To my Yank ear, Marsha from Spaced sounds like Sophie from Naked. Just me?

July 27, 2009 2:29 PM

UK accents for Americans: these two actresses sound similar to me. Is it a regional accent, or are their distinctive speech patterns just similar?

I took a mental vacation this weekend and watched all of Seasons 1 and 2 of Spaced. (Brilliant!)

The landlady Marsha, played by actress Julia Deakin, had an odd manner of speaking that sounded familar.

By about episode 4, it came to me that it sounded like another memorably odd voice I'd heard, this time from the late Katrin Cartlidge, as seen in Mike Leigh's Naked.

If I had to characterise it, I'd use worlds like "high up in the nose", monotone, mumbly.

Either they're both simply putting on a voice, Ms. Deakin is "doing" Ms. Cartlidge, or it's some kind of regional or class accent.

Tell me, oh hive minders with more educated ears, which might it be?

posted by bartleby to writing & language (7 comments total)

It's a South London accent, at least in the case of Marsha, combined with a nasal, back-of-the-throat way of talking that seems to occur more with the 'Estuary English' range of accents than with other regional British accents.

I would suspect that the voices of both characters borrow heavily from Janet Street-Porter, the most well-known owner of this type of voice.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 2:53 PM on July 27

Having said that, Liverpool and Manchester accents also sometimes have a similar nasal tone.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 2:54 PM on July 27

I'd agree with both of le morte de bea arthur's comments; the accents are Estuary, but that nasal tone is common to other areas (being a Yorkshire person, the Barnsley accent is the one I first think of for a nasal tone).
posted by Coobeastie at 3:25 PM on July 27

@ bea: I suppose Street-Porter is close enough.

But she's much faster, and is missing the "I rarely move my jaw when speaking" element that struck me.

Perhaps just it's that both characters were permanently plastered, so there's exaggeration?

I found a sample of what I meant from Naked - Sophie starts talking about 1 minute in;


Does that help?
posted by bartleby at 3:41 PM on July 27

If it's any help, Marsha has a different voice to the actress who plays her, Julia Deakin. There's a scene in season 2 (episode 4) where Marsha ruminates on the life she would have had if she hadn't broken her leg and discovered alcohol. The newsreader in that segment is Julia Deakin using her 'posh' voice.
posted by almostwitty at 4:55 PM on July 27

Escapee from Southeast London here. I think Estuary English plus the strangulated vowels of Janet Street-Porter plus some Essex whine covers it with Marsha.

I associate that voice with Mike Leigh's films, particularly Alison Steadman's character in Abigail's Party.

I'm not sure there's a South London accent per se, but I'm happy to learn about my own glottal stops if there is!
posted by vickyverky at 10:41 PM on July 27

They are both posh actresses doing a not very realistic South London accent.
posted by w0mbat at 11:47 PM on July 27