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‘Your accent makes you sound so stupid.’ Welsh presenter Alex Jones reveals worst ever comment

14 Aug 2021 2 minute read
Alex Jones

BBC The One Show presenter Alex Jones says the worst comment she has ever received is about her Welsh accent.

Interviewed by the Guardian, she describes, “Your accent makes you sound so stupid” as the worst comment she has ever received.

Born in Ammanford, Alex Jones is a fluent Welsh speaker who started her broadcasting career as a researcher and presenter on S4C.

References are often made about to her Welsh accent and it follows recent criticism that fellow BBC presenter Alex Scott received about her London accent.

The Olympics sports presenter said she was ‘proud’ to be from a working-class family in east London after Lord Digby Jones had complained about her pronunciation.

‘Worst job’

The Q&A interview with Alex Jones also reveals her worst ever job as a call centre worker in Cardiff.

She said: “It was working in a call centre in Cardiff for British Gas. I was 21 and, I am ashamed to say, one Monday morning I ran away. I said I was going to the loo and never went back.”

Asked what she considered her greatest achievement, she said it was managing to stay on The One Show for over a decade in an ‘industry that is so fickle’.

Alex Jones’ first presenting role was on the S4C singing show Cân i Gymru before later specialising in children’s programmes on the channel.

She took up the role on The One Show in July 2010 after the former presenter Christine Bleakley left the BBC to join ITV.

She now lives in London and recently announced that she is expecting her third child with her husband Charlie Thomson this month.


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David Russell
David Russell
2 years ago

As an Englishman,well travelled and getting on in years I can honestly say the Southern Welsh accent is one of the most beautiful and pleasant to hear. Some of the finest speakers and actors hail from there. So whoever made such nasty,derisory comments has not travelled around the UK very much.

MWW
MWW
2 years ago
Reply to  David Russell

Listen on YouTube to Richard Burton playing Hamlet. Then think of Hamlet with an RP accent.

Dai Rob
Dai Rob
2 years ago

Babe.

Stephen Owen
Stephen Owen
2 years ago

It is so bad that people are judged by their accents, ridiculous really.

MWW
MWW
2 years ago
Reply to  Stephen Owen

In English culture, whose predominant characteristic is social status, accent matters because it is an indicator of that status. In Wales, that has never been the case. England is now following Wales in that the relationship of accent to class is being deliberately muddied. It started at the top with royalty. Have you noticed how the queen has dropped her cut glass accent of yore? Could it be that such democratization comes from their fear of loss of power, or even elimination? 

Stephen Owen
Stephen Owen
2 years ago
Reply to  MWW

Yes I understand, but it is still ridiculous to judge people by their accents. I try to accept people as individuals.

Hannergylch
Hannergylch
2 years ago
Reply to  Stephen Owen

Many RP (“received pronunciation”) speakers genuinely believe themselves to be speaking accentless English, and that accents are layered on top of RP. A few years ago, the Dundee Courier & Advertiser poked fun at this misconception, quite deliciously, in a story about 2 confidence tricksters. They reported that “the suspects spoke with English accents that they attempted to conceal.”

Stephen Owen
Stephen Owen
2 years ago
Reply to  Hannergylch

I know, I live in London and middle class English people are often telling me they don’t have an accent while telling me I am Welsh as if I didn’t know myself. It seems to loom very large to them and I am often expected to give an account of myself as to how I am in London or how I was able to have the job I had. I feel I am being put into a box marked Welsh. I also live in Bangalore and I know two young men there who are deaf and are unable to speak,… Read more »

J. W. S. Jones
2 years ago

I think the varied accents of Britain and Ireland are marvelous. One of my favorite web pages play examples of accents from around the isles, and now this Yankee ear can pick out eight or more accents. I delight in that.

C. Griffiths
C. Griffiths
2 years ago
Reply to  J. W. S. Jones

Well this Welsh ear can pick out over 8 from south Wales alone so you’ve got quite an uphill battle to be able to recognise but a fraction of British accents unfortunately. (Although it does surprise me that native English speaking Americans can’t differentiate between accents.)

j humphrys
j humphrys
2 years ago
Reply to  C. Griffiths

Of England, I like the Black Country accent. Of Cymru, often hard to tell whether someone is from Cardiff or Wrexham. Foreigners do prefer RP, even though they can’t tell accents. Johnson sounds clear, Mogg drawls, imo.

Last edited 2 years ago by j humphrys
Ray Clarke
Ray Clarke
2 years ago
Reply to  j humphrys

Unless you’re from Cardiff or Wrexham. No familiarity at all!!

Cynan
Cynan
2 years ago

“Your accent makes you sound so stupid” Was the comment. Whereas his (it’s bound to be a him) comment made him sound stupid.
All accents are great except RP. I mean what sounds more pompous than everything uttered by Rees-Mogg or Johnson?

Keith Evans
Keith Evans
2 years ago

The comment was by a Guardian reporter,oh the shock!!This rag has an anti Welsh agenda going back years.

David Smith
David Smith
2 years ago
Reply to  Keith Evans

Every bit as bad as the Daily Mail but without the comedy of laughing at commenters.

Huw Davies
Huw Davies
2 years ago
Reply to  Keith Evans

The comment wasn’t by a Guardian reporter. Alex was being interviewed by The Guardian and that was her reply to the question “What Is the worst thing anyone’s ever said to you?” Apart from that your comment is correct.

arthur owen
2 years ago

Still you do not repeat the funniest incident in the interview,when she recounts her most embarassing moment,I will not repeat it,let readers read them in the Guardian.

Roderick FARR
2 years ago
Reply to  arthur owen

Why spend money on that irritating
rubbisj

Britney
Britney
11 months ago

Isn’t this just how racist Welsh treat English people? And all the time

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