Yes, me too. I fear I may have been a tad intemperate but these days I take it as one of the privileges of age to be, well, frank and that can spillover into rudeness. I apologise if I have crossed the line.

I do hope we see the Boss back soon, I hope he realises how much he is missed.

Sorry guys and lasses,

no time this evening, the whole evening doing research for a thread on Historum about "thiois" diets, dutch and commenting a certain Claude Javeau about a chapter about languages in Belgium. Rather biassed about the present situation
https://goo.gl/6Ecqop
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Javeau
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Sp%C3%A4ti


Kind regards, Paul.

I see that you are online Meles meles. I had some difficulties to log in. Since two days nobody let a message overhere. What happens? Have they no access to the board? Or do I miss something?

Kind regards, PauL.

I don't think you missed anything, Paul, just that nothing has happened.
My hope is that everybody is in good health, and have been busy elsewhere.

Cheers.

I see Nielsen that you are online too now. I just sent a message to you and Caro on Jiglu to enlighten us...

I checked the boards and the fore last message was from Vizzer 30 July 2017 18h45 and the last one was from Tim of Aclea 30 July 2017 18h45. Since then it seems that only I am able to post on the messageboard Res Historica...If you or Caro have no access overhere give a réplique on Jiglu...

Kind regards to both, Paul.

I just assumed everyone was on holiday or otherwise occupied. It's the middle of the busy season here so at the moment I really have little time to even think about matters historical. There are a few of us still around though and I did notice that a new member, bramhall80, has appeared a few times too.

Same here, no trouble with logging onto the site or anything like that, I am merely flat out at the moment. Summer silly season is upon us and it won't settle down until after August.

Islanddawn wrote:

Same here, no trouble with logging onto the site or anything like that, I am merely flat out at the moment. Summer silly season is upon us and it won't settle down until after August.

  quote from Paul...

So calling all  the lazy/unemployed Res Historians to man the defences and post. This used to be a site for sore ayes - and no's even - for the fool hardy. I would suggest a round of summer cocktails but will leave that to members to concoct   and name something original with an historical slant to get us reeling again.

Priscilla wrote:

So calling all  the lazy/unemployed Res Historians to man the defences and post. This used to be a site for sore ayes - and no's even - for the fool hardy.

Fool - or frost - hardy? Or even Laurel and Hardy?


I've just been listening to England Lost* which someone has suggested should be our new National Anthem. "London's going to be like Singapore"? Oh, pull yourself together, Mick! Get a grip! I wonder if Jagger gets the Winter Fuel Allowance like the rest of us? I bet he does. Love the shots of our bleak North Sea though - or is it the English Channel? Is it still the English Channel? The French call it the Sleeve, don't they, which is a very odd name for a bit of sea. I rather like the Roman name: Mare Britannicum - sounds very grand.



* Jagger's latest release. Not bad for a 74-year-old, I suppose, but I doubt the kids will be impressed - or bothered.

Priscilla wrote:

So calling all  the lazy/unemployed Res Historians to man the defences and post. This used to be a site for sore ayes - and no's even - for the fool hardy. I would suggest a round of summer cocktails but will leave that to members to concoct   and name something original with an historical slant to get us reeling again.

Some of us have been dealing with all the slings and arrows and been left with very little energy for sensible thought. I won't bore you with all the details of everything that went awry but this is just one: my ancient and much loved car expired in a cloud of steam 30 odd miles away and even the ministrations of the AA and a good garage there couldn't save it. Fortunately it was on a bus route and bless my free bus pass. Getting a replacement plus travelling up and down (several times, don't ask) kept me occupied plus both my children's cars had not dissimilar experiences at the same time so life was busy and stressful. I don't want to see a garage or speak to an insurance company for a long, long time.

All is now (mostly) resolved so life can resume. Until the next crisis.........

Temperance wrote:

Priscilla wrote:

So calling all  the lazy/unemployed Res Historians to man the defences and post. This used to be a site for sore ayes - and no's even - for the fool hardy.

Fool - or frost - hardy? Or even Laurel and Hardy?


I've just been listening to England Lost* which someone has suggested should be our new National Anthem. "London's going to be like Singapore"? Oh, pull yourself together, Mick! Get a grip! I wonder if Jagger gets the Winter Fuel Allowance like the rest of us? I bet he does. Love the shots of our bleak North Sea though - or is it the English Channel? Is it still the English Channel? The French call it the Sleeve, don't they, which is a very odd name for a bit of sea. I rather like the Roman name: Mare Britannicum - sounds very grand.



* Jagger's latest release. Not bad for a 74-year-old, I suppose, but I doubt the kids will be impressed - or bothered.

I liked it, and Jagger was to the point imo. England is changing and blindly heading into very dangerous waters indeed. 

It wasn't the Wrinkly Wrocker who said London will be like Singapore btw Temp, that was the leave campaign who claimed that London could become the next Singapore as a positive result of Brexit. But it is ridiculous like most things the Brexiteers have claimed and Jagger is merely playing on that.

I read that it is allotment week this week. Bring in yer bendy bananas, curly cucumbers and warm reminisces of the old allotment wars in the BBC bar.  They were fun.

What I need is cheap imported labour - or tory even - to cope with harvest yer own after this great grow yer own season. First it rained plums,now it's apples. And what to do with 50 huge beetroot all plumped up at the same time? Thus it is also with carrots and cauli, they went into overdrive. Runner beans with 2k a day pick now crowd out the freezer and marrows (neglected courgettes in truth) creating  hidden stumbling blocks across paths.... and even the hanging baskets each have a  parsley crop. How did that happen?The summer house has baskets of drying onions - which will probably mix with the drying daff bulbs, kill us all in a fry up and thus ending the problem.....at least the wake will have  raspberries for all - they ought have it by the canes because they just keep on chucking 'em out.
 I shall return to haunt the veg plot
There's Temps wondering with alarm about the complexities of the human condition, ferv busy soul-denying, nord lost in a Bermuda triangle, Paul, https'ing, MM sorting out his Ruben nude album and me being killed off by me five a day. Hope you get some better post response, ID.... but B+ for effort.

I also agonise over the vegetable condition.

I often think of your runner-bean, Priscilla, and its little onion friend - how, in their determined, defiant refusal to be horticulturally tamed by you or anyone else, they were the Cathy and Heathcliff of the vegetable world.

Your star-crossed vegetables somehow cropped up in the Philosophy section of Res His - goodness knows why or how. Nordmann was all erudite and scientific about their unhealthy, symbiotic relationship if I remember correctly, and we ignored him (as usual). MM expressed - on the same thread - his concerns about his bipolar courgettes.

Happy days.

Just in case everyone thinks I've completely lost the vegetable plot, you can read about P.'s errant runner bean here:

https://reshistorica.forumotion.com/t870-logic-logical-and-illogical


EDIT 1: MM's clinically depressed courgettes aren't on the above thread about Logic: they must have been mentioned in another discussion - possibly the Plato thread.


EDIT 2:

I wrote:

 Nordmann was all erudite and scientific about their unhealthy, symbiotic relationship if I remember correctly, and we ignored him (as usual).

Poor nordmann - all he ever wanted was for us to be rational - sensible even. No wonder he has disappeared.

Talking of vegetables, I’m having a very fruitful season too – I reckon I reached peak courgette last week, when I was literally falling over the things that seemed to have appeared, as if by magic, overnight. What do you do with your over-size courgette/marrows, P? I made mine into a Thai-style coconut and green pepper curry. But courgettes are old news … I’m now at about peak tomato:





.... plus there are peppers, aubergines, French beans, carrots, radishes and lettuces.

I’ve never grown French beans before but I’m impressed. They were a bit tricky to get to germinate and many of the first ones fell to the ravages of slugs, but the ones that got established have been steady croppers: a one metre square bed has been giving a portion about every two or three days for the past month and is still going.

But I’ve got a mole again. The ground is very rocky so I’ve built raised beds filled with lovely, rich, slightly sandy compost. And blow me if a mole hasn’t burrowed through the underlying stoney level to come up in my raised beds. The compost is very light and can’t have enough strength to support his tunnels without caving in, but I guess for a mole it’s a bit like playing in a 'ball room' like those they have in Ikea, and he seems content to do the moley equivalent of swimming lengths. So now the beds look like the Western Front in WW1, with trenches, tunnels, mounds, pits and craters. It’s a good job I’ve got all my tomatoes well supported on canes as they and being constantly undermined. I was watering them yesterday evening when I noticed the leaves of one adjacent courgette plants starting to tremble. And as I watched the soil by its roots started to bulge, then erupted in a little volcano, and finally a little pink snout emerged. A beady eye briefly roved myopically around, glanced at me and gave me a cheeky wink, before the mole turned over and disappearing back underground. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever seen a live mole.

But moles aside  I’ve been particularly impressed with one raised bed. In November 2016 I planted broad beans which I eventually harvested in May. I then replanted with carrots which I harvested towards the end of July. Now, having resown the bed with late French beans, I’ve already got them coming up. They should be ready to start being harvested in early October. So that’ll be three crops from the same plot in twelve months. I had been partly following an old Ministry of Food, “Dig for Victory” pamphlet from 1942 giving detailed timings to maximise the number of crops that could be grown in each year. It was probably pushing it to get two legume crops, albeit interspersed with carrots, in a single year but being a raised bed the soil was fresh. Nevertheless I think the soil will appreciate the months over winter to rest and recuperate before it gets planted with tomatoes or courgettes next spring.

Sadly though when I pulled up the carrots, I didn’t get a nice surprise like this gardener, who found her long lost diamong ring around a carrot:



The Guardian : Canadian woman finds long-lost diamond ring wrapped around carrot

Courgettes are one of the few things I bother planting these days, I have a packet of seeds from several years ago and one goes in each year in a wee pot on the kitchen window ledge and which duly germinates and gets planted out in a big tub later.This year's is duly providing one or two every week or so, enough for me without the massive marrow problem. For the first time this season though I planted a a yellow variety as well and I'm pleased with them. Not only are they an attractive colour but the fruits grow much more slowly than their common green siblings so don't balloon to zeppelin proportions when you're not looking.  I think I almost prefer the flowers though: fiori del zucca fritti - might make that today.

I hope you can gently persuade your mole to relocate, as a Scot I have a fondness for the little gentleman in black velvet.

You needn't worry about Mr Mole, he's not doing any damage and the plants are all still growing happily, so I'm not going to bother him. Even the cats, while quite curious about the moving soil and trembling plants, don't seem inclined to try and catch him. Moles abound here but in ten years they've only presented me with one - I think I read somewhere that moles, like shrews, don't taste very nice. As I said the ground under the raised beds is very stoney and compacted, so his tunnelling is probably actually doing good by breaking up the hard layer and improving the drainage.

And here we have a Black Velvet;

wiki:
The drink was first created by the bartender of Brooks's Club in London in 1861, to mourn the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Prince Consort. It is supposed to symbolise the black or purple cloth armbands worn by mourners.

Re what too do with a glut of courgette-marrows, MM, am thinking of making a chutney that might resemble sticky sweet mango chutney to go with the endless pots of dhal I cook (it's the spice blend that should do it as mango chutney never tastes of mango really.) The kind of sour mango pickles I love cannot be bought here but I may try a rather grubby cornershop I know in the Midlands.

Apart from a glut of fruit and veg I have a flower shower too. Red Bishops have taken over a front plot and those along with begonias the main garden. Tomorrow I must cut back a huge trailing apricot begonia to  get down steps to the garden....I jest not.Next year it will be withdrawal symptoms as I shall cut down on all the extra feed and goodies.

Re moles in your beds, MM - bury chicken wire netting next time you change the top compost.

Faux mango chutney to accompany curries and other Indian spicey stuff ... brilliant idea, P. I'll give it a go too when I stumble across the next forgotten courge.

Two good ideas for excess zucchini, both are yummy and both are great for using the extra large ones that are not good for very much else.

http://www.food.com/recipe/greek-stuffed-zucchini-kolokithakia-yemista-avgolemono-59368


http://www.closetcooking.com/2009/08/kolokithopita-greek-zucchini-pie.html

Triceratops wrote:

And here we have a Black Velvet;

wiki:
The drink was first created by the bartender of Brooks's Club in London in 1861, to mourn the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's Prince Consort. It is supposed to symbolise the black or purple cloth armbands worn by mourners.

And here we have a Freddo Cappuccino

And there's also this suggestion for using up marrows ... from the 'Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate' (NSW, Australia) 6 November, 1954.

Marrow Rum
The days of bathtub gin and American prohibition are being recalled in Britain by witnesses of a boom in home brewing. Fostered by a good soft fruit crop and the derationing of sugar, Bacchanalian enthusiasm has flowered forth in a fascinating range of equipment, potencies and "bouquets." One of the more satisfying concoctions, it is reported, is marrow rum.

The recipe: Hollow one large marrow and fill with lump sugar. Hang in muslin bag over bowl. Marrow rots and liquid drips into bowl.  Bottle and keep for a year before drinking.

Should you decide to stuff a lot of your little marrows, I have a proper courgette hollowing out tool that I bought in Lebanon and could post to you. It's a wee bit rusty but I'm sure you could clean it up. It's like this but rather more primitive.




What about Boureki if you're going Greek or something from Ottolenghi with a more Middle Eastern flavour. He had some other courgette recipes in the Guardian just a week or two ago.
And here's some courgette wine to go with them.

Fiori di zucca fritti ... mmm! It's almost worth growing courgettes just for their flowers alone because unless you do, or know someone that does, you'll never get any fresh flowers as they are delicate and wilt so quickly. I usually deep fry them in a simple flour/water/egg batter, but I sometimes lightly stuff them with the classic Italian combination of mozarella and anchovy ... though not really "stuffed" as all it wants is a delicate hint of extra creamy/fishy flavour to complement and not overpower the courgette aroma.

The Kolokithopita pie sounds good ... very much like the 'boureki', Cretan-style courgette, potato, ricotta and mint pies that I've been making when swamped with courgettes. They can be eaten on their own, hot or cold, but are also a good accompaniment to, say, roast or grilled lamb.

I've currently got quite a few long aubergines fully ripe, so tomorrow I hope to get the time to make some proper moussaka: I've got all the ingredients, even lamb rather than beef mince, I just need a bit of time. Tomorrow I've got nobody arriving so it should be a good cooking afternoon ... and there's tomato passata to make, as well as tomatoes and peppers to stuff or otherwise preserve. But I do also need to go to the builders merchants to buy a good few sacks of ready-mix concrete to repair the driveway ... oh and some accelerant to get it to set in just a couple of hours as I've people constantly coming and going. As you said elsewhere above, ID, it is the mad season!

Edit : Crossed posts with ferval ...

Yes Boureki is a great as a use-up for surplusses, and frozen, it's a good stand-by dish too. And that little implement looks very much like the sort of potato-peelers/general veg broddlers, that are sold in all the pound stores here. This being southern France they are probably all made in Morocco or Algeria anyway. And yes, they rust too.

I hope that I'm not turning into a Little Englander but I read something about Australian actress Margot Robbie (she's supposed to be a good actress though I haven't personally seen her) being cast as Elizabeth I in something about Mary Queen of Scots (which hopefully will aim at being more historically accurate than "Reign").   But my thought was to speculate that surely there are British actresses out there who could pull off playing a woman who is arguably one of England's greatest queens.  The actress who played Mary Queen of Scots in "Reign" was Australian though I didn't watch that show because from what I gathered although it had the title "Mary Queen of Scots" it told a somewhat inaccurate version of Mary's life story.  Cate Blanchett - Australian again, though I haven't  seen her as Elizabeth so again I can't judge.  Apparently there is a film about Virginia Woolf on the cards and they've cast a French actress to play her.  But then looking back through the sands of time, I liked Keith Michell who was Australian born in "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" and Nyree Dawn Porter who was from New Zealand gave, I thought, a good account of herself when playing Irene in the 1960s adaptation of "The Forsyte Saga".  So am I being harsh do you think in my initial instinctive thought that I would prefer a British person (or maybe Irish - some Irish actors do convincing British accents) to play an English character?

Lady in retirement,

"So am I being harsh do you think in my initial instinctive thought that I would prefer a British person (or maybe Irish - some Irish actors do convincing British accents) to play an English character ?"

I think they are not looking to national history or sensibilities of the national narration, but rather to money? Who is the best or most famous performer for the cheapest price?


We have even a Belgian playing in Hollywood, a certain Matthias Schoenaerts...
I don't like the person, but who am I...even the Dutch language films in which he performed, not because of him but because of the subjects of the films.
About Schoenaerts at Hollywood...what do you think of his English...is it American English or Dutch English?






 Kind regards from Paul.

Paul, well I can certainly tell he's not English.  I would say he sounds Flemish/Dutch English rather than American English.  I fell in love with the book "Far from the Madding Crowd" back in my teens (when I heard it read on radio by an English actor with a deep yet mellifluous voice, Gabriel Woolf (still around though he's in his 80s)) so it's a story where lack of fidelity to the source material drives me bananas.  I can't judge Mr Schoenaerts' acting ability as I haven't seen him in anything.  The 1968 version of Far from the Madding Crowd threw me because they cast Julie Christie (good actress but just not a fit for the part) as Bathsheba - book Bathsheba is a raven-haired, dark-eyed beauty.  I don't really see Carey Mulligan as Bathsheba either so I don't think I'll be rushing to see this film.  Although thinking about adaptations of Thomas Hardy novels, I saw a film version of Tess of the D'Urbervilles in the early 1980s with Nastassja Kinski in the title role and she did a very creditable (to me at least) West Country accent.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

I hope that I'm not turning into a Little Englander but I read something about Australian actress Margot Robbie (she's supposed to be a good actress though I haven't personally seen her) being cast as Elizabeth I in something about Mary Queen of Scots (which hopefully will aim at being more historically accurate than "Reign").   But my thought was to speculate that surely there are British actresses out there who could pull off playing woman who is arguably one of England's greatest queens.  The actress who played Mary Queen of Scots in "Reign" was Australian though I didn't watch that show because from what I gathered although it had the title "Mary Queen of Scots" it told a somewhat inaccurate version of Mary's life story.  Cate Blanchett - Australian again, though I haven't  seen her as Elizabeth so again I can't judge.  Apparently there is a film about Virginia Woolf on the cards and they've cast a French actress to play her.  But then looking back through the sands of time, I liked Keith Michell who was Australian born in "The Six Wives of Henry VIII" and Nyree Dawn Porter who was from New Zealand gave, I thought, a good account of herself when playing Irene in the 1960s adaptation of "The Forsyte Saga".  So am I being harsh do you think in my initial instinctive thought that I would prefer a British person (or maybe Irish - some Irish actors do convincing British accents) to play an English character ?

Just a bit harsh LiR, are not Australian and New Zealand actors descendants of the English or British? Most of those actors ancestors would certainly have been in England or Scotland at that time and every bit as British as the British today. The English or Scots or Irish do share the same history as a great many Australians and New Zealanders after all.

Thanks for your thoughts, ID.  I suppose really the crux is whether a thespian has decent acting chops and possibly the target audience (if the target audience is not British then maybe any oddnesses in a British accent will not be noticed).  I think nowadays Australian and New Zealand are not all descended from British or Irish.  Again, there have been British actors who have been cast as  Americans (but it would need an American to be able to say if their accents are credible).  As I say, I did like Keith Michell and Nyree Dawn Porter and I also liked Diane Cilento (Australian), who at one time was Mrs Sean Connery.  There did seem to be a time when Australian/New Zealand actors would come to Britain to further their careers but I think they are maybe more likely to go to the USA these days.  I've never been able to warm to Cate Blanchett but I can't really give a reason why - people who have seen the Elizabeth films she was in have said she acquitted herself well in them.  Then again although poor old Dick Van Dyke's cockney (allegedly) accent in "Mary Poppins" has been much lampooned, one can have a good laugh at it - and he can do a good song and dance number!  Gillian Anderson, Renee Zellweger and Meryl Streep are American actors who have pulled off a convincing English accent and I was surprised to learn that Heida Reed is actually Icelandic.  In my reply to Paul R above I mentioned "Far from the Madding Crowd" - Peter Finch who played Farmer Boldwood (I didn't have a problem with the casting of the male leads) in the 1968 (or was it '67) film had spent most of his formative years in Australia despite being London born.

Meles meles wrote:

And there's also this suggestion for using up marrows ... from the 'Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate' (NSW, Australia) 6 November, 1954.

Marrow Rum
The days of bathtub gin and American prohibition are being recalled in Britain by witnesses of a boom in home brewing. Fostered by a good soft fruit crop and the derationing of sugar, Bacchanalian enthusiasm has flowered forth in a fascinating range of equipment, potencies and "bouquets." One of the more satisfying concoctions, it is reported, is marrow rum.

The recipe: Hollow one large marrow and fill with lump sugar. Hang in muslin bag over bowl. Marrow rots and liquid drips into bowl.  Bottle and keep for a year before drinking.

I've never tried home brewing myself.  I have known people who have done home brewing and if I remember rightly it was popular for a time in the 1970s.  There is a shop in my hometown that sells stuff for home brewing which is still going (albeit it's closed while the proprietor is on holiday at present).  Maybe I should try making dandelion wine because that plant is one of the few which grows with alacrity in my garden.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Maybe I should try making dandelion wine because that plant is one of the few which grows with alacrity in my garden.

Isn't dandelion wine made from just the roots, ie the bit that contains all the stored sugars, and so doesn't it need an inordinate amount of root washing, peeling and crushing etc? Frankly I don't think it's that easy.

So why not just eat the dandelions as they are? I do.

Dandelion leaves are perfectly edible and can be used in salads just like lettuce. They're really not much different to any of those trendy modern salad leaves such as rocket, endive, chicory and radicchio. Admittedly mature dandelion leaves can tend to be a bit bitter, but all you need to do is cover any promising plant for a week or so with a plate, plant saucer or whatever (to exclude all sunlight) and the leaves will naturally blanch and sweeten. If you don't fancy eating the leaves raw they are still good cooked as an addition, or even the main ingredient, of a soup (dandelion soup is a French classic); in an omelette; as a pesto to go with pasta; or as a leafy addition to, say, any south-east-asian-style curry. Just be aware that they are slightly diuretic - it's not for nothing that the common French name for dandelion is "pis-en-lit", that is, "wet-the-bed" - but frankly I don't think they are any more diuretic than your average iceberg lettuce.

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Thanks for your thoughts, ID.  I suppose really the crux is whether a thespian has decent acting chops and possibly the target audience (if the target audience is not British then maybe any oddnesses in a British accent will not be noticed).  I think nowadays Australian and New Zealand are not all descended from British or Irish.  Again, there have been British actors who have been cast as  Americans (but it would need an American to be able to say if their accents are credible).  As I say, I did like Keith Michell and Nyree Dawn Porter and I also liked Diane Cilento (Australian), who at one time was Mrs Sean Connery.  There did seem to be a time when Australian/New Zealand actors would come to Britain to further their careers but I think they are maybe more likely to go to the USA these days.  I've never been able to warm to Cate Blanchett but I can't really give a reason why - people who have seen the Elizabeth films she was in have said she acquitted herself well in them.  Then again although poor old Dick Van Dyke's cockney (allegedly) accent in "Mary Poppins" has been much lampooned, one can have a good laugh at it - and he can do a good song and dance number!  Gillian Anderson, Renee Zellweger and Meryl Streep are American accents who have pulled off a convincing English accent and I was surprised to learn that Heida Reed is actually Icelandic.  In my reply to Paul R above I mentioned "Far from the Madding Crowd" - Peter Finch who played Farmer Boldwood (I didn't have a problem with the casting of the male leads) in the 1968 (or was it '67) film had spent most of his formative years in Australia despite being London born.

I was talking about the actors that you had named LiR, most of them do have English/Scottish roots including Cate Blanchett. 

But I see your main complaint is their accents? I seriously doubt that the English spoken in Elizabethan times sounded like the English spoken today whether in England itself, Australia, NZ or the US. How can anyone possibly know which accent would be the most authentic? More than likely none of them, although US English would be closer to the mark than the version spoken in England today I suspect. Certainly many of the words still used in the US today are old English that went out of use in Britain long ago but still used in America.

I'd be more aggrieved if I were an American actor when one considers the huge number of American parts which have gone to UK actors over the years. From Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard in Gone With The Wind, to Vivien Leigh (again) in A Streetcar Named Desire, to Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate, to Robert Shaw in Jaws, to Kate Winslet in Titanic. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Now you mention that Vizzer, I recall something about Dominic Westmaking a comment about the casting of Renee Zellweger as an American playing British in the Bridget Jones films which I thought was a bit of a cheek as he had done quite well out of playing American parts (McNulty in "The Wire" comes to mind).  Mind you, her character did kill his character in "Chicago"!  Her British accent is actually one which does NOT have me reaching for the earplugs.

I know there were some British actors in the recent(ish) TV adaptation of "American Gods" (I don't know the books) and an Australian actress.  I liked all the cast in those.  There was an episode of "Castle" (not a highbrow show - I mean, really, would a police department allow a thriller writer, no matter how successful to take part in their investigations? ) there was a "Scotland Yard" inspector who had a really broad Australian accent.  (Nice looking bloke though).

Vizzer wrote:

I'd be more aggrieved if I were an American actor when one considers the huge number of American parts which have gone to UK actors over the years. From Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland and Leslie Howard in Gone With The Wind, to Vivien Leigh (again) in A Streetcar Named Desire, to Laurence Harvey in The Manchurian Candidate, to Robert Shaw in Jaws, to Kate Winslet in Titanic. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Also Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and the list goes on.

Edit. Kate Winslet played the lead as an Australian in an Australian movie which I thoroughly enjoyed. Her British accent didn't bother me once, I can't even remember thinking about her unAustralian accent during the film. Well worth watching even if she is a 'forriner' 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dressmaker_(2015_film)

To be authentic, I suppose any actor playing Mary Stuart should have  a French accent.

We Scots are probably those who get the most irate about some of the weird and wonderful attempts at our patois but surely that's only a real problem if the production is pretty rotten anyway? Pretending to be someone else, that's called acting, isn't it?

I'm another fan of baby dandelion leaves in a salad but dandelion and burdock, what's that all about? Vile stuff I thought when I tasted it as a wee girl on holiday on the Fylde coast.

And what about all Shakespeare's plays?



I do hope no-one is suggesting that Shakespeare's Macbeth can only ever be played by a Scotsman, or Hamlet by a Dane, or Othello by someone from the Magreb? Or Julius Caesar by an Italian fluent in 1st century BC Latin?

Edit 1: And of course to be completely authentic Desdemona should only ever be played by a young teenage boy!

Edit 2: I thought there were some interesting points in that youtube clip, particularly about the speed and pitch of Shakespeare's (London) English. Although I have heard Original Pronunciation performances of Shakespeare's plays before, I'd never considered some of the practical repercussions of the language, like the faster tempo and the carrying ability of a deeper voice and more resonant pronunciation.

Edit 3: Dandelions and burdocks thrive in my garden ... the dandelions are ok, being both edible and actually quite attractive as mop-headed flowers, but the burrs of the burdocks are a nuisance as they are continually getting matted in the dog's fur.

MM wrote:

 Or Julius Caesar by an Italian fluent in 1st century BC Latin?

ferval wrote:

To be authentic, I suppose any actor playing Mary Stuart should have  a French accent.  

The best Anne Boleyn I've seen is Geneviève Bujold's in Anne of the Thousand Days. Bujold is of French Canadian descent and has a slight, but rather pretty French accent. This was exactly right for Anne who spent her formative years in France.

Damian Lewis, the Eton-educated British actor, was brilliant as US Marine Sergeant Brody in Homeland. You'd never guess he was also Henry VIII. Can't see Claire Danes as Anne Boleyn though!










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