"We need never be ashamed of our tears"

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 01 July 2003 15:42:26

Is what my good friend Charles Dickens says in Great Expectations. Between you and me, tears certainly sprang to my eyes when I heard the accent of the young man who plays Nicholas Nickelby

in this year's Cinematic Production

of the same name.

I sat through the entire film engrossed in my mission to decipher his brogue in order to discover where he is from. Is he English? Surely not- the was a distinct American twang there. No, hold on- New Zealand? France? Zimbabwe? Canada?

Try as I might, I could not discover the origins of Charlie. I was convinced the theatre had pulled the wool over the eyes of Dickens fans everywhere and shortchanged us with an actor who a) wasn't from the country of the novel's birth (horror of horrors) and b) who couldn't even do a decent accent.

Online I went to prove my point- and ashamed I am. Oh yes, you guessed it. He's from Newcastle, England. Er....forgive me for being foreign but the only Tyneside Accent I've ever heard is of the Aufwiedersehn Pet variety.

I'm so confused!