Should television presenters, announcers and newsreaders have strong regionalised accents?
Yes I do want to hear regional accents, but you don’t really ever hear presenters with ‘strong’ regional accents. I lived in Newcastle and it’s hard to tell what people with strong Geordie accents are saying, no way do Ant & Dec have any more than mild Geordie accents. Cheryl Cole has an average Newcastle accent. So to summarise, clear speech avoiding obscure colloquialisms is essential. But the out-dated policy of presenters speaking only in Public School accents should never come back.
