# What regional accents do the guests on QI have? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 24, 2015, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-regional-accents-do-the-guests-on-qi-have/718468 "2015-04-24T19:31:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-regional-accents-do-the-guests-on-qi-have/718468/21 "2015-04-27T21:56:21Z")
> [@sweet\_chemist](#): > > **Moe** … > > Sandi … I arrived in this country at the age of fourteen, I’d been thrown out of school in the United States. It’s hard to imagine now but I arrived with a very thick New York accent. … Given how finely attuned the British are to nuance of regional/class accent, Sandi’s ‘thick’ NY accent may have actually have been quite minor. Brits returning after only 6 months in Australia are said to have picked up a detectable twang. ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2015, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-regional-accents-do-the-guests-on-qi-have/718468/22 "2015-04-27T22:13:15Z")
If Dara sounds different to you from the other Irish guests, it might be because his first language is Irish Gaelic. And he also has a slight lisp. I’d have to disagree with **bonzer** about Liza Tarbuck - she might have been born in Liverpool, but she has no trace of a Liverpool accent whatsoever. She just speaks generic Estuary English (which is the standard middle-class accent of London and the surrounding area – educated, but not posh). The only QI guest I can think of who has a Liverpool accent is John Bishop. But it’s well known that his accent is fake and part of his stage persona. ---
**Author:** ![Moe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moe/32/2972_2.png) [@Moe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moe)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-regional-accents-do-the-guests-on-qi-have/718468/23 "2015-04-28T03:26:37Z")
> [@sweet\_chemist](#): > > **Moe** you are right about Sandi, it was from [Series G episode 7](https://youtu.be/2f7urmRaRxY?t=20m54s). [The transcript](https://sites.google.com/site/qitranscripts//transcripts/7x07) if you can’t watch the video is quoted below. > > Sandi > I arrived in this country at the age of fourteen, I’d been thrown out of school in the United States. It’s hard to imagine now but I arrived with a very thick New York accent. And I was sent to boarding school and for six weeks nobody spoke to me. Six weeks… I know, it’s like a therapy for me, this programme… and then one night we were watching – I thought, I have to change my accent – and one night we were watching, er Brief Encounter, er, with Trevor Hyde and Celia Johnston, and I thought, “I’m going to speak like that.” And that’s why I sound like I’m trapped in a black-and-white film, but it was… to do with bullying, to do with bullying at school. Well, you were in… your fair share of bullying at school Stephen, it’s not, er… Yep, that’s the one. Glad I remembered right. I would so love to hear her speak some NY ease. Please post a link if it exists! ---
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-regional-accents-do-the-guests-on-qi-have/718468/24 "2015-04-28T06:57:39Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Geordie. Ross Noble grew up in Cramlington, which is in Northumberland rather than Tyne and Wear, but close enough to Newcastle that most residents would consider themselves Geordies. (I vaguely knew him at school, as that really funny kid a couple of years ahead of me who came to school on a unicycle). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-regional-accents-do-the-guests-on-qi-have/718468/25 "2015-04-28T11:33:31Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Dara grew up posher than Ed? [That explains why he was the one with a harp in his house.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JlyAEAY1XQ) I can’t watch YTs in work. I didn’t say he grew up posher (I have no clue what O’Briain’s upbringing was like), just that his accent is, at least to my ears ;). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-regional-accents-do-the-guests-on-qi-have/718468/26 "2015-04-28T11:37:43Z")
> [@Kiyoshi](#): > > If Dara sounds different to you from the other Irish guests, it might be because his first language is Irish Gaelic. And he also has a slight lisp. I imagine he learned Irish as he was learning English, so not sure what his first language would be in that instance, but either way I cannot detect anything in his accent that would indicate to me that he is a Gaelic speaker. It just sounds like a middle-class Dublin accent. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-regional-accents-do-the-guests-on-qi-have/718468/27 "2015-04-28T13:16:21Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > I think Rich splits his time between the US and the UK. He’s a regular on various panel shows over here. He’s also made quite a few really excellent documentaries for the BBC, including some about Hollywood and the use of stereotypes, particularly Southern ones. He’s a clever, thoughtful and funny man. I’ve always liked him. I think I still have the old Snigglets book around here somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2015, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-regional-accents-do-the-guests-on-qi-have/718468/28 "2015-04-28T15:08:54Z")
> [@TwoCarrotSnowman](#): > > Ross Noble grew up in Cramlington, which is in Northumberland rather than Tyne and Wear, but close enough to Newcastle that most residents would consider themselves Geordies. (I vaguely knew him at school, as that really funny kid a couple of years ahead of me who came to school on a unicycle). Yeah, traditionally a Cramlington accent would be classified as Pitmatic, but I’m not sure that’s really been the case since it became a New Town in the Sixties. My impression is that a large proportion of the families moving in then were, like mine, from Tyneside, and that, so far as there is a distinctive Cramlington accent, it’s probably more Geordie than anything else, these days. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-regional-accents-do-the-guests-on-qi-have/718468.md?page=1)