Posh Benedict

[supamum]

Benedict Cumberbatch, whom I have watched since he portrayed Stephen Hawking so beautifully, has a nice clear speaking voice. Why has that to be designated "posh"? The media seem to be entranced with dialects and that is fine - a beautifully spoken dialect is a delight but instead they give us the worst of the speaking public whose dialects are horrendous. I shudder when I hear someone, on hearing what I would call a dreadful Glasgow accent, saying how they love Scottish voices. The same can be said of a whole gamut of lazy speakers whose accents and slurring of words leave a lot to be desired. We certainly do not want the "frightfully posh" voices of the 40s and 50s but oh it is such a joy to hear a well spoken voice. I have seen films of the 30s where they are in a working class situation and the young women all talk as though they have come straight from a debutante's ball - that is just so laughable. A little speech training would go a long way.

[Steve Crook]

Who says he's got a "posh" voice, and why do you listen to their opinions when they're clearly wrong?

Steve

[Dame Starry]

He speaks that way because he went through the public school system and is an old Harrovian - plus both of his parents speak like that:





Cumberbatch is a nice chap and has a natural wit but for me, as an actor, he is grossly overrated. Still, when he's been over-exposed for long enough and everybody's fed up with him, he'll have a great future in voice-overs.

[Mr Sloane]

Benedict Cumberbatch, whom I have watched since he portrayed Stephen Hawking so beautifully, has a nice clear speaking voice. Why has that to be designated "posh"? The media seem to be entranced with dialects and that is fine - a beautifully spoken dialect is a delight but instead they give us the worst of the speaking public whose dialects are horrendous. I shudder when I hear someone, on hearing what I would call a dreadful Glasgow accent, saying how they love Scottish voices. The same can be said of a whole gamut of lazy speakers whose accents and slurring of words leave a lot to be desired. We certainly do not want the "frightfully posh" voices of the 40s and 50s but oh it is such a joy to hear a well spoken voice. I have seen films of the 30s where they are in a working class situation and the young women all talk as though they have come straight from a debutante's ball - that is just so laughable. A little speech training would go a long way.

I love accents,dialects and slang they are part of the reason English is such a marvellous language.

[supamum]

I love accents,dialects and slang they are part of the reason English is such a marvellous language.

I love accents and dialects but I do not like slurring and mispronounciation of words. The English language is a joy not a thing to be messed about by bad speakers. Benedict Cumberbatch's parents were both actors of the old school (Wanda Ventham was one of my favourites) so of course he grew up speaking clearly, and going to Harrow must have helped a lot. Good on his parents for earning the kind of money to be able to send their son to Harrow if that is what they wished.

[Windyridge]

Love the way Wanda Ventham hasn't changed her hairstyle in 50 years.

[Moor Larkin]

[ShirlGirl]

Very good!

[supamum]

I met Stanley Baxter when he was but a lad starting out in amateur theatricals but I never actually knew him. Then I used to go to the Citizens Theatre in Glasgow to see him with other superb actors when he was indeed a very serious actor. Parliamo Glasgow is hilarious and absolutely right. He also used to do the "Kelvinside" accent which was quite different and we all loved that as well. As I have said before - I love accents and dialects I just do not like sloppy speech.

[cumberbatches_woman]

He speaks that way because he went through the public school system and is an old Harrovian - plus both of his parents speak like that:



Cumberbatch is a nice chap and has a natural wit but for me, as an actor, he is grossly overrated. Still, when he's been over-exposed for long enough and everybody's fed up with him, he'll have a great future in voice-overs.

I must come to the defence of Benedict here, but i realy dont think he is over rated at all, Benedict is a fine actor and as far as im concerned will never be over exposed in any way, from what i can see Cheryl Cole gets a lot more coverage than she deserves, everytime i look on the msn page not to mention tv and news paper she is either advertising something or just simply there, Benedict doesnt get that sort of coverage at all, and i realy cant see him getting to such a low level that he has to resort to voice overs.

[CaptainWaggett]

I must come to the defence of Benedict here, but i realy dont think he is over rated at all, Benedict is a fine actor and as far as im concerned will never be over exposed in any way, from what i can see Cheryl Cole gets a lot more coverage than she deserves, everytime i look on the msn page not to mention tv and news paper she is either advertising something or just simply there, Benedict doesnt get that sort of coverage at all, and i realy cant see him getting to such a low level that he has to resort to voice overs.

'Resort' to voice-overs? Like Michael Redgrave, Derek Jacobi, Laurence Olivier, James Mason, Kenneth Branagh to name a few fine
voice-over artists.

I agree that Cumberbatch is a superb actor though. I'm just sorry that's he's probably too busy to do any more stage work for a while.

[Windthrop]

I wouldn't say BC has posh accent as such. It sounds more RP to me. My voice is like that and I didn't go to public school, I just had voice training to improve my diction so I could be understood.

[cumberbatches_woman]

After reading your post Captain, yes you are completely right with what you have said, the fine actors you have mentioned are well known for their voice overs, and Benedicts voice wouldnt in any way sound out of place with theirs at all.

[Moor Larkin]

Isn't the elephant in the room here that it was Ben himself who has recently made an issue of all this? I'm not sure why "the meeja" are stretched out on the rack instead of him. If he kept his mouth shut, their pens would soon cease to skitter.

Reading some of his recent quotes makes me wonder if he's heading for a breakdown. Lashing out about Britain being "domestic and dumb" and Downton Abbey being "f'cking atrocious", not to mention Cameron's Toryism being "fat-faced and flatulent", whilst his fans are displaying "obsessive behaviour which is quite worrying".
www.quotes from a quick browse of google-news.com

At least his posh education has left him able to string a few long words together.....

[Nick Dando]

News on Benedict. He's to play Alan Turing in an up-coming film.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/...ch-alan-turing

Nick

[CaptainWaggett]

News on Benedict. He's to play Alan Turing in an up-coming film.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/...ch-alan-turing

Nick

You'd think they could come up with a different title

[Marky B]

He is doing very well,the lad,and still keeps his toes in British television and radio (he appears in some sitcom called Cabin Pressure on BBC Radio 4,and now he is the latest of the Star Trek franchise. It looks like he is taking a tip from Scots actor,Brian Cox,who is happy to work in films,television and radio himself - if it keeps them employed,then good for them.
Ta Ta
Marky B

[Jack Gurney]

I'm quite a fan of Benedict. Despite being typecast early on (I have seen two productions, THE ROTTERS CLUB and another which I can't remember the name of, which were both set in the past and both featured him playing more or less exactly the same part) he is slowly maturing into a fine performer, as his work in TINKER TAILOR shows.

And I don't have a problem with RP accents either- for me, they actually make a change from the more colloquial (often either Chav-Southern or Northern) speech patterns of many of today's performers, and remind me of the glory days. At least you can hear what BC is saying, as he articulates himself properly- something many others don't. LIFE ON MARS was a fine programme let down by John Sim's incessant mumblings, and as for SHAMELESS....I'm not even getting into it.

[Nimuae]

He is doing very well,the lad,and still keeps his toes in British television and radio (he appears in some sitcom called Cabin Pressure on BBC Radio 4,and now he is the latest of the Star Trek franchise. It looks like he is taking a tip from Scots actor,Brian Cox,who is happy to work in films,television and radio himself - if it keeps them employed,then good for them.
Ta Ta
Marky B

Hmm - I have just seen the latest Star Trek offering 'Into Darkness' in which BC was supposed to be Khan (originally played by Ricardo Montalban) and, quite frankly, he was rubbish !