Who are some celebrities who still speak with a true RP accent (aside from the obvious ones)?
Posted by Glass-Complaint3@reddit | AskABrit | View on Reddit | 172 comments
The obvious ones being Sir David Attenborough, Joanna Lumley, Stephen Fry, etc.
I'm especially looking for younger ones.
Georgeyboy70@reddit
Even Queen Elizabeth herself softened her RP ‘accent’ over the years.
Active_Definition_57@reddit
Very noticeable if you hear any clips of her from the 1950s.
SherlockOhmsUK@reddit
None of the suggestions so far are “true RP”, they’re just slightly better spoken than your average Brit
True RP sounds deeply odd to the modern ear. Things like”hat” being pronounced more like “het”, for example are a heightened form of RP
SpaceMassive3080@reddit
Like ol queen Lizzy used to speak?
Active_Definition_57@reddit
In the early part of her reign in the 1950s. Sometime after that, her accent lost much of what sounds exaggeratedly 'posh" to modern ears.
C2H5OHNightSwimming@reddit
Yeah I think hardly anyone speaks with RP anymore? Like 2-3% of people. It's been replaced with what's it called, Standard Southern British English or something.
Actual RP is like BBC presenters from the 1940s and it sounds really weird to contemporary ears.
Dr Geoff Lindsay made a YouTube about it "The strange case of BRITISH ENGLISH vowels"
hawkeneye1998bs@reddit
2-3% is a lot of people. More like .3% I'd imagine
No_Camp_7@reddit
Agree. Recently I became really interested in the phenomenon and I’ve noticed it’s all but disappeared. And I say that as someone who has spent a lot of time around people who went to posh private schools in Berkshire and Surrey, then worked in the City. It’s just super rare.
It’s completely vanished among the working class, as in those RP pronunciations like “often” being pronounced as “orphan” but stick with a regional accent.
Illustrious-Bus-2248@reddit
closest to RP on tv currently is genuinely probably that south African guy who pops up every now and again
Bubbly_Safety8791@reddit
OPs own examples don’t speak that kind of RP though.
Agitated_Display7573@reddit
Attenborough used to. He was a television presenter in 1950s.
Duwmun@reddit
A) he still is. B) No, he didn't
happyhippohats@reddit
He's still a television presenter in the 1950s?
blubbery-blumpkin@reddit
Technically yes. He was and therefore always will be. Unless we invent time travel and do him in before he gets on tv in the 50s.
buy_me_lozenges@reddit
He was a presenter then, and he is a presenter now.
He is not currently a presenter in the 1950s, as we are no longer in the 1950s. That's why we use past tense.
mcboobie@reddit
I used to do presenting. I still do, but I used to, too.
buy_me_lozenges@reddit
I haven't slept since the 1950s... because that would be too long.
David-Cassette-alt@reddit
"better spoken"? don't you just mean "posh"?
MasticatedBrain@reddit
As a Brit myself; wtf is RP?
pcor@reddit
This is always what I think of
KitFan2020@reddit
It went a bit too quickly from grave concern to ‘not our problem’ didn’t it? 🤣🫣
Hookton@reddit
Received Pronunciation.
MasticatedBrain@reddit
Ah makes sense, cheers.
Jenny-Wren54@reddit
Think of Jacob Rees Mogg (sorry)
C2H5OHNightSwimming@reddit
Lol!! At the apology. It's true, no one wants to think about that guy if they can help it. The fuck did we put people like that in any kind of power...
redoxburner@reddit
Isn't that "marked RP" as opposed to just common-or-garden RP?
TAFKATheBear@reddit
That's what I thought.
My mother is from the West Country and was made to speak like OP's examples when she was growing up in the '60s, despite not going to private school. She wasn't allowed to keep her actual regional accent. So I've always assumed it was a slightly more recent version of RP, given that all accents change over time. But if it's Standard Southern British English and not RP, then it was clearly being used like RP by that stage.
ten-toed-tuba@reddit
Jonathon Groff as King George III - I'll be "beck"
Mysterious-Fortune-6@reddit
Yes! I have only met one my own age (now 40s, but this was at work 20 years ago). I found it really hard to understand much of the time, "off" was a sort of strangled, drawn out "orf" for example. The vowel sounds were as different to how someone like say Prince William sounds, taking as an example of top of the pile, as Geordie or Glaswegian.
Glass-Complaint3@reddit (OP)
So like a Kiwi (New Zealand) accent then. I didn't mean the exaggerated RP.
MolassesInevitable53@reddit
What??
A kiwi accent is not RP.
I say this as an older (60+) Brit who has lived in NZ for 16 years.
shadow-season@reddit
It's not exaggerated RP. It's RP. What you're talking about isn't.
MerlinMusic@reddit
No, it's more like the American TRAP vowel, not as extreme as the Kiwi one.
Ok_Book_765@reddit
Tom Read Wilson
SpaceMassive3080@reddit
That is not rp that's just a Swatty gay man
Ok_Book_765@reddit
an accusation is usually a confession
SpaceMassive3080@reddit
That's not an accusation, he's an openly gay, middle class swat
indoubitabley@reddit
I watched that IACGMOOH so hard, waiting for him to slip up and slip into a modern accent, that I ended up being a fan of his.
I just hope the orphaned magical child that wished him into existanse didn't miss him too much the weeks he was gone.
Speedbird223@reddit
I knew him growing up and he’s always had a quite different voice. I’d not seen him in many years when he starting showing up on TV but it’s not as if the version I saw was wildly different from what I knew.
He’s definitely not hiding some thick Brummie accent or something!
Final_Anybody_3862@reddit
I asked Charlie, good mince over our hedge?
ahhhhhhhhhhhh45@reddit
Francis Bourgeois, the train enthusiast? Josh O’ Connor, the actor? I’m not sure but they kinda sound it to me
overcoil@reddit
Rose Leslie from GoT/ Downton Abbey?
Example 1
Example 2
missfoxsticks@reddit
Very upper class (she’s aristocracy) but not RP
MidasToad@reddit
RP is considered outdated by broadcasters - it is quite rare to find a celebrity affecting the accent. Off the top of my head, I would say Mary Berry and/or Pru Leith from the Great British Bake-off are closest to it.
The word 'clear' pronounced one syllable 'clah' is an indicator I would listen for.
Many British celebrities have a generic home counties English accent, but that's not RP.
RP is spoken by aristocratic families, and taught in elocution classes in public (i.e. very exclusive fee-paying) schools. These people are usually politically influential, but unknown to the general public.
older_oak78@reddit
the idea of elocution lessons in public school is laughable, or the proper ones at least. you either have it or you don’t and that is fine. there would be no reason for it to be taught.
FloVas@reddit
My mum, who lived in a council house, had elocution lessons at her state school grammar equivalent.
older_oak78@reddit
makes more sense.
Old_Introduction_395@reddit
I went to private school, elocution lessons were a thing.
older_oak78@reddit
hmm. So did I and they certainly weren’t. perhaps in times past?
SuspiciousAnt2508@reddit
80s and 90s - elocution lessions were very popular.
Old_Introduction_395@reddit
1970s.
rpb192@reddit
Prue Leith’s accent is actually just South African that’s been softened by decades in England. It’s just come round to sounding similar to RP by accident
Defiant-Split6756@reddit
Kate Winslet
langlaise@reddit
Language use changes through the decades. Which is why, as many have pointed out, RP no longer exists. No one speaks the same way today as they did in the 50s. The Queen’s changing accent was well documented and in her old age was no longer the same as the version defined as RP in her youth. SSB or SBS is the descendent of RP, but is more widespread and therefore has less specific phonetic features .
I suppose the real question would be something like which celebrities today have accents most closely resembling RP/with more features of RP than most?
People are just replying based on how posh they perceive certain accents to be, which is highly dependent on their own accent of origin and the accents they are familiar with. To answer the question accurately you would need to carry out a linguistic analysis of the person’s speech.
cat5crochet5femme@reddit
Tom Reid Wilson
BookishHobbit@reddit
Julie Andrews is one of the few remaining.
I don’t think anyone younger than that generation speaks with it anymore.
TheRevJimJones@reddit
Henry Blofeld, my dear old thing!
Professional-Yam3481@reddit
Not RP, just well spoken
TrueMog@reddit
RP became incredibly unfashionable after a certain time period. That’s why you don’t see younger celebrity speaking it (even Princes William and Harry don’t use it!)
PoetOk1520@reddit
Not true at all tons of people still speak it it’s just slightly modified
Old_Introduction_395@reddit
BBC sounds have Pride and Prejudice read by Julie Andrews. English extreme!
Starchaser38@reddit
Pride and Extreme Prejudice
Duwmun@reddit
Nope
Stratospheric-Ferret@reddit
The only people that speak like that nowadays wouldn't be accepted as a celebrity, as they're "too posh."
There are mid-level celebs that I have seen a lot of hate for, just purely because they have a money background vibe to them.
VegetableWeekend6886@reddit
If you're talking about the Made in Chelsea lot, they are all actually tossers though
Stratospheric-Ferret@reddit
My first thought was actually George Russell, I don't want reality TV shows.
The amount of hate he gets for being "a posh boy" always surprises me.
Revolutionary-Key533@reddit
Sadly it died with Brian Sewell, who made the Queen sound common.
DoftheD@reddit
David Attenborough is RP adjacent
CicadaSlight7603@reddit
What is true RP. Do you mean trad? As spoken by QE2 circa 1950? Extremely rare now except a few old grandees and people playing upper class characters pre 1970 or so. Harriet Walter maybe?
The there is mainstream RP: Quite a lot of privately educated actors speak this, Benedict Cumberbatch, Emma Watson for example though I think both can code switch into contemporary RP. Most upper middle and upper class Brits still speak this especially millenials and over. Also some younger of the same class. Catherine PoW has something between this and older style though I believe it was developed later in life so maybe there were elocution lessons or she is a good mimic.
Then modern or contemporary RP which is younger middle middle class and above. You will hear this on pretty much every private school playing field. Prince Harry is a good example of this.
notthiswaythatway@reddit
Damian Lewis is pretty rp posh in real life, we just don’t realise it cos he’s really good at putting on accents when he’s acting
rpb192@reddit
He’s got a very Public School accent
notthiswaythatway@reddit
I think he went to Eton
happyhippohats@reddit
Eton is a public school
Thenedslittlegirl@reddit
No idea why you’ve been downvoted, unless people have become so Americanised they don’t know what our definition of public school is.
happyhippohats@reddit
To be fair it's not very intuitive, but I didn't think I needed to explain it on an 'ask Brits' subreddit of all places
notthiswaythatway@reddit
Yes- very much so! 🙂
SuspiciousAnt2508@reddit
He has a specifically Eton accent.
I used to find Kwasi Kwarteng and Boris Johnson indistinguishable on the radio as their accents and mannerisms are pure Eton.
TheHeianPrincess@reddit
Never could I imagine “ChatGPT” sounding like “Chat chippy tea” until I heard Boris say it 😂
Gnoll_Fielding@reddit
Giles Brandreth?
ladybigsuze@reddit
Celia Imerie?
spookythesquid@reddit
John major
Pizzagoessplat@reddit
Whats an RP accent?
ODFoxtrotOscar@reddit
It’s the old fashioned ‘posh’ clipped accent of the 1950s, that sounds rather odd today (or is deliberately put on to be a ‘silly young ass’ of the Wodehouse type)
It’s not the same as educated non-localised accent which is what is actually spoken by most of those who get named on threads about RP
Extension_Turnip2405@reddit
I always think of Brian Sewell, but he's been dead a few years and I don't think most people will have heard of him.
Sad_Werewolf8@reddit
'Brian Syoowill' as he pronounced it 😁
mildlydiverting@reddit
He had a heavy dollop of ‘omosexual camp in his accent though. Very distinct subculture feel to it, you don’t hear it very much any more.
weedywet@reddit
It stands for ‘received pronunciation’
It’s the official ‘correct’ English
It’s very rarely inherited and acquired naturally rather than trained (ie newsreaders used to be taught it to sound ‘neutral’ and clear)
TehFlatline@reddit
It's not official or even perceived as 'correct'. I'm not sure where you've got that from.
weedywet@reddit
It’s an attempt to codify “standard” English.
As such it’s the ‘official’ version of what’s ‘standard’
We can semantic wrangle all day.
How would YOU describe it?
VastOpinion6020@reddit
Jacob Rees Mogg
Douglas Murray
stevedavies12@reddit
I did once meet someone my own age (I'm now 70) who spoke RP, but that was 50 years ago and we were in Cambridge. I couldn't understand what she said when I asked where she was from, so I asked three times. Turn out she was from Gahzee, or Guernsey as normal people said it.
TehFlatline@reddit
As an entirely fabricated language, I'm not sure there's any such thing as 'true RP'.
TheoryPretend9912@reddit
RP is an accent not a language or dialect.
Jolly_Office_2096@reddit
Marina Hyde sometimes breaks into the most posh accent I've ever heard on The rest is entertainment
ThurstonSonic@reddit
Steven Toast.
Puzzleheaded_Gold698@reddit
Ray Purchase.
Dense_Imagination984@reddit
Ray bloody Purchase.
Puzzleheaded_Gold698@reddit
Hello Toast
Acrobatic-Shirt8540@reddit
Kiera Knightly but there are way too many 'posh' actors.
Thenedslittlegirl@reddit
Kiera Knightly doesn’t speak RP. She didn’t even go to private school. She speaks SSBE, which is the same as most of the other people mentioned in this thread.
The type of RP op means isn’t even spoken by the Royal Family anymore. It’s an odd warping of the vowels.
Acrobatic-Shirt8540@reddit
Her vowels are very much modern RP.
Bubbly_Safety8791@reddit
A lot of RP characteristics are still commonly found among female British actors. Emily Blunt, Cara Delevingne, Emma Watson come to mind as strong RP voices.
Seems less common for younger men - Hugh Grant, Richard E Grant, Colin Firth are all older generation examples.
Couple of guys whose voices have strong RP characteristics who are big on new media also come to mind though: Simon Whistler is a posh bald British guy with a beard who does educational stuff on YouTube channels like Today I Found Out. James Hoffman is a coffee expert with glasses and impressive hair. Both are people whose RP voices you might come across while scrolling the short form algorithm.
nemmalur@reddit
Richard E Grant is an interesting one because he was born and raised in Eswatini (Swaziland as it was then) and when his family returned to the UK people would comment on his “outdated” accent.
erinoco@reddit
White English speakers in southern Africa often developed a lot of clipping, probably because of the Afrikaans influence, which makes them sound more upper-class then they might intend to be.
OkDonkey6524@reddit
It's Switzerland.
nemmalur@reddit
It’s literally not.
OkDonkey6524@reddit
Yes it's Switzerland.
nemmalur@reddit
Are you dense?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eswatini
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_E._Grant
OkDonkey6524@reddit
Why are you saying Switzerland like that?
nemmalur@reddit
I see you’re either confusing Eswatini/Swaziland with Switzerland/Schweiz, etc., or you’re just being obtuse.
Outside-Parfait-8935@reddit
They're just messing with you
erinoco@reddit
One thing I would point out, which has been pointed out by others: while RP is very closely entwined with upper-class accents,, they are not quite the same thing. RP is essentially an upper-class accent smoothed out for clear and precise declamation. It is supposed to avoid some of the traditional features of upper-class accent that cut across these, such as the drawling of the "Oxford accent" ("Heah, heah!") or the clipping that can be heard in other varieties.
There's an interesting analogue in the US, between the old "Transatlantic accent" you hear mid-century Hollywood and the very early days of US broadcasting, and the accents actually spoken by the old Yankee elite in and around the northeastern states, like "Locust Valley Lockjaw".
DevelopmentLow214@reddit
Jacob Rees-Mogg has a cosplay RP accent. He is younger than his fake Victorian pater persona, was at school with Adam Buxton.
DevelopmentLow214@reddit
Belinda Stewart-Wilson. Will’s mum in Inbetweeners
katymcfunk@reddit
Gyles brandreth
Agitated_Display7573@reddit
Maggie Smith if she’s still alive
Tired3520@reddit
She isn’t 😔
Agitated_Display7573@reddit
Rip
Outside-Parfait-8935@reddit
Her accent veered wildly depending on context. She could go from sounding like the Queen to sounding like an Eastender in one sentence.
Loose_Acanthaceae201@reddit
RP is archaic, and has been succeeded by Standard Southern British as the mainstream prestige accent.
For Gen X think Benedict Cumberbatch, Olivia Colman, Victoria Coren Mitchell, Idris Elba, et al.
Millennials would include Emma Watson, Jack Whitehall, and Ali A.
nonsequitur__@reddit
I agree RP is archaic, but I wouldn’t say SSE is prestige - it’s another regional accent.
Loose_Acanthaceae201@reddit
It's not regional though?
Outside-Parfait-8935@reddit
Yes it's just "posh". Posh landed gentry in Scotland would sound similar. But considered southern because more posh people live in this area.
nonsequitur__@reddit
The clue is in the name! It doesn’t sound the same as a northern posh accent, a midlands posh accent, a Scottish, Welsh or northern Irish posh accent etc. With RP, you couldn’t tell where someone was from as their accent became assimilated with everyone else who spoke that way.
SuspiciousAnt2508@reddit
I speak SSE and get called posh all the time, even in the South.
It's not totally a regional accent as it also signifies background and education. My parents were determined I would speak it and school would endlessly clamp down on the 'wrong' accent.
YouNeedAnne@reddit
Idris Elba?!
Accurate_Engine_8089@reddit
That was a joke :)
LowAioli3870@reddit
Even Prince William avoids speaking in RP.
MerlinOfRed@reddit
Does he avoid it, or does he just not have the accent.
He very much has the "public schoolboy accent", not too dissimilar to Eddie Redmayne or Tom Hiddleston (who were both at Eton at the same time as him).
ict7070@reddit
Benedict Cumberbatch - nope Idris Elba - are you joking? Emma Watson - nope Victoria Coren Mitchell - nope
Lazy-Field-1116@reddit
Idris Elba?! He's got an East London accent and sounds nothing like Colman or Cumberwomble.
boredsittingonthebus@reddit
Ali A in his posh voice: "Siiiiick, bruh!"
ambitioussandy@reddit
none of those speak with RP. more like southern standard english. watch a film from the 1940s, like brief encounter (my favourite!) that’s RP, no on speaks with “true” RP these days
Desperate-Cookie3373@reddit
I was going to say this too- Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard in Brief Encounter are perfect examples of true RP.
You really don’t hear it now- even the older aristos I’ve met, although their accents were undeniably posh, don’t speak in that clipped manner these days.
GreatChaosFudge@reddit
Yaw naawww waaats heppened dewnt yaw? Ayve fawwlen in lahv with yaw.
Never were more romantic words spoken.
(To be serious, it’s incredible how enthralling the film is and how moving the romance between the two despite the laughable accents. Amazing writing and performances.)
sjplep@reddit
Gemma Chan has a 'modern' RP accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4GOhE37K8U
Foundation_Wrong@reddit
Noel Coward in In Which We Serve.
FluffyStarKiller@reddit
Honestly? No one famous. The only people I’ve encountered who speak even close to true RP are people with inherited land and titles - the kind of generational wealth that predates a significant number of countries.
Accurate_Engine_8089@reddit
The younger royals tend to round their vowels nowadays
PiotrGreenholz01@reddit
Not a celebrity, but Rory Stewart?
Anyone who says 'iss-yew' rather than 'ishoo'.
SuspiciousAnt2508@reddit
He's also speaking Etonian, not RP or SSE.
SuspiciousAnt2508@reddit
He's also speaking Etonian.
InterestedObserver48@reddit
Joanna Lumley
Alone_Bet_1108@reddit
None of these people speak in RP.
Clear-Ad-2998@reddit
Joanna Lumley.
Weird_Georgiana@reddit
There are a couple of young comedians who went to boarding school such as Ivo Graham. Eton's accent seems to be not so posh anymore. People like Prince William aren't so plummy. The southern standard accent means the only way you know people aren't posh is if they say 'haitch' not 'aitch'.
r0se_jam@reddit
‘True RP’ was just made up when radio became a thing, and has been fading for decades, much like the weird made up accent of early Hollywood. Does it truly exist in the wild at all anymore?
Key-Shift5076@reddit
The transatlantic accent, you mean?
r0se_jam@reddit
Yes, that’s the one.
zuzzyb80@reddit
The only vaguely RP voices I can think of hearing in recent years are the Tube mind the gap voices. 'Mind the gep', 'Bellem' instead of Balham. It's the same warping of vowels that leads to 'ears' instead of yes with the dialect training for The Crown.
I don't think any of the suggestions that have been made are anywhere close to RP. People like Stephen Fry, Emma Watson, Olivia Coleman etc have fairly generic 'well spoken' home counties accents. Miles from RP though.
OrcaFins@reddit
Eddie Redmayne?
EverybodySayin@reddit
I think you're referring to the "aristocratic" accent which would be spoken by for example the Queen, Joanna Lumley, Charles Dance. That's not RP and RP is a lot more common - think Jimmy Carr, David Mitchell, your BBC newsreaders, the kids in the Harry Potter Movies etc. This video dives deep into this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0qShxkuS7Q
C2H5OHNightSwimming@reddit
Lol this is a) wrong and b) the video that you linked SAYS THAT IN THE FIRST 15 SECONDS 🤣
He states that posh British English is a different thing to RP and only about 3% of people speak RP anymore.
EverybodySayin@reddit
That's literally what I said...
Agitated_Display7573@reddit
You got it the wrong way round though
EverybodySayin@reddit
No I didn't, you have. Actually watch the video, or even just look at the thumbnail.
Darrowby_385@reddit
Charles Dance was very far from being aristocratic. I heard an interview with him and he laughed at the idea that he's posh. He did a huge amount of voice training to sound the way he does, before and in preparation for drama school and while there.
Unable_Highlight8147@reddit
William Hanson is the first one that comes to mind
RiverTadpolez@reddit
Rosamund Pike has a pretty posh accent I think.
lost_lizzie@reddit
Miles Jupp would be a contender? I think he bridges 'posh' and RP?
Gold-Vanilla5591@reddit
Does Julie Andrews and Peppa Pig count?
kernowgringo@reddit
Jack Whitehall? He's a proper posho
Dans77b@reddit
Nah, he just sounds like a posh student.
PM-me-your-cuppa-tea@reddit
What?
shadow-season@reddit
Attenborough, Lumley and Fry do not speak in RP. I don't think anyone in the public eye does, besides the royals (who are probably coached to turn it down a notch in public).
weedywet@reddit
Yes. But the royal accent is kind of its own weird affectation that isn’t purely RP either.
The Queen didn’t really sound like a newsreader.
Infamous-Sherbert-32@reddit
Off the top of my head, Hugh Laurie, Tom Hiddleston,Emma Thompson, Colin Firth, Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Grant. I also love Dawn French’s voice. Lovely when she is speaking as herself, and so versatile in a wide variety of acting roles. And who could leave out Benedict Cumberbatch!
Plus-Desk-737@reddit
Richard E. Grant.
Defiant-Eagle-3288@reddit
What do you mean by a "true" RP accent? It varies a lot. And there's a reason your examples are older and you're struggling to find young speakers: it has changed dramatically over time. I speak with an RP accent and sound very different to all of your examples, but also very different to those you're probably looking for: younger, well off & privately educated celebrities. Lucky for you there's plenty of those. Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Emma Watson...
jamnut@reddit
Tom Read Wilson? Watched him in a C5 doc about a Christmas market and he deffo had an RP accent. He was in I'm a Celeb too although I didn't watch it. He was fabulously camp in the documentary and presented it with a proper enthusiasm which made the whole thing pretty good
EvilRobotSteve@reddit
There's probably loads, but the only one that jumped right in my head was Jimmy Carr.
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