From: ragdoll	Date: October 11th, 2011 06:56 am (UTC)		(Link Me)

My mind goes immediately to Tom Wilkonson and Michael Gambon for a start. Oh and Albert Finney. Brilliant actors all, but their Southern accents are painful.

	From: zegeekgirl	Date: October 11th, 2011 07:01 pm (UTC)		(Link Me)

Albert Finney can half-ass an accent all he likes and get away with it, because he's Albert Finney. ;) Brian Cox's Southern accent isn't quite perfect, but he drawls with such panache that it's quite good indeed.

Here's one that gets overlooked a lot: Kenneth Branagh in Dead Again. He does a superb, flat LA/West Coast accent that sounds like you'd imagine a Raymond Chandler character would sound. (He's also been guilty of hamming up Southern accents in other stuff, but in that he nails it.)

	From: ragdoll	Date: October 11th, 2011 08:02 pm (UTC)		(Link Me)

Oh, yes, Ken in Dead Again is brilliant (and one of my fave films). I'd forgotten about that, whereas his accent in Wild Wild West and some others is more than painfully bad.

You're right, Albert Finney can get away with anything just because he's Albert Finney. Had forgotten about Cox, but I think he manages it better than some.

What's also interesting is to hear actual Americans on UK programs speaking with American accents and sounding "off". There's a particular cadence that a lot of them pick up which makes them sound like they're faking it. I remember seeing people complaining about John Barrowman's accent on Dr Who/Torchwood when he's moved to the US at the age of 8 and didn't go back to the UK until he was in his 20s...