Long live the Queen's English

Britain is suffering from a crisis shortage of actors who can speak Received Pronunciation. Well, okay to be more precise there seems to be a shortage of ballet-dancing actresses with middle-class accents. As this morning's Leader suggests we need to record RP-accents before they die out. You can idle away hours at the British Library Sound Archive, listening to how British accents have changed.

Here's two: a young Elizabeth addressing the children of the nation during the War. 

And this is also superb: a recording from 1953 of a Northumbrian shepherd called Simey Telfer.

Robbie Millen

Comments

[Munin]

The link to the Northumbrian shepherd recording is broken - this should work.
http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=021SED00C908S41U00006C01

[Candadai Tirumalai]

America has its distinctive regional accents but from this point of view Britain is the linguist's paradise, such is the variation and diversity of accent. I was used to the Received Pronunciation of the old BBC but when I came to Britain in 1973 I encountered the speech of Yoekshire, Lancashire, Scotland, and northern Ireland--and Cockney: fascinating variations. A Professor in India who was born at the beginning of the 20th century had introduced me to Daniel Jones's Dictionary of Pronunciation, which enshrined RP.
Bernard Shaw's Professor Higgins of course wished to cast both accent and class in a new light.