By Accents are really hard. Even the greatest actors can get themselves snarled up in a regional burr.
There's Sean Connery's non-specific Irish in The Untouchables which lasts all of about four scenes, but the connoisseurs' choice is surely Keanu Reeves in Dracula. If you've not seen it, he's doing Jonathan Harker as the poshest Victorian aristo this side of Siam. His attempt to say "Carfax Abbey" comes out closer to "Cwarfex Ubbeeechhh".
Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight has acknowledged that the mid-1920s Brummie in the mouths of his characters is a particularly tricky one to nail.
"It's tricky sometimes because the accents are difficult to get, but we are getting there now," Knight told the Daily Mirror. "It's quite funny that in the United States quite a lot of people watch it with subtitles on."
To be fair, the density of accents we've got on this crowded set of islands is frankly ludicrous, so it might be expecting a bit much of a country where 'British' is routinely used as a synonym for 'English' to be completely across the particulars of one of our most particular dialects. Let's not run before we can walk.
Knight added that he'd be open to Vicky McClure from Line of Duty joining the cast in future season, having heard her say that she had apparently tried to get a part in "every series" to date without success.
"I was surprised," he said. "I’ve worked with her and I think she is brilliant. She would be great."
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