I would suggest that there are minute south Yorkshire twinges in Clarkson’s voice, particularly in his moments of indignation, but no, not enough to confidentely locate him without prior knowledge.
Aye, but one female lad would be a “lass”.
The interesting thing (to me, at least) is that James Marsters (an American) was trying his best to mimic the actual accent of Anthony Stuart Head, while Head, for his part as Rupert Giles, was using a different, Oxbridge-ish professorial accent.
Spike was indeed a rich dilletante in the nineteenth century when he was made into a vampire. After he became undead, he intentionally tried to toughen his image by using the yob accent and slang.
Does anyone else have other people we can learn something about via their accents? Particularly ones that Americans probably have missed?
It’s easier with actors than singers, because you hear more speech from actors. But it’s interesting to me to pick out the Bimingham roots in the speech of guys like Robert Plant and Ozzy Osbourne. However, Ozzy’s speech these days has some overlying issues above and beyond his upbringing.
Thinking of some of the guys from The Full Monty … what are Robert Carlyle’s and Mark Addy’s native accents? Addy is interesting in the American sit-com Still Standing – you can still pick up the “English” in his speech very easily, but a lot of times he makes it work as kind of a whine (which well sets the tone for the character).
Robert Carlyle’s a Glaswegian - his ability to adopt accents such as The Full Monty impresses and sometimes deceives a lot of Brits.
“Life support? When I were lad, we didna ha’ nay life support. We took breath on one planet, an 'eld it till next.”
I swear I remember going to a web site where you could hear clips of different accents from all around England. This might be the one. I guess maybe this doesn’t really have anything to do with the OP, but it’s still fun to listen.
Probably Collect Britain.
This is another good one, which has the advantages of including historical recordings which often feature now-disappearing accents and dialect, and translations of the latter. (I just followed the ‘Baking bread in Welwick, Yorkshire’ link, and heard “Well first I gorra clean bowel…”)
The only trouble I’m having with the CollectBritain site is that I can’t figure out where are more samples, besides those 5 on that page…can you help?
Another good one that Americans might be familiar with is David Tenant, i.e. the Tenth Doctor. On the show, he’s got a general SE England accent, but in reality he has a nice Scottish lilt to his voice.
Go to Search -> Advanced Search -> Object Type -> Recorded Speech -> OK.
Yup - he’s pretty impressive. I’d also note Christopher Ecclestone’s accent in Shallow Grave as a pretty convincing Scottish impression.
Try ‘browse whole collection’ on the right! 
And dressing like Billy Idol. 
I always figured he was supposed to be Sid Vicious, with what’s her name…his girlfriend, as Nancy.
http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=021MMC900S18518U00004C01
This sounds like Steve Jones’ brother to me. Well, on further review, not so much. But to this “standard American” accented dude, it was very similar for the first bit. Jones still says “ftree” for 3. How typical is he for working class London?
Clarkson is from Doncaster in South Yorkshire. Hammond is from Solihull, West Midlands and moved to North Yorkshire (Ripon) as a teenager. If you can’t be born in Godzone count®y, you might as well move there.
Yeah, fairly typical. But the Brummie you link to certainly isn’t! 