Geordie: Encyclopedia II - Geordie - Geordie in the media

Geordie - Geordie in the media

In recent times, the Geordie accent has featured prominently in the national media, arguably more so than ever before, perhaps encouraged by the success of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in the early 1980s. Television presenters such as Ant and Dec, and Marcus Bentley, are now happy to use their natural accents on air. The commentator on the UK edition of Big Brother is often perceived by southerners to have a Geordie accent (North-East accents do sound very alike to the untuned ear). However, he grew up in Stockton on Tees. Brendan Foster and Sid Waddell have both worked as television sports commentators. However, in general, the Geordie accent still tends to be employed for comedy effect as opposed to serious usage.

The accent was also popularised by the comic magazine Viz, where the accent itself is often conveyed phonetically by unusual spellings within the comic strips. Viz magazine itself was founded on Tyneside by a couple of Geordie lads, Chris Donald and his brother Simon.

Mention must also be made of the pioneering efforts of Newcastle natives Mike Neville and George House (aka Jarge Hoose), presenters of the BBC local news program Look North in the 1960's and 1970's. Not only did they incorporate Geordie into the show, albeit usually in comedy pieces pointing up the gulf between ordinary Geordies and officials speaking Standard English, but they were responsible for a series of recordings, beginning with Larn Yersel' Geordie which attempted, not always seriously, to bring the Geordie dialect to the rest of England.

The mastermind behind Larn Yersel' Geordie was local humourist Scott Dobson, who wrote several booklets on the theme in the early 1970s, including Histry o' the Geordies, Advanced Geordie Palaver, The Geordie Joke Book (with Dick Irwin), The Little Broon Book

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Geordie in the media", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki