It was the moment millions of soap fans had been waiting for . . . London-born Michelle Collins, best known as conniving cockney Cindy Beale in EastEnders, playing the part of a Mancunian landlady in Coronation Street.
So, has she mastered the accent after hiring a dialect coach and spending months ‘genning up’ on how to say ‘mithering’?
Or should we say ‘Saw’? Collins’ character Stella Price repeatedly said ‘saw’ rather than ‘so’ in her opening scenes with Steve McDonald when interviewed by him to manage the Rovers. And she threw in a ‘th’ as in “than’th building” to emphasise her northern credentials with a shovel.
Collins told the M.E.N. she wanted to achieve a subtle Mancunian accent, rather than a full-on Betty Williams.
But at times it sounded more like she’d wandered across from the wrong side of the Pennines and belonged on the set of Last of the Summer Wine.
Saw...is it time to sack the dialect coach? Not yet. Collins is infinitely watchable and exudes charisma.
Together with her soap family made up of sexy boyfriend Karl Munro, played by Taggart star John Michie, and stroppy daughter Eva, played by Walkden actress Catherine Tyldesley – who viewers will see for the first time tonight – they’ll breathe excitement into storylines that have become either implausible or tired of late.
Collins is expecting to get flak for her attempts at being a Manc but for her it will be worth it if she can finally lay Cindy to rest. And if she can’t do that after accepting a key role in Britain’s best-loved soap, she never will.
But unfortunately, those not in the know last night will have immediately thought ‘what’s Cindy Beale doing in the Rovers?’ when they saw her stroll through in her stilettos.
Yet that’s partly because the 50-year-old has aged remarkably well and still looks just like bitchy Cindy, the character who caused mayhem in Albert Square for a decade.
Ultimately, though, Collins’ small screen charm will ensure only dialect pedants refuse to stick with her gritty northern matriarch while she gets to grips with her new role. As Steve McDonald says at the end of his interview: “You certainly know how to make a first impression.”
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She needs to get a different voice coach. She definitely sounded more Yorkshire than Lancashire. But... more importantly why try and change her accent at all. Her normal speaking voice would be far more acceptable, as I spent most of the time cringing at her accent rather than listening to what she said.
Her accent was DIRE.
Is tha playin a lass from Yoksheer me duk?
Unconvincing. Unenthralling. Absolutely expected. Who are your linguists - Londoners?
Does anybody at all pull of a Manc accent in coronation st? Apart from a hanful, they all have daft accents and say silly stuff like "Lets go back to 'us' house" - Who the chuffin'eck says that in Manc? Never heard it in my life and lived all over Manc....embarrassing!!!
Apart from one or two who maybe Mancs anyway most of the cast have or put on Yorkshire accents and the scriptwriters (presumably from down South) used litter the script with Yorkshire sayings and words that prob went out of fashion in Yorkshire 40 years ago, 'Aye happen'
No she didn't
A shocking accent and the foundations of what appears to weak characters and plot devices.
Please ITV/Granada :- cull them now, before the fans flee in their droves!!!!!
Bobbins
I didn't think it was all that bad. You could tell it was "practiced" but so what? I don't really have a preconceived image of her as Cindy so maybe it's easier for me to give her the benefit of the doubt.
Hands of Stone - be careful what you say or the MEN "We love Corrie" brigade will come and get you!
its about time this crappy soap opera called it a day..
Is there a single person on this awful show that actually sounds like a Mancunian?
Personally I did not think it was that bad at all. She din't sound like a Cockney did she.
I also thought last nights episode was quite funny with the Tracey saga !.
She probably had Dick Van Dykes voice coach, when he (an American) was taught to speak working class English i.e. cockney.
She tried it sounded more yorkshire, it was an accent on its own, not any northern one I have ever heard spoken.Mind you me being from the north could never do a southern accent if I had to, so good on her, Im sure she will get it more northern as she goes along.
thats the worsed manchester accent ive ever heard. the real mark jones.
Liz McDonald has a Hull accent, Becky has a West Yorkshire accent as do David and Gail . They are all just using their home town accents and haven't bothered to change them so why should Michelle Collins. There are very few actors in show who sound like anyone I've ever met in Salford. The accents are pretty terrible, as is the dialect with which the majority of dialogue is spoken. I suggest that the rwiters and actors undertake a short course in sociolinguistics if they want to try and make the show more realistic, happen!
As good as dick van dykes cockney.
There were no trouble up at th'mill.
Meanwhile in Afghanistan and Syria...
Muppets !
I watched an episode of Prisoner Cell Block H once, set in Melbourne, and clearly one of the prison officers (meant to be local) had a North Brisbane lilt to her accent, it was soooooo embarassing....
Corries is full of characters with Yorkshire accents that are in now way explained (David Platt being the main culprit) so Michelle will fit right in.
Can´t stand the woman with or without a Manchester accent....will seriously have to reconsider watching Corrie now she is in it....
Who cares?
It really made me cringe. One of the worst I've heard in ages.
It was as believeable as Kevin Kennedy in a wig,trying to be a landlady;then again at least he sounds right...Get Corrie on radio.
Does it really matter, Most of the people who live in Manchester these days dont even speak english nevermind speak with a mancunian accent, So why should they in a soap.