This City Is Ours stars have opened up about the challenges of mastering Scouse accents for the upcoming BBC series.
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Set in modern-day Liverpool, the crime drama follows the story of gangster Michael Kavanagh (James Nelson-Joyce), who is juggling falling in love for the first time with the disintegration of the crime gang he operates.
Shetland star Julie Graham and This Is Going to Hurt star Hannah Onslow recently opened up to RadioTimes.com and other press at a Q&A about the difficulties of mastering a Liverpool accent for the show.
Graham, who plays the wife of gang leader Ronnie Phelan (Sean Bean), said: "We had a brilliant voice coach and it really helped being surrounded by brilliant actors from Liverpool, who would point you in the right direction if you were going wrong. Just to have that accent in your ear all the time really helped."
She continued: "Our sound guy, Jimmy, who’s the most amazing man, a scouser. We were in his ears the whole time, intimately, and every now and again if he thought you’d had an off line, he’d come up to you and say ‘just that one word…’.
"And I actually asked him to do that for me, and I know the other actors did as well, and that was wonderful because you felt like he had your back."
Meanwhile, Onslow, who portrays Michael’s partner in This City Is Ours, added: "If I was having a bit of a dodgy day accent-wise, some of the crew would just avoid eye contact.
"I also watched Love Island clips, that was helpful as well."
Julie Graham stars as Elaine Phelan in This City is Ours. BBC/Left Bank Pictures/James Stack
Pointing out that "the women in Liverpool have a different accent to the men", Graham continued: "So sometimes it could be difficult when you’re doing a scene with James [Nelson Joyce] or with Jack [McMullen] because they do speak differently… It’s the only accent in the whole of the UK where the men and the women would speak differently.
"We had to kind of keep an eye on it. And then there’s generational [differences] as well. But it was really important for all of us to get it right and feel that it was authentic. But ultimately, you do have to concentrate on performance, rather than get bogged down in accent as otherwise that’s all you're focusing on."
Molly Moss is a Trends Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest trends across TV, film and more. She has an MA in Newspaper Journalism and has previously written for publications including The Guardian, The Times and The Sun Online.
David Craig is the Senior Drama Writer for Radio Times, covering the latest and greatest scripted drama and comedy across television and streaming. Previously, he worked at Starburst Magazine, presented The Winter King Podcast for ITVX and studied Journalism at the University of Sheffield.
