Actor’s Welsh accent gets thumbs-up from Sir Tom
TOM JONES has endorsed Stephen Graham’s Welsh accent attempt on TV drama White House Farm.
The Treforest-born singer was appearing on Zoe Ball’s Breakfast Show yesterday morning for the debut play of his latest single, It’s Not Dark Yet, when the host asked him about backing Scouse actor Graham’s accent in last year’s drama, which covered the real-life murders that took place at White House Farm in Essex in 1985.
The Help and This is England actor played Welsh copper Taff Jones and got some stick for his accent when the show aired.
But last month Graham, also on the Zoe Ball show on Radio 2, said that Tom thought it was “boss”.
When Zoe asked the 81-year-old singer if the compliment was true, Sir Tom confirmed it was and that he knew people who talked in the kind of accent adopted by Graham.
He also said that the accent was like the one Ruth Jones uses as Nessa in Gavin & Stacey.
Sir Tom said: “I went to see Johnny Depp’s movie and Stephen
Graham was there and I told him I know fellas that talk like that,” said Tom.
“It’s an accent that Ruth Jones put on when she was doing Gavin & Stacey. It’s not a typical South Wales accent, it’s like a Cardiff accent or a Newport or Barry Island accent.
“It’s a little bit Liverpudlian, a
Cardiff accent is slightly like Liverpool. So for Stephen I don’t think it was too much of a stretch. He did do a good job because I know men who talk exactly like the accent that he put on so there you go.”
Host Zoe said that it was the “ultimate compliment” for the actor.