In response to Ollie Wright: BBC should put the accent on ability, Orvis J Sage wrote:
RP had the huge benefit that everyone could understand it. It provided a standard that everyone across the country could hear and comprehend. Therefore for things like the news it is a shame that it has been abandoned. Obviously areas such as drama need authentic regional accents to be realistic, although even here the BBC seems addicted to Mumbleshire, a famously indistinct and muttered regional patois beloved of RADA’s best. I myself have a love of 1950s thrillers such as The Thirty-Nine Steps or The Cruel Sea where crystal diction forms part of the charm but I realise that this dates me. Whatever you think of Richard Burton, he knew how to deliver his lines.
It appears though that the BBC is now riven with so much special interest pleading and minority rights interests that the idea that ability might drive pay levels is quite alien.
