One of the young actors in BBCs new dark drama Rillington Place has been dogged by negative tweets. In the second episode played by Nico Mirallegro, viewers seemingly found themselves put off by actor Mirallegro’s accent on the show which some said switched from Welsh to cockney and back again, I watched this episode and did not think anything of it.
If the BBC drama department had thought about their actions of the actor changing accents or made sure the viewers were in the full knowledge of the facts…Seemingly he broke into Welsh when he was “back home” in Wales which you would expect and back into cockney while in London “to blend in”. This may have been done in the 1950s but as far as I am aware not today which is why it seems very confusing to the general public.
The general public have been complaining about the switching of accents but the BBC had done it with good reason, personally I would have not bothered with this but I payed the photographer £6 for the use of the photograph, shot in Glasgow in April 2016…now thats confusing !
I would have kept him in Welsh saving all the confusion.
I thought the Welsh / London accent business was fairly obvious. He was an impressionable lad who wanted to fit in! There were other problems with the direction, including one scene where the 180deg. rule was broken for no reason…. and thus visually confusing. Finally, why did they use BR Mark 1 railway coach interiors and exteriors (which did not exist at the time) when the appropriate coaches were readily available? This sort of carelessness after spoils period dramas. Having said all that, it is a very engaging and disturbing drama.