History OohMeAccentsSlipping / LiveActionTV

* ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess''; in the episode "The Xena Scrolls", the framing sequence is set in the 1930s with archeologist Janice Covington (Renee O'Conner) and linguist Melinda Pappas (Lucy Lawless) discovering Gabrielle's scrolls depicting her adventures with Xena. During the episode, they meet a French soldier named Jacques Suer (played by Ted Raimi), who sports a comically bad French accent. It is later revealed that Jacques is really "Jack", a New Jersey native who joined the French military after being declared 4-F during his Army physical. He promptly dropped the accent at that point.

** For "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft Turn Left]]", Creator/BilliePiper apparently lost the accent she had used as Rose in Series 1 and 2, so she speaks with a noticeable lisp. She also has a pronounced overbite that she never used to have, mildly affecting her speech (and possibly causing the lisp). Piper said in an interview that she sounded like that because it was cold as they were shooting in winter and she was wearing a "tiny jacket". On the other hand, some fans note that Rose sounds quite a bit like the Tenth Doctor down to his inflections and speculate that this was intentional to show how much Rose had become like him.

** While Creator/JennaColeman uses her Lancashire accent for [[AlternateSelf most versions]] of Clara Oswald, she uses a cockney accent (and, to a lesser extent, an RP-like one) for the character of Victorian-era Clara. It's a rather good rendition of cockney, but she sometimes slips out of it and you can briefly hear traces of her native accent. Justified in retrospect given that [[spoiler:the Victorian Clara is supposed to be an incarnation of the modern-day Clara, so the accent slip may be the original Clara asserting herself]].

* ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'': James Marsters' British accent slips occasionally as the British Capt. John Hart.

* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': Creator/JayneAtkinson was originally born in England but moved to the U.S. (first in the Miami area) when she was nine. Her own accent is thus a hybrid of the English and American accents, but on the show, she goes for a more authoritative baritone (to more closely mimic Thomas Gibson's portrayal of [[NamesTheSame Hotch]]), which she doesn't always hold.

*** Probably not a Scouse issue, but the fact that the Fourth Doctor [[NoPronunciationGuide pronounces the name of the Time Lord home planet as "Galli-FREE"]] deserves a brief mention here.[[note]]Interestingly enough, Baker's cameo as "The Curator", a potential future incarnation of the Doctor, in [[Recap/DoctorWho50thASTheDayOfTheDoctor "The Day of the Doctor"]], doesn't do this.[[/note]]

** Brookly native Michael K. Williams generally keeps a mild Bawlmer twang in his dialogue but one moment of him calling Stringer "bruh" still has that New Yorker sound to it.

* Emma Samms: When she [[TheOtherDarrin took over the role of Fallon Carrington-Colby]], had a fake American accent that barely concealed her natural British one.

* ''Series/{{Haven}}'': Although the show takes place in Maine, it is [[CaliforniaDoubling shot in Canada]], and several of the actors are Canadian, most notably lead actors Lucas Bryant (Nathan) and Adam "Wrestling/{{Edge}}" Copeland. While the former attempts to hide his Canadian accent, the latter makes no effort.

** John Levene, who played the Second/Third/Fourth Doctor companion Benton, was TheOtherMarty for Benton's original actor and had never done a speaking part before. He didn't want to speak in his natural broad Salisbury accent for the part and affected a light Northern accent (placed by the ExpandedUniverse in Bolton), but you can still hear him battling valiantly with his [[UsefulNotes/TheWestCountry West Country]] rhoticism in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E3TheInvasion "The Invasion"]] (particularly the word "car").

** Dylan Everett's came through "load" and clear in a few scenes, perhaps to emphasize his character's a CountryMouse from northern Ontario, far from home in UsefulNotes/{{Toronto}}.

** In the episode "The Doomsday Machine", James Doohan (Scotty) noticeably lapses into his native Canadian accent at one point. It's the words "Thirty seconds later, blammo" as he's explaining to Kirk how he's wired the ''Constellation'' to self-destruct for the climax.

* Creator/ClaudiaBlack: Fortunately, her most [[Series/{{Farscape}} notable]] [[Series/StargateSG1 roles]] allow her to use her natural accent (which is a pleasant sounding but unusual mix of Australian and British that people usually assume is a bad attempt at one of those accents anyway). In her guest appearances on American TV shows (''Hercules'', ''Xena'', ''Series/{{NCIS}}'', etc.) she tries to use an American accent which always slips near the end of sentences.

* Philip Glenister's American accent in the British show ''Series/{{Demons}}'' somewhat inverts this trope. It's ''technically'' correct—vowel sounds right, and rhotic where it should be—but to an American ear it sounds a little ''too'' perfect: there's no hint of any regional variation, nor is there any of the inflection or intonations a native speaker usually has ... it sounds a little monotonous, actually, sort of a generic American accent that no American actually has. The writers also seem to have purposely given him a little help by mostly avoiding, in his dialogue, not only any distinctly American words or turns of phrase but even writing around the situations where he'd have to use either them or their British equivalent. Later on the series, there ''are'' some scenes where this trope actually happens and you can tell he's actually British.

* Richard Glanister's American accent in the British show ''Series/{{Demons}}'' somewhat inverts this trope. It's ''technically'' correct—vowel sounds right, and rhotic where it should be—but to an American ear it sounds a little ''too'' perfect: there's no hint of any regional variation, nor is there any of the inflection or intonations a native speaker usually has ... it sounds a little monotonous, actually, sort of a generic American accent that no American actually has. The writers also seem to have purposely given him a little help by mostly avoiding, in his dialogue, not only any distinctly American words or turns of phrase but even writing around the situations where he'd have to use either them or their British equivalent. Later on the series, there ''are'' some scenes where this trope actually happens and you can tell he's actually British.

* ''Series/BurnNotice'': Meet Fiona Glenanne, the former Irish terrorist who can't hold an Irish accent to save her life. Creator/GabrielleAnwar is otherwise fantastic, so after the pilot, they gave her an American accent along with the explanation "I can't very well be talking like a freakin' leprechaun now, can I?" Ahh, ''much'' better. And Anwar is [[FakeIrish quite English]], so her FakeAmerican is even better than that.

*** To be fair this is pretty much Paul's standard "acting" accent — he rarely uses his natural, noticeably Scouse voice in his roles, including his extensive voiceover/narration work.
*** He acknowledges it in the commentary; apparently he was too tired to stick to his "acting" accent.

*** Sanchez is played by an American actor ([[Series/DempseyAndMakepeace Micheal Brandon]]), albeit one who has spent the past thirty-odd years living in the UK.

* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'':
** Dear Creator/GinaBellman, we'll argue about whether or not you're an excellent actress or a poor one. In some way, your power is in that argument. But, the accent, oh, the accent. Whenever you take on a non-Brit accent, it weaves like a drunk.
** Which might be part of the point, if you really think about it. Most of her marks are American businessmen. In one episode ("The Rashomon Job,") she mentions that to Americans, all accents sound the same (during the various flashbacks, the members of her team portray her accent as Cockney, Scottish, and pure indecipherable gibberish.) It might be possible that Sophie isn't trying to sound authentic in her cons, but is trying to sound the way her target expects her to sound.

** There are numerous American movie or television shows in which a character has tried and failed to do an Australian accent, often to the point where she doesn't even realize it is meant to be Australian until someone else points it out. Notable for its bad Australian accents is this show, with over five different accents being called "Australian". Only Victoria native Emilie de Ravin does a genuine Aussie accent (and even then, some viewers complained about how "[[RealityIsUnrealistic fake]]" her accent sounded).
** The worst example of a failed Australian accent is Claire's mother, Carole, who is portrayed by a British actress. Especially for Australians, her scenes are very hard to watch.

** Alan Dale, who is from New Zealand, plays Charles Widmore, who is English, on ''Lost''. When his accent slipped in "There's No Place Like Home," many Americans didn't notice, but Brits and New Zealanders did.
** It slipped earlier than that too, towards the end of "The Shape of Things to Come", prompting some on Lostpedia to wonder aloud if there was an actual, plot-relevant reason for it.
** Sun originally spoke with a Korean accent for most of the first two seasons of the show. However, at some point in the series, the accent completely disappeared and Sun inexplicably spoke with a perfect American accent.

* ''Series/MurphyBrown'':
** Corky Sherwood would slip into a southern drawl whenever she became extremely angry.
** Corky (like Faith Ford) is from Louisiana. As a news anchor, she'd have had to learn to drop the accent on-air, so it makes perfect sense for her to revert when stressed.

** {{Averted|Trope}} in ''Series/PowerRangersMysticForce'' with Xander, who was from Australia, allowing his actor, Richard Brancatisano, to use his native accent. Also, with ''Series/PowerRangersDinoCharge'', where New Zealand actor James Davies was allowed to stick with his accent to play Chase.
*** Brancatisano and Firass Dirani, who played Nick, had actually initially auditioned for each others' roles (Brancatisano had auditioned to play Nick, and Dirani had auditioned to play Xander). While Dirani's American accent proved to be fairly decent, Brancatisano's American accent was much less so, as shown [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xa7cYMD-Dc in this commercial for the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Las Vegas]]; he's the young man who uses an unconventional method to try to chat up a young woman at the bar, only to be confronted by the woman's (presumed) bodyguards.

*** This seems to be especially noticeable [[TheKidsAreAmerican whenever there's a kid actor on the show]]: In particular, in ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'', whenever Jayden and Antonio appear in flashbacks, the kid actors simply cannot hide their accents. Particularly notable in that present-day Antonio is played by Steven Skyler, an American of Thai and German descent who usually succeeds in affecting a Hispanic accent, though even he occasionally slips up from time to time.

* ''Series/{{Rome}}'': Creator/KevinMcKidd kept slipping in and out of his native Scottish accent.

** In the episode "The Doomsday Machine", James Doohan (Scotty) noticeably lapses into his native Canadian accent at one point.
*** It's the words "Thirty seconds later, blammo" as he's explaining to Kirk how he's wired the ''Constellation'' to self-destruct for the climax.
** Of course Scotty's accent isn't exactly what one might consider 100% authentic anyway.
** A common source for ''Trek''ian parody is to riff on Scotty's tendency to warn Captain Kirk about the status of the engines (usually lines like "I'm givin 'er all she's got" or "the engines cannae take this much longer") by having him shout "Captain, I can't hold this accent much longer!"

* ''Series/TheSuiteLifeOnDeck'': One episode where the group goes to the author of Literature/SherlockHolmes' [[JustForPun home]], the original draft of the first Holmes story, which is on loan from the Queen's library, is stolen. Cody then tries to figure out who the thief is, and succeeds, as a supposed British detective stole the book, which Cody figured out because his accent slipped, saying 'fries' instead of the more British 'chips', revealing that he is Belgian.

** Peri Gilpin makes no attempt to hide her native Texan drawl while playing Wisconsinite Roz Doyle.

* Richard Glanister's American accent in the British show ''Series/{{Demons}}'' somewhat inverts this trope. It's ''technically'' correct—vowel sounds right, and rhotic where it should be—but to an American ear it sounds a little ''too'' perfect: there's no hint of any regional variation, nor is there any of the inflection or intonations a native speaker usually has ... it sounds a little monotonous, actually, sort of a generic American accent that no American actually has. The writers also seem to have purposely given him a little help by mostly avoiding, in his dialogue, not only any distinctly American words or turns of phrase but even writing around the situations where he'd have to use either them or their British equivalent.
** Later on the series, there ''are'' some scenes where this trope actually happens and you can tell he's actually British.

*** Dodo's first full story, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E6TheArk "The Ark"]], manages to be an inversion because Jackie Lane actually slips back from full RP into Northern vowel sounds in various places.

** Jamie was originally played with a quite thick and accurate Highland accent as he was supposed to be a one-shot guest character, but Frazer Hines worried about how intelligible it would be overseas and found it obscured most of the acting nuance. By the time of Jamie's [[ADayInTheLimelight Day In The Limelight]], Hines had scaled it back to mild generic-Scots affectations that Hines referred to as "TV Scots". Notice that after Jamie's (second, [[PutOnABus real]]) [[ResetButton memory wipe]] in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS6E7TheWarGames "The War Games"]], his accent returns to how it was in his first appearance.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS4E8TheFacelessOnes "The Faceless Ones"]], the alien duplicate of Jamie has Frazer Hines' real-life English accent.

*** Of course, the Doctor's had a Scottish accent before — Seventh Doctor Sylvester [=McCoy=] used his normal speaking voice in the role.

** The First/Second Doctor's companion Polly speaks in over-pronounced RP at first, which soon relaxes to a much more neutral Southern accent. This was because Anneke Wills was asked to do the accent because her character was posh, but hated doing the accent, finding it a bit too obvious, and so consciously scaled it back over time. This does overlap nicely with her character development and the influence Ben has on her.

* One blurry example from ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' is when Nellie Bertram (Catherine Tate) is impersonating an American radio host as part of one of Jim's pranks toward Dwight. Bertram/Tate's accent is damn near flawless, save for one line when she pronounces the word "consumer" the British way ("con-syoo-mer" as opposed to "con-soo-mer"). However, given that both Tate and the character she plays are British, it could either be an actual slip-up by Tate or an in-character slip by Bertram to add a sense of realism (professionally-trained actor Catherine Tate might be able to pull off a flawless American accent, but salesperson Nellie Bertram might slip up here and there),

* ''Series/TrueBlood'': There is one episode where Eric Northman, a Norse vampire (yes, really) played by a Swede with a neutral American accent, pretends to be a human with a Southern accent. The result is horrifyingly hilarious (and very obviously bad on purpose).

* ''Series/FatherBrown'' in the 1970s. Actors playing Americans had uneven accents, to say the least. Professor Smaill in "The Curse of the Golden Cross" had some of the most noticeable difficulties.

** ''Buffy'' Season Three's "The Prom" has Wesley's usually-excellent accent crack on "Thanks for that" when Giles tells him to ask Cordelia to dance.
*** Alexis Denisof also slipped now and then on words like "data".
** "Teacher's Pet" in season one features a person-sized "she-mantis" played by a South African, but speaking with an American accent. For the most part, her accent is impeccable and it's difficult to say where she gets it wrong, but there's something about her [[IAmVeryBritish r's]]. Also, her vowels.

** Kendra, played by Bianca Lawson. Supposedly the accent was a last-minute addition, and the dialect coach taught Lawson an accent from a very specific, obscure area of Jamaica. To both viewers and crew, it just sounded like a lame Jamaican accent.

** The show is famous for combining British dialogue and body language with (often bad) American accents in its American characters. For a new series example, see [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek "Dalek"]]. For a classic example, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS3E8TheGunfighters "The Gunfighters"]]. With that said, since ''Doctor Who'' is one of the few shows that ever ''needs'' to attempt American characters, it might just be fair revenge for the frequent American attempts at British accents . . .

** The First/Second Doctor's companion Polly speaks in over-pronounced RP at first, which soon relaxes to a much more neutral Southern accent. This was because the actress was asked to do the accent because her character was posh, but hated doing the accent, finding it a bit too obvious, and so consciously scaled it back over time. This does overlap nicely with her character development and the influence Ben has on her.

** One of the Fifth and Sixth Doctor's companions, Peri Brown, was supposed to be from Pasadena, California. However, her actress, Creator/NicolaBryant, a native Briton, apparently couldn't pin down a California accent if she tried and instead took Brits on a linguistic tour of the United States with each serial. It didn't help authenticity that the scripts she was given didn't use American terms like "truck" or "elevator" in favor of British ones like "lorry" and "lift" because the BBC thought it'd confuse the audience.[[note]]Given that during her stint, the BBC ran ''Series/{{Dallas}}'', ''Series/{{Dynasty|1981}}'' ''and'' ''Series/TheDukesOfHazzard'' it is unlikely viewers would've been confused.[[/note]]
** Captain Jack Harkness, while not American (he's described as being from the Boeshane Peninsula in the 51st Century), is stated on the show as having an American accent. Creator/JohnBarrowman, who plays Captain Jack Harkness, is British but spent some of his childhood in America. He cultivated an "American" accent that while wildly applauded as "Mid-Atlantic" in Britain doesn't work as well with actual Americans. This is made worse by the British English in his scripts and the occasional slip back to his native Scottish accent. Depending on whom you talk to, "mid-Atlantic" might mean anywhere from Delaware (the actual meaning used by linguists) to Rhode Island (where Barrowman lived in America; an accent most often heard from Peter Griffin on ''Family Guy''). Barrowman himself is much more modest about his accent than his fans, describing it as a hybrid he developed as a child to avoid bullying.

*** Tennant also slips into a neutral posh English accent quite a lot during the specials, most notably [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E16TheWatersOfMars "The Waters of Mars"]]. He had been playing Hamlet with the Royal Shakespeare Company for months, to the point Hamlet's posh accent had eclipsed the Doctor's as his default English accent. He claims he had to buy all the [=DVDs=] and watch his performance again to relearn how to do it. Of course, during "The Waters of Mars" the Doctor [[AGodAmI loses his handle on reality and declares himself to be a god]], so his accent going up two social classes seems to suit his {{hubris}}.
** For "Turn Left," Creator/BilliePiper apparently lost the accent she had used as Rose in Series 1 and 2, so she speaks with a noticeable lisp. She also has a pronounced overbite that she never used to have, mildly affecting her speech (and possibly causing the lisp). Piper said in an interview that she sounded like that because it was cold as they were shooting in winter and she was wearing a "tiny jacket". On the other hand, some fans note that Rose sounds quite a bit like the Tenth Doctor down to his inflections and speculate that this was intentional to show how much Rose had become like him.

** In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E12TheStolenEarth "The Stolen Earth"]], Martha Jones's superior is General Sanchez, supposedly an American. However, while his accent is adequate, his lines and body language are relentlessly, flagrantly British. This is especially true in his last moments when rather than taking cover and firing one-handed, or dropping into the two-handed Weaver stance used by the Americans, he leaves cover and uses a hand-over-hand British technique.

* ''Series/TheNanny'': While Daniel Davis does a truly excellent RP English accent as Niles the Butler throughout the series, there is maybe one word in every three episodes that he elongates a vowel just a ''little'' too much or overdoes it just a tiny bit. Such slip-ups were barely noticeable - on both sides of The Pond - but are detectable if you really listen closely and know what you're looking for. That being said, Davis's English accent was so good that some genuine ''Brits'' thought he was English and should have given accent coaching to Charles Shaughnessy, who played Maxwell Sheffield - [[RealityIsUnrealistic Davis is from Arkansas, while Shaughnessy is from London and a Baron]].