Coronation Street: Straight out of the Dales

(This post was originally posted by Stevie Dawson on the Coronation Street Blog in September 2013.)

Weatherfield is positively brimming with immigrants these days. Although from not too far afield. Yorkshire in fact. For many years now, that familiar Lancashire twang of Coronation Street residents has been diluted somewhat and there seem to be less true 'locals' than ever before.

Hayley Cropper's lovely dialect is from Accrington, in deepest Lancashire and back in the 1960s and 70s this was pretty much how the whole cast spoke, either naturally or acted. It was a very working class sound and perfect for the Lowryesque, industrial setting of Coronation Street in the Salford of the not-so-swinging Sixties.

I first noticed the invasion of the Yorkshire folk however back when the Harris family were in residence at the first half of the last decade. It was written into their story that they had moved from Sheffield under witness protection and sure enough, Tommy, Angela, Katy and Craig all had the same Yorkshire accent. Their origins were clear enough, but what about David Platt? He was born on the Street but wouldn't sound out of place propping up the bar in Emmerdale's Woolpack. And Liz McDonald, certainly another one from across the border and of course Beverley Callard appeared in Emmerdale at one point. Then there are others like the much missed Vera Duckworth, Ivy Tilsley, Des Barnes and the more recent Becky McDonald, sister Kylie, Gary Windass...the list goes on.

Kevin Webster has a different but arguably more accurate accent than Hayley considering the area in which Coronation Street is set. Michael Le Vell, who plays Kevin, was born in Newton Heath which is very close to central Manchester. Despite being Scottish, John Michie who plays killer Karl doesn't do a bad job of a similar 'Manc' accent, much better than his Mrs. Rob James-Collier had a great broad Manchester twang too. Some of the cast hail from South Manchester and Cheshire so characters like Steve and Eileen have accents that are a little less broad. There have been accents from all around the country, a good number from London, most specifically the cockney Baldwin clan. The writers probably avoid tipping the balance with non-northern accents, but it's probably not the end of the world if large chunks of the cast originate from the Dales.

However if you want to hear the true Corrie accent, listen to characters like little Simon Barlow, Chesney, Sally Wester, Dierdre Barlow and of course Hayley. Flippin' great.

Follow the Bluenose CorrieBlog on Twitter and Facebook