MovieChat Forums > Frasier (1993) Discussion > Daphne's accent... amongst other things....

Daphne's accent... amongst other things...

posted 9 years ago by mayshus
52 replies | jump to latest

How is it possible that Jane Leeves can be born and bred in England, and yet still do one of the worst English accents on TV...? Why does her character have to be from Manchester, when she plainly can't do a Manchester accent to save her life...? The writers of this show clearly have no idea about England, or 'Englishness' (like most American TV shows, to be honest), but for some strange reason they have written the character of Daphne as coming from a family who appear to live like animals who dine on the most repugnant foods known to mankind...

The season six episode 'Decoys' has just come on TV, and Daphne remarks that Donny has just brought her a hamper of all her favourite English foods, blood pudding, jellied eels and kidney pie. Blood pudding is called 'black pudding', jellied eels are an East London delicacy, not that common I understand, in Manchester, and where they get kidney pie from is anyone's guess... Steak and kidney pie, yes, but kidney pie... I'm afraid not.

American sit-com writers really do have an odd view of us poor Brits...! lol...!

[–] louiseculmer 8 years ago

i agree it's pretty hopeless. Thr most irritating thing though is when her family turns up - none of them appear to be from Manchester, but from widely different places, and her mother has an accent I can't place at all.

[–] adrnlize 8 years ago

Try being from the American South. The only show that ever got that half way right was Designing Women. "House of Cards" is one of the most popular drama series and Kevin Spacey does a horrible Southern accent.

[–] liscarkat (19416) 5 years ago

If "Frasier" was a documentary about various U.K. accents and cuisines, I suppose it would matter, but it's just a silly comedy show. I watch a lot of British television shows, both dramas and sitcoms, and characters that are supposed to be Americans almost always have broad, cartoonish accents and demeanors.

[–] Rolltide (964) 5 years ago

Given that Jane Leeves is from Sussex just south of London I assume she has a very universal way of speaking there. Not an obvious accent. Like a person from the midwest in the USA.

Do people from Manchester have a distinct, noticeable way of speaking? It's a big city.

[–] wearsalan (5554) 5 years ago

Do people from Manchester have a distinct, noticeable way of speaking? It's a big city.

Yes.

[–] Rolltide (964) 3 years ago

How about Victor Garber's English accent as the butler(Ferguson) in the episode "taking liberties"? The character said his mum was from Manchester but he never says where he grew up there.

Garber of course is Tom Hanks' friend in Sleepless in Seattle where he speaks in his normal Canadian voice.

It is quite a smorgasbord of accents in Daphne's family. The actor who plays her dad Brian Cox makes no effort to sound Manchester. His accent is obviously Scottish.

The actor who plays Simon is from Australia and his English accent is over the top in my opinion. I guess we could compare Robbie Coltrane's speech to the Boomhauer character in King of the hill.

[–] Rolltide (964) 3 years ago

John Mahoney is an interesting study in accents. He is from Blackpool and emigrated with his sister to Illinois after the war. While serving in the US army he tried to hide his English accent because he was being ribbed all the time. As a result he lost most of his accent.

Before I knew that I would have assumed he was from Boston.