New Torchwood series confirmed - official

[Maestro]

Oh, yes, Glenister was supposed to be using a Texas accent. I believe he even spoke of how he wanted the challenge of trying to replicate not just an American accent, but a Texas one because it would be more difficult than the generic Midwestern American accent. Sorry, pardner, butcha'll got more work to do.

 

[wamdue]

Demons was one of the worst series ive ever seen, and I saw the first episode of Bone Kickers, and a the first two of Spooks: Code 9, good god what was Philip Glenister thinking.

 

[David cgc]

If American characters speak with a British slant that's fine with me, makes up for all the truly terrible representations of British characters in American telly over the years

Trust me, Philip Glenister got full revenge on us with his Texas accent in Demons. Trust me, the UK owes us no more revenge.

Indeed. I had no idea who the actor was, but it was obvious to me from the start he was faking the accent.

And not once did it ever occur to me that he was supposed to be speaking with a Texas accent.

I concur with your assessment. That actually sounds more northern to me. Its sort of floating around a big circle stretching from Ohio to Maine. Though in this interview he said he was going for "generic american."

 

[captcalhoun]

they offered him the chance to make it a Brit character, but he refused.

he's just revenge for fucking dick van bloody dyke.

 

[I am not Spock]

I wonder of if James Masters Captain John, will make any apperances in this "international" Torchwood?

Yes please!

 

[Captaindemotion]

they offered him the chance to make it a Brit character, but he refused.

he's just revenge for fucking dick van bloody dyke.

Apparently he was also offered the chance to play the American Gene Hunt in the US Life on Mars. Refused that too.

I still think the worst example of a Brit doing an American accent was Paterson Joseph (who I like in Peep Show) in Jekyl. Put me off him ever getting Dr Who (and yes, I know he wouldn't be doing an American accent for that, but it just did).

 

[doubleohfive]

According to tvguide.com, the primary location will be L.A. Hopefully, unlike most other british shows they won't be using british pronunciations and word uses without the accent and bother to actually do things right.

Do they say it's location as in for shooting, or just for the writer's offices?

Many shows will have their writer's offices based here in L.A. while setting up production elsewhere -- Happy Town, Legend of the Seeker, Ugly Betty, Smallville, BSG... it's not uncommon.

Being that Russell T. Davies is living in L.A. now, it could just be that they're writing it here and shooting elsewhere... or not. I don't know. That's why I'm asking.

 

[Kelso]

I still think the worst example of a Brit doing an American accent was Paterson Joseph (who I like in Peep Show) in Jekyl.

No, that was great.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

While I liked "Children of Earth," I'd at least like a few stand alone episodes to establish the new characters before we jump headlong into the new mega-arc.

If American characters speak with a British slant that's fine with me, makes up for all the truly terrible representations of British characters in American telly over the years

Trust me, Philip Glenister got full revenge on us with his Texas accent in Demons. Trust me, the UK owes us no more revenge.

Yeah. That's pretty bad. It's not thoroughly unconvincing but it seems to go in & out a lot. And even when the accent is accurate, the tone sounds like it's an American putting on a funny TV voice, like he's trying to do a bad Dirty Harry impression or something.

I also thought Michael Gambon's attempt to replicate a Texas accent for that Lyndon Johnson biopic was a bizarre failure.

I wonder of if James Masters Captain John, will make any apperances in this "international" Torchwood?

Yes please!

I'd be up for that. I'm not sure he'd have time though. Right now, he's busy doing CBS' new remake of Hawaii 5-0.

And if "Spartacus" is any indication Barrowman will finally be getting Captain Jack Jr out for the world to see.

Oh great. And here, I thought Torchwood had moved beyond its juvenile "adult" content.

And if they insist on Jack Jr., then I'm going to insist that they go back and shoot the scenes from "Greeks Bearing Gifts" that we all wanted to see but never did. Fair's only fair you know.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

BTW, if you're looking for another example of bad accents, I present a character from Made in Canada-- a Canadian actor playing an American TV network executive speaking in the thickest Canadian accent I've ever heard. And I don't know whether this was an intentional extra layer of irony or just really inappropriate casting, but part of the gag is that this ugly American doesn't know anything about Canada. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbsC7Pxv5po&feature=related (starts around 1:25)

 

[BenRoethig]

BTW, if you're looking for another example of bad accents, I present a character from Made in Canada-- a Canadian actor playing an American TV network executive speaking in the thickest Canadian accent I've ever heard. And I don't know whether this was an intentional extra layer of irony or just really inappropriate casting, but part of the gag is that this ugly American doesn't know anything about Canada. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbsC7Pxv5po&feature=related (starts around 1:25)

Could be from upper Montana, North Dakota, minnesooota, or wisconsin.

 

[Sci]

I never bought the whole, "UNIT's name was changed because the UN complained" story.

It's not the like UN has the actual power to order the BBC to not use their name. It's not they're a corporate brand or anything.

My take was they wrote a strongly-worded letter to BBC or RTD asking them drop the connection, and BBC/RTD obliged.

Also of note, In Jack's opening narration of S1 Torchwood episodes, he mentions that Torchwood is "beyond United Nations." This bit was removed from the narration of S2 episodes. I always wondered if someone from the UN complained about that.

I for one would hope that that line was removed because it's just stupid -- the United Nations is not a government; everything is "beyond the United Nations" -- rather than because someone at the U.N. bitched.

I'm not a UN basher - but if, with all the shit going on in the world right now (or indeed at any given time), someone in that organisation seriously took time out of his working day to write to the BBC about its possible link to a fictional organisation in a fictional - indeed fantastical series - then they have a seriously f*cking warped view of their priorities. There's seriously nothing else that they could be doing with their time?!

You do know the UN spent entire day discussing BSG with Ron Moore and Edward James Olmos, right?

And you realize that one symposium organized and hosted by a U.N. agency doesn't mean that the whole U.N. was involved, right? It means that someone from their P.R. department organized it.

It seem to me there's a sci-fi fan high up in the UN. One that loves BSG and doesn't care for Doctor Who, thus they give BSG a lot of praise and attention and give Doctor Who a hard time over UNIT.

Um, yeah, I call bullshit on that one. Probably someone from the P.R. department objected to the U.N.I.T. reference, and probably someone else entirely decided to do the BSG thing. There's no particular reason to assume that the right hand even knew what the left hand was doing.

BTW, if you're looking for another example of bad accents, I present a character from Made in Canada-- a Canadian actor playing an American TV network executive speaking in the thickest Canadian accent I've ever heard. And I don't know whether this was an intentional extra layer of irony or just really inappropriate casting, but part of the gag is that this ugly American doesn't know anything about Canada. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbsC7Pxv5po&feature=related (starts around 1:25)

To be fair, Americans from Minnesota and other northern states sometimes have accents similar to Canadian accents like that guy's.

 

[Winterwind]

I remember "beyond the government, beyond the police" but I don't remember ever hearing "beyond the UN". Mind you, my memory of TW S1 is hazy and I always tuned out the opening narration because I found it daft as opposed to dramatic to begin with.