A A Gill on James Nesbitt playing Dr Jekyll, in the Sunday Times

[devi]

"I suspect the Irish accent has a lot to do with the success of his characterisation. It is a Jekyll-and-Hyde voice. He's blarney and craic and Terry Wogan, but also the voice from behind the balaclava, the code-word warning and sectarian bile."

Wait, what?

Comments

[juggzy.livejournal.com]

Hey. It's all about fighting the good fight against the forces of imperial darkness.

Now, despite Rob wotsisname, the Welsh accent is still seen as a signifier of slightly naff, singing far too often, etc, and although "taffy was a Welshman" would be frowned upon these days, the idea that the Welsh are small, dark, and larcenous still prevails. It's a bit like a Brit in Hollywood.

Oh yes. My lot is far more picked upon than your lot.

At least we can both look down on the Scots.

Thank God for Charlotte Church, say I.

[barnacle.livejournal.com]

Actually, bluedevi, you've always petrified me. You and Graham Norton.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

A A Gill is a w@nker pure and simple.

And James Nesbitt's accent is no more like Terry Wogan's than mine is like [random well-known person from some unrelated part of England]. But I suppose to people like Gill "they" all sound alike.

[millionreasons.livejournal.com]

I suspect that AA Gill also bemoans the "regional" accents on the BBC and longs for a return to RP and dinner jackets.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_kent/]

It's almost as if he thinks he's reached some intellectual tipping point beyond which casual, thoughtless prejudice becomes so appalling that he couldn't possibly have meant it that way, and so it becomes a detached intellectual commentary on casual, thoughtless prejudice. I think he kids himself.

[boxcat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, every time I've heard you speak, sectarian bile has always been the first thing I've thought of. :)

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

Yep. I *hate* it when people assume that all Irish people are brimming with "blarney and craic and Terry Wogan" too.

Mmm, brimming with Terry Wogan, now there's an image.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

Ooh yeah, and I've been making lifesized 3D Tarot cards and sticking them up by the sides of roads in Edmonton. Photographic evidence is a bit hit-and-miss, but I thought it was the sort of thing you'd probably approve of anyway: