Mark Rylance's accent

Rating: Null/10 (28 November 2015)

Contrary to what is said in the Trivia notes, Rudolf Abel's accent is all wrong. In an interview on BBC TV's local news programme 'Look North' broadcast on 23rd November 2015, Mark Rylance said of Rudolf Abel "He was reported to sound Scottish so that's what I've done in the film and I suddenly thought probably the Americans in 1957 would have thought that a Geordie (Newcastle accent) accent was a Scottish accent so I may have got that wrong". In Vin Arthey's book about Abel "The Kremlin's Geordie Spy: The Man They Swapped for Gary Powers" (also called "Like Father Like Son: A Dynasty of Spies") he states that Abel, real name William Fisher, sometimes spoke 'educated' English and sometimes local or dialect speech, that is with a Geordie accent. There is no mention of Abel having lived in Scotland. He lived in Newcastle and nearby Whitley Bay. A Scottish accent with its many variations sounds quite different to that spoken in the Newcastle area of north east England.