UK’s HIT TV SHOWS ARE MADE UP OF OUR FAVOURITE REGIONAL ACCENTS, SURVEY REVEALS
A new survey by language experts, Babbel, has revealed the UK’s favourite regional accents.
Here in the UK, the average adult watches approximately six hours of TV a day, so it would make sense that we fill these hours with accents we love to hear and not the ones that make our toes curl.
With very few of us loving the sound of own our voices, the thought of hearing ourselves talk on a recording instantly makes many of us cringe (it’s called voice confrontation).
The survey revealed the top-ranking accents to be Cockney, Yorkshire, Scots, and Geordie, to name but a few. It might then come as no surprise that the accents we like are the ones we fill our viewing hours with:
Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway
The Geordie accent ranked first for the accent we wished we had the most and the most fun.
What would Saturday night telly be without the nation’s beloved PJ & Duncan? It comes as no surprise that Ant & Dec have been ruling our Saturday night television for almost 20 years, since 2002 – even bagging themselves 41 National Television Awards along the way.
ITV revealed that the duo’s 2021 season of the show averaged at a whopping 7.3 million viewers a night – that’s more than a tenth of the UK population tuning in to watch the pair host their games and hilarious sketches, not to mention entertain their celebrity guests.
Love Island
The Scottish and Irish accents are the ones we wish our spouse/future spouse had and also the ones we find the most fun.
The ‘nation’s hottest show’ has been gracing our screens since 2015 and power-couple presenters Laura Whitmore and Iain Stirling have some of the UK’s most desirable accents. Scottish Iain and Irish Laura’s accents come in the joint top position for the accents the nation find the most fun and the accents we wish our spouses had or future spouse has. Ironic, right?
ITV reported that the opening episode of this season amassed 2.5 million viewers. The latest season has already been a hot topic of conversation for accents as viewers struggled to understand the Glasgow lads that entered Casa Amor and demanded subtitles for them!
Celebrity Juice
Babbel’s survey revealed that the nation rates the Yorkshire accents as one of the kindest sounding.
Comedian Leigh Francis’ alter-ego, Keith Lemon, has been giving us whacky TV comedy shows since 2006. It seems the nation love to tune in to Keith’s Celebrity Juice for more reasons than outrageous jokes and challenges. Keith’s thick Yorkshire accent has undeniably made him a huge hit with British audiences over the last 15 years.
Peaky Blinders
The Brummie accent ranks as one of the accents the nation enjoyed listening to the most.
It seems the rest of the world does too. Peaky Blinders has been crowned as the most popular global Netflix series of 2021.
The new season drama series, fronted by Cillian Murphy, has been highly anticipated and, with no official release date yet, it seems the UK (and the rest of the world) will be left rewatching until they get their new Brummie fix.
EastEnders
The cockney accent is the accent the nation enjoys listening to the most.
EastEnders has been gracing the nation’s screens since 1985 and, it seems the nation just can’t get enough of Walford’s Cockney twang – whether it’s the Square’s bad boy, Phil Mitchell, or the infamous Dot Cotton in her launderette.
The show averages about around 4.5 million viewers and, back in 2010, the soap’s controversial 25th Anniversary episode raked in some 16 million viewers – that’s meshugenah!
