The Presenters!

[C-Lion]

I find Elaine a little strange, too. A younger version of Gloria Hunniford! She has a weird square shaped hairstyle, I wish she’d bouff the top up a bit!

Gloria Hunniford

Interesting - there's something very old fashioned about it all. Like those women you used to get on the Clarins etc. counters in Debenhams - they had a very specific 'look' to them.

They used to scare me in my late teens and early twenties. I just thought they looked like an intimidating bunch

 

[donna255]

Very Stepford Wives. Meant to appeal to Middle American housewives.

 

[mina]

Gloria Hunniford



They used to scare me in my late teens and early twenties. I just thought they looked like an intimidating bunch

They still remind me that I will never reach that peak of perfection. Although nowadays, I simply don't want to have that look.

 

[Craftalot]

Very Stepford Wives. Meant to appeal to Middle American housewives.

That's it, exactly. Sort of Melania Trump lite. You could tick it off a list: big bouncy blow dry, white/cream impractical clothes, make-up in a very specific way... I've never 'conformed' to anything in my life, so it really irks me.

 

[ERICS MUM]

My accent is probably a posher version of Ophelia’s, if you can imagine such a thing !! I was born in east London, I am actually a true cockney, but I had a decent job in the City and soon learned I needed to modify my voice & diction if I wanted to ‘get on’.

My brother by contrast joined the fire brigade when it was still a ‘discipline service’ and his accent was a help when he had others under his control - he could bellow, eff and blind at a fire scene and his men followed his every word.

 

[backstreetgirl]

Oh, dear. The OP sounds like one of those outraged of middle Englanders from the 1950s who at the thought of anyone with a regional accent is allowed on TV or radio. Oh, as for old Denis, he is Canadian and that is how they speak.

By the way I am from Northern Ireland. I shall now go and make sure never to speak to anyone ever again.

I love the Northern Irish accent, it's much nicer than Southern Irish.

 

[backstreetgirl]

My accent is probably a posher version of Ophelia’s, if you can imagine such a thing !! I was born in east London, I am actually a true cockney, but I had a decent job in the City and soon learned I needed to modify my voice & diction if I wanted to ‘get on’.

My brother by contrast joined the fire brigade when it was still a ‘discipline service’ and his accent was a help when he had others under his control - he could bellow, eff and blind at a fire scene and his men followed his every word.

My accent is also like a posher version of her accent, I too was born in the East End and a true cockney. Me & my family come from Shoreditch, Plaistow, Islington & Canning Town but although the rest of my family sound like cockneys, for some reason I don't that much, although having been in the Navy I picked up other people's accents!

 

[candycane]

I loved London when I lived there back in the 80's. I worked in the city and it was so exciting to go shopping and lunching and Friday nighting. Then on the weekend I'd go to Covent Garden or meet up with my sister at Camden Market then go for a Chinese and cocktails. Those were the days. I loved the Trading Post at CG. All those things I was going to have in my house one day!

CC

 

[Battiola73]

I had to tone down my accent and slow down the speed I spoke at when I moved to Hampshire from London over 50 years ago. My old work colleagues always knew when I was speaking to another Londoner. They told me I spoke quicker and quicker, all my aitches and tees got dropped and said a lot of abbreviated rhyming slang. My Mum was a true cockney but she never sounded like one.

 

[ERICS MUM]

I loved London when I lived there back in the 80's. I worked in the city and it was so exciting to go shopping and lunching and Friday nighting. Then on the weekend I'd go to Covent Garden or meet up with my sister at Camden Market then go for a Chinese and cocktails. Those were the days. I loved the Trading Post at CG. All those things I was going to have in my house one day!

CC

Oh you’ve opened my memory box ! I’ve mentioned before that I worked in and around the City for 40 years from 1974. I do pop into London a few times a year but it’s not the same as a visitor as it was when I worked there, I was part of it. I miss it but even if I still worked there it wouldn’t be the same as in the 70’s, 80’s etc.

 

[donna255]

Way back in the 90s when in the Passport Office, Belfast. They used to organize sports days between all the other offices. None ever came to Belfast because the bombs still went off. So it was London's turn and two friends working in the same office as me, I decided to go to the theatre to see a show that night before the sports. The Woman In Black, bloody scary! Anyway, coming back to the hostel on the night bus, this man side beside me and started chatting. He started telling me he loved my Belfast accent! Seems he hated the cockney accent it was vulgar.

 

[Grizelda]

Way back in the 90s when in the Passport Office, Belfast. They used to organize sports days between all the other offices. None ever came to Belfast because the bombs still went off. So it was London's turn and two friends working in the same office as me, I decided to go to the theatre to see a show that night before the sports. The Woman In Black, ****** scary! Anyway, coming back to the hostel on the night bus, this man side beside me and started chatting. He started telling me he loved my Belfast accent! Seems he hated the cockney accent it was vulgar.

'Gor Blimey'. 'Wacha ****'. It's 'an arfe cold'. You've got to have the right accent to say these little gems.

 

[Luttee]

Fitzgerald's voice is dreadful, but not as grating as Kramer's imo. Goodness knows how she got a job on TV. The same with Dennis, but I think she's improving a bit. Murphy's voice doesn't hurt my ears, but the worst of all is AY. The sweetest voice imo, is Nairn's, although it can often sound ingratiating and quite condescending. The nicest voice of all is Cragie's.

Yes Craigie is one of my favourites, as is Glen Campbell

 

[candycane]

The worst voice is Beverley Cressman who is doing Gower Cottage Brownies. She talks like a screech owl. Nice lady but I can't listen to her.

I like Glen but the half mast trousers are bizarre.

CC

 

[Glamourkitty]

She is, yeah

I'm born and raised in South Wales. Did anyone see the clip about one of JM's items where she said "don't iron i"' and it sounded like " don't die in it". Very funny.

 

[GlamDolly]

It's not the accent that puts me off. It's the decibel level and the haranguing tone. On the other hand, I dislike Ruth Langsford's over ennunciation. It's all very subjective who's voice we like or dislike.

Oh Lord, so true - don't get me started on Ruth Langsford, and the way she needlessly PUTS huge EMPHASIS on EVERY other WORD. As though every single thing she says is of critical, life-changing importance, and simply MUST command your full attention - when all she's doing is pointing out the height of the heel on her latest nasty ankle boots!

How a woman with such a singular lack of style launched a successful clothing range is a bigger mystery than who shot Kennedy. So many products on that rock-hard helmet hair, she could safely ride a horse or motorbike without headgear!

 

[Grizelda]

Oh Lord, so true - don't get me started on Ruth Langsford, and the way she needlessly PUTS huge EMPHASIS on EVERY other WORD. As though every single thing she says is of critical, life-changing importance, and simply MUST command your full attention - when all she's doing is pointing out the height of the heel on her latest nasty ankle boots!

How a woman with such a singular lack of style launched a successful clothing range is a bigger mystery than who shot Kennedy. So many products on that rock-hard helmet hair, she could safely ride a horse or motorbike without headgear!

She's wearing longer strands of faux hair these days. She looks better. She's obviously had elocution lessons to get rid of her London accent. It's her fans who buy her clothes imo. They identify with her as an over 60 year old. They want staid fashions suiting their age.

 

[Battiola73]

She's wearing longer strands of faux hair these days. She looks better. She's obviously had elocution lessons to get rid of her London accent. It's her fans who buy her clothes imo. They identify with her as an over 60 year old. They want staid fashions suiting their age.

Crikey I’m a decade older and wouldn’t be seen out in most of her offerings they are so frumpy. Can buy more stylish stuff cheaper elsewhere.

 

[GlamDolly]

Crikey I’m a decade older and wouldn’t be seen out in most of her offerings they are so frumpy. Can buy more stylish stuff cheaper elsewhere.

Lord I agree - I'm about to turn 56, and to my mind Ruth Langsford's offerings are aimed at my mother's generation. But my dear Mum has style, and wouldn't be seen dead in her ghastly bootleg trousers and stretch blazers!

 

[GlamDolly]

She's wearing longer strands of faux hair these days. She looks better. She's obviously had elocution lessons to get rid of her London accent. It's her fans who buy her clothes imo. They identify with her as an over 60 year old. They want staid fashions suiting their age.

Extensions are part of Ruth's terrible hairdo / hairdon't? Wow. To think all those impoverished, Eastern European women sacrificed their precious tresses for that!

Regarding Ruth's voice - I take your point about her wanting to shrug off a regional accent. But no elocution teacher on the planet taught anyone that horribly artificial, DEEP emphasis-on-every-other-word, a totally ridiculous, mannered way of speaking.

I'm no fan of Eamonn, but in my book that voice alone is grounds for divorce! Incidentally, Eamonn played a big role in her current success story as a QVC 'style guru'. I know this for a fact, as a former TV producer - a story I'll save for another post!