I was watching Terry Pratchett:Shaking Hands with Death and from the other room my wife asked “is that Jude Law?”
Initially I was confused, then I realized that they indeed have a similar accent/speaking style.
Is there a name for it?
I’m not from the UK and don’t know a whole lot about the various regional accents there, but Pratchett and Law grew up only about 30 miles apart. However, Law is a big city boy from London (Blackheath neighborhood) and Pratchett was from the southern part of Buckinghamshire (born in Beaconsfield, went to high school in High Wycombe).
It’s called RP, Received Pronunciation. Received Pronunciation - Wikipedia
It’s only partially connected with where you grew up; if you grew up in London or Bucks (like Law or Pratchett) you might have a local accent or you might speak RP, depending on your class. Jude Law is very posh, so he definitely would not have a North London accent (similar to Cockney but with a few differences) and Pratchett isn’t posh but grew up at a time when most educated people in Southern England (and, to an extent, elsewhere in England) would end up with an RP accent. These days those people are somewhat more likely to retain a local accent.
Does Law have pronounced rhotacism? Because that’d always been the distinguishing feature of Sir Terry’s speech to me, and I don’t recall Law having it.