[SaltergateBorn]

Apologies, Dancing; you`re right. I was always a big fan of Stanley Baxter (we`re almost namesakes) but I`ve never seen that sketch before. You live and learn.

[Dancingwilldoit]

It was an advert as I remember not a sketch. I seem to remember a young Scottish lad doing one saying the same thing but my memory isnt what it was.

[Charlie Farley]

I think it`s Stanley Unwin you`re thinking of, Dancing. He made a career out of talking gibberish - most of us are just amateurs - and always finished his sketches with "Goodlybyeloads" for goodbye and some other nonsense, as I recall. God, that`s going back a bit.

Apparently, all these accents are the leftovers from regional dialects that were, until relatively recently, mutually unintelligible. So, say, a peasant from Kent and one from Yorkshire - in the unlikely event of their meeting -  wouldn`t have been able to understand a word each other said and it was only the coming of the railways that allowed most people to travel any distance that standardised the language. Amazing, isn`t it. Different cities in the UK even had their own time-zones before the railways arrived. And that`s only a couple of hundred years ago.

Being a bit of a nerd , it was the railway times system that brought real synchronised  time to the UK . Arrivals and departures had to be accurate for both the railway  employees and travellers for the success of the companies . Previously villages and even reasonable sized towns were governed by wayward Church clock/bells and alternating sunsets and sunrise times .

I have a book on Rock Formations in the Italian Alps if anyone wishes to borrow it  ~ 

[SaltergateBorn]

The memory thing comes (or goes, to be more precise) with age, Dancing. Personally, I`ve no idea whether my memory is what it was ; I can`t remember.

You`re not Michael Portillo going incognito, are you Charlie? Thanks for the offer re the book, but I think I`ll pass. Mind you, if you`ve got anything on myths and legends of the Ming dynasty in 16th century China - now you`re talkin` !!!!

How`s Piggy doing these days, by the way?

[Charlie Farley]

The memory thing comes (or goes, to be more precise) with age, Dancing. Personally, I`ve no idea whether my memory is what it was ; I can`t remember.

You`re not Michael Portillo going incognito, are you Charlie? Thanks for the offer re the book, but I think I`ll pass. Mind you, if you`ve got anything on myths and legends of the Ming dynasty in 16th century China - now you`re talkin` !!!!

How`s Piggy doing these days, by the way?

I would like Portillo's job but not his wardrobe . I also take bigger steps than him ( who doesn't   ) but am practising aloofness when talking to plebs and working class people . 

Am well prepared and informed on the Ming dynasty and his musical brother Sting .

I'll hang onto the book but you may have missed your chance  . . . . . . 

[Devongone]

Stanley Baxter was just about a genius. I liked Stanley Unwin too ..... but sometimes he lapsed into the merely silly instead of the surreal IMO ..........

I wear orange trousers, red, green, yellow and all kinds of bold jackets and shirts. So I can't complain about Michael Portillo's dress sense.

The bloke who does the walks along abandoned railway lines was on about the railways and different times in different cities a couple of weeks ago.

I think HS2 is meant to re-industrialise the few parts of the country not yet in London. Different time zones may well be back in vogue. How else will anyone be convinced that being dropped at Toton has speeded up their journey to Derby or Nottingham when they are stuck in queues of ring-road traffic?

If it was going to be a different time in Derby it wouldn't matter how long the journey from London took would it? And altering your watch would easier and cheaper than decimating ancient woodland and compulsorily purchasing the homes of formerly happy people ......

[Dancingwilldoit]

Some train companies still work to timetables in different time zones. Thats why they have a 100% punctuality record.
HS2 - the big white elephant. Will get us to London 10 mins quicker but who hell wants to go there?

[Charlie Farley]

Talking of Derby , I have been there when a complete stranger called me 'meduck ' .

Its a place of time travel too as we arrived there at 1958 . Everything was in black & white .

I, of course , refused to speak to anyone . Best way imo .

[Baggiebob(BBB)]

I must say i read all the comments with pleasure and a smile on my face. Great topic, hope it continues.

I liked:
"Would love to put an American in a room with a Welshman, Geordie, Scot, Cockney, Brummie, East Anglian and Somebody from Somerset/Devon and strike up a conversation about Wee Donald Trumpy. If the American thought he spoke English before he started can you imagine the result when he came out. 

Yorkshire is nowhere near as strong an accent as any of the above but how anybody could confuse it with the Aussie accent surprises me."

The thought alone I found amusing, and though I copy accents, there are many that I cannot understand yet alone talk.

[Charlie Farley]

You can always tell a yorkshireman , but you can't tell him much .