It's awful, what was Karl Urban thinking with that mish mash of cartoonish nonsense? Very irritating. It's like someone on a talk show is doing a humorously bad imitation of a cockney (or similar) accent.
Also he says to Hughie "Sorry I hit you, I lost me bottle". Losing your bottle means to chicken out, not lose your temper.
And is Billy's father supposed to be British? He has an Australian accent.
He is a New Zealander, so I think that is New Zealand accent, though I wouldn't say there is that much different between Australian and New Zealand accents.
shareIf you meant the father, the actor is Australian.
If you meant Karl Urban, the accent he's butchering is nothing like Australian or Kiwi, he's doing some awful imitation of a working class British accent, I think it's supposed to be Cockney.
As for Australian and NZ accents there is a distinct difference - but yes, not very apparent to people outside of those countries.
I agree . I never felt I was watching a British person when I watched Butcher in this whole series. His character in this series is supposed to be British, like James Bond
Karl Urban is from New Zealand, so he talks like an Australian, not a Brit. I imagine the accent might’ve been a challenge for him
I think Urban’s weak British accent caused little uproar because of the show’s comedic and exaggerated vibe . An abomination of a British accent just didn’t appear too out of place
To be fair, James Bond's accent is not your typical English accent. It's a 'posh' accent. There's many different English accents (given the size of the place it's almost incredible how varied they are), some verging on unintelligible for those not familiar.
Butcher is supposed to have a Cockney accent (working class London, very common) and while he's not doing the worst job at it (I know I said it's awful in my OP and it was, early on in the series - it's improved in the latest season), it's not convincing either.
I wonder why they didn't hire a real Cockney actor. Instead they went for a NZ actor?
shareIn America, we don't give a shit. No more than Brits or Australians care about the differences between American accents in the Carolinas compared to that of Louisiana or Boston.
shareI'm sure there are some people in the US who are familiar with British accents and may be less than impressed with the lack of effort and authenticity in Billy's speech in the first couple of seasons - not to mention his father's, which is clearly Australian. I'm not British but I'm familiar enough with their accents to know this was irritatingly wonky.
shareDon't give a shit, he's hilarious.
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