Accent Issues

Rating: Null/10 (12 June 2001)

Briefly, Billy Elliot is a charming movie which , despite having to deal with an every so slightly cliched plotline, manages to overcome this by some strong performances and a slightly off-centre approach. Its definitely worth seeing and is both a decent reminder of the necessity to find ones own direction in life and a reasonable snapshot of an important period in recent British social history. One final word, there seems to be much confusion as to the accents involved here. For those who are not familiar with the intricacies of U.K. accents, none of the actors concerned, other than Jackie (Jamie's father) are speaking in their own dialects. The film is set in Easington, Co.Durham which, for those who are interested, is set part-way between the larger towns of Sunderland and Hartlepool and although most Sunderland natives wont thank me for saying it , the accent to an untrained ear, is somewhere between Geordie and Cleveland. However, Julie Walters is from Birmingham, the actor playing Jamie's brother is from Manchester and his father is a Glaswegian so if any of our American cousins struggled to find uniformity in the accents then dont be too hard on yourself.