerated fake accent as a [[Shout-Out]] to his earlier comedy work on [[Jeeves and Wooster]].
** Also inverted for the series other than that moment, as Dr. House [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|normally speaks in a strong, accurate American accent.]]
* [[CSI: NY]] Claire Forliani is British, but even so, Peyton's accent was made some sort of [[Fake Brit]] accent.
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* ''[[Leverage]]'' averts this as far as the actors are concerned. Gina Bellman (Sophie) was born in New Zealand to English parents and moved back to the UK when she was 11, so her accent is genuine, as is [[Mark Sheppard]]'s. However, the characters sometimes have to put on fake accents for a con, with Sophie making hers more downtown London than Upper-Class British Thief for "The Beantown Bailout Job", and Hardison taking on a Londoner accent in "The Ice Man Job".
** Hardison's "Londoner" accent is painfully bad, but justified since he's not normally the grifter.
* On ''[[
** On the whole, Dwight Schultz gets a lot of mileage out of that accent. It shows up all over the place in his voice acting.
* At one point while interviewing Ricky Gervais, [[Conan O
* Sometimes even Brits fake a 'British accent' for an American audience: for a while on ''[[Extreme Makeover: Home Edition]]'' one of the team was a sort of cheeky-chappy jack-of-all-trades, whose Dick-Van-Dyke-alike hamming up of a cockney accent (as well as acting up to other cockney stereotypes in a 'why fank you guvnor, i am ever so 'umble, cheerio, lawks etc' way) made it hilarious to realise he was genuinely English.
* ''K9'' is set in London. It's filmed in Australia. The accents vary, but some of them are terrible.
* On an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent detectives Goren and Eames are unraveling a murder and encounter a "British Lord" who does not realize he is part of a scam (he's an actor who thinks he's been hire for some kind of performance piece) and spend a few minutes trying to figure out where his accent is supposed to be from. He drops the accent and attempts to impress them with his acting bona fides.
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== Video Games ==
* [[Star Fox (
* (American) Cam Clarke's Liquid Snake from ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''. In the same game, {{spoiler|Liquid pretends to be Solid Snake's American boot camp instructor, Master Miller.}}
** [[Jennifer Hale]] (Naomi) also used an English accent in the original ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]''; Hale's from Newfoundland. In the remake and ''MGS4'', she dropped the accent in favour of a fairly non-regional North American one.
** American Vanessa Marshall did a fairly good English accent as Strangelove in ''Peace Walker'', marred mostly by the fact that it sounded vaguely Southern and Strangelove was supposed to be [[Oop North|from Manchester]].
* Luke in the US version of ''[[Professor Layton and
* The characters in the ''[[Legacy of Kain]]'' series speak in a pseudo-Shakespearean manner, but a fair few of them are voiced by Americans.
* All but three of the Preps from ''[[Bully (
{{quote| '''Jimmy''': Hey, are you English?<br />
'''Tad''': Well, no. I just speak this way because I'm ''very'' insecure. }}
* [[Crispin Freeman]] affects an [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v17gWskmvYA awful] "British" accent in ''[[Resident Evil: Degeneration]]''. He comes in at around the 5 minute mark.
* Anomen from ''[[
* In ''[[The Last Remnant]]'', Jason Liebrecht puts on a fake Brit accent to play David Nassau, the Marquis of Athlum. He doesn't do a generic cockney, though his accent is an amalgamation of 3 different English accents. It's oddly fitting.
* ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'''s main [[Evil Brit]] N. Tropy was voiced by American Corey Burton in ''Wrath of Cortex''. Although he had a grand total of one line, it's now infamous and widely considered the weaker of Burton's two roles in the game. Contrary to popular belief, N.Tropy's regular voice actor, Michael Ensign, is actually British.
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== Western Animation ==
* Stewie from ''[[Family Guy]]'' is portrayed with a Rex Harrison-inspired accent.
* Numbuh 1 and his father in ''[[Codename
* Colleen from ''[[
* Mike Myers in the ''[[Shrek]]'' films. He does come from Scottish stock, but he's Canadian all the way through.
*** Extra points for gaining the approval of uber-Scott [[Craig Ferguson]].
** Mike Myers as [[Austin Powers|Austin Powers and Fat Bastard]].
** And Myers has been doing the Scottish accent since ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' ("Welcome to All Things Scottish - if it's not Scottish, it's craaaapp!!").
*** Another Canadian of Scottish descent, Alan Young, was the voice of Uncle Scrooge in ''[[
** Myers is not far removed; his tendency toward British characters and settings comes from his father's influence.
* ''[[
* In ''[[
* ''[[King of the Hill]]'''s LuAnn uses an [[Bad Bad Acting|extremely bad]] British accent for one of her "Manger Babies" puppet's voice---it sounds very much like a dirt-ignorant young Texas girl's attempt at a toff....
* ''[[
* In ''[[Chaotic]]'', the voice of Klay contains a terrible British accent. But seeing how 4Kids assigned an Australian accent to Jack Atlas in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!
* Whenever British people turn up on ''[[
* Rejected [[Nickelodeon]] pilot ''The Modifyers'' has Agent Xero using a really fake British accent for her disguise as [[Perky Goth]] Lacey Shadows.
* Jerry, the [[James Bond|Q]] role in ''[[Totally Spies]]'' was voiced by American Jess Harnell in seasons 1 and 2, and by British-born and Canadian-raised Adrian Truss from season 3.
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** The opposite is also true. Eric Idle has lived in the US for so long now that [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8G7Y9mneVM he sounds a bit American.]
*** Other than saying "like" a lot as in ''"John would like write..."'' he still sounds pretty British.
*** Meanwhile his fellow Python, Minnesota-born [[
** On ''[[
** [[Kenneth Branagh]] apparently had an Irish accent when he was young (seeing as his family was from Belfast), but affected an English accent to avoid bullying at school. It seems that it's become his natural accent.
** In a subversion many viewers assume Irish actress [[Katie McGrath]] sounds a little 'English' because she lived in Britain for a long time. In fact she was living in Ireland right up until the start of ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' and her native Wicklow/South Dublin accent sounded quite English to begin with.
* Richard Burton was Welsh, but early in his career adopted an Oxbridge accent because he felt that his natural accent would hurt his career.
** It can be heard in his reading of ''Under Milk Wood''.
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