Spitting Image

[AceofClubs]

Hello again, It's always made me wonder why the Queen Mother character seemed to have a Brummie accent. I could understand it if it was a Scottish or even Welsh but this has puzzled me for ages.Was it supposed to make it more funny?

[andy-hughes]

She was supposed to sound like Beryl Reid - a famous actress, sadly no longer with us.

The joke was, because the QM never gave interviews, hardly anyone in the wider world had any idea of how she sounded when she spoke, so SI gace her a Beryl Reid accent as a joke - subtle but effective!

[New Judge]

Yes, Andy is quite right. The SI puppet of QE the QM looked remarkably like Beryl Reid. Strangely though, Beryl was not a Brummie. She was brought up in Manchester and did not have a natural Brummie accent. However in the 1950s she won a role in the very popular radio show "Educating Archie". She played "Marlene", a dreadful Birmingham schoolgirl with giant earrings who sported a very thick Brummie accent. Beryl went on to use this accent in a number of roles.

By the way, for younger viewers, "Archie" who was being educated in the show was a ventriloquist's dummy, the vent being Peter Brough. Yes that's right, a ventriloquist act on the radio !!! Archie was a sort of young, upper class twit who wore a broad-striped blazer and referred to his operator as "Brough". Various guests took part in the show among whom were Max Bygraves, Hattie Jacques and Julie Andrews.