Tuesday 7 June 2011

Someone, a lot smarter than me, encapsulated the problems of selling stuff as "retail is detail". Meaning, I think, that every aspect of an offer to the public in terms of shopping has to be just right.
Would that TV scriptwriters/casting agents all gargled at the same fountain of knowledge or took into account the fact that some of the TV audience might, like, you know, know stuff?.


Picture the scene, dear reader, do. We had (ahem) "acquired" the pilot episode of Chaos, a well-received and popular US TV show centring on the post-modern doings of a rogue group of CIA agents sticking it to the strait-laced squares who run the agency. 


We settle down to watch, looks promising for the first five minutes. Funny, quirky, slightly subversive, you know, all the good shit.  And then, God in Heaven, we're introduced to agent "Billy Collins", (Sorry, that would be "Buhlee") who we are asked to believe is Scottish, sorry, is "Scawtisssssh".

Our Wullie apparently is originally from somewhere called "North Edinburrah". 
Good luck locating that on the map. I think this means he was brought up in The Forth, but that's just the start. Over the next few minutes the actor's accent goes for a tour round Central Scotland. Now a bit Muirhouse, then a bit Maryhill. Ten minutes in and the only sound the Scottish viewer can hear is the grinding of teeth in their own skull.

Believe me I've nothing against the actor playing "Billy". For the record, it's James Murray, who despite the surname is a Mancunian. I am sure he's giving it his best RADA trained shot at doing  "North British", but fuckin' hell... Is it really beyond the wit of LA casting agents to at least audition Scottish actors for Scottish character roles?

And if they really must cast a non-Scot to play a Scottish role, aren't there any Scots ex-pats in LA they could run the accent past? Actually, maybe they got the Mike "I do a great Scottish accent me" Myers to approve the take.

That would make perfect sense.
"Ahm Buhlee, ahm Scot-issh" Fuck off mate, naw you're no.

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