Pinpointing British accents
After having watched British TV and movies for a while, I came across several accents I liked. But I'm not completely sure what they are, so I need your help :)
David Tennant as The 10th Doctor (skip to 0:39 if it doesn't for you).
When he speaks more calmly, he sounds almost RP to me, but when he's more agitated, I hear something else.David Tennant in real life — (skip to 1:24) — sounds more Scottish (?) to me.
Charlie McDonnell. He sounds fairly "neutral" to me, but I doubt it's RP.
UPDATE: Dancrumb and ShreevatsaR provided information that apparently The Tenth Doctor speaks Estuary English. But to me it's a very confusing revelation.
I can't find similarities between his accent and that of other notable Estuary speakers, such as David Beckham, Nasser Hussain or Jamie Oliver.
The Tenth Doctor doesn't have:
- glottal stops (he pronounces daughter as door-tsah, not as door.ah — sorry for the lame transcription)
- intrusive R (either that or I just didn't notice)
- L-vocalization (same comment as above)
- A deeper "i" (that sounds almost like "oi" with Estuary speakers)
Overall, The Tenth Doctor sounds much more RP than the other Estuary speakers, and they, respectively, sound much more Cockney. I can't find a single Estuary speaker on the web that would sound like The Tenth Doctor.
Solution 1:
David Tennant as The Doctor speaks with an Estuary English accent
David Tennant as David Tennant speaks with a 'Scottish' accent; since there's not single Scottish accent, that's not really a complete answer, but I can't place it since he was born near Edinburgh, but raised near Glasgow
Solution 2:
David Tennant is Scottish.
His accent in Dr. Who? is Gallifreyan, since he's from the planet Gallifrey.
Charlie McDonnell is from Bath, UK. So I guess it's a regular middle class accent.
Solution 3:
According to Wikipedia, "Tennant was born on 18 April 1971 in Bathgate, West Lothian in Scotland and grew up in Ralston, Renfrewshire". I would expect that his accent derives from that part of Scotland but that he adjusts his accent towards RP for some acting rôles.
The same source says "Charles Joseph "Charlie" McDonnell (born 1 October 1990) is a British vlogger and musician from Bath, Somerset." The stereotypical rural Somerset accent is very distinctive. I am unable to distinguish his accent from an average British home counties accent though.