One's dumbing down: Queen 'is speaking with an estuary accent' says Mirren ahead of new role as monarch

PUBLISHED: 03:28 EST, 22 September 2012 | UPDATED: 04:37 EST, 22 September 2012

Her cut glass accent is the one by which all others are judged, but is the Queen now talking more like her subjects?

That is the view of actress Dame Helen Mirren, who has announced she will return to play the monarch in a new West End play.

She feels the Queen has developed an 'estuary' twang to her accent over the years.

You look familiar: Helen Mirren with the subject of her most famous role - The Queen - at a reception in Buckingham Palace in 2011

Dame Helen, 67, who won an Oscar for portraying the Queen in the 2006 film of the same name, will play Her Majesty from the age of 25 to the present day in 'The Audience'.

The play will look at the Queen's weekly meetings with prime ministers during that period, from Winston Churchill to David Cameron.

In studying for the role Dame Helen has said the Queen has shown incredible consistency in everything she does over the years, in her clothes, hairstyle and professional attitude.

But she has noticed one slight change in that time, in the accent the Queen has used.

Dame Helen Mirren won an Oscar for her role as the monarch in the 2006 film 'The Queen'

Dame Helen did a fantastic job of looking so much like the Queen, but was wary of returning to the role that had given her so much success

'Her voice has changed, and I can use that... she had a terribly posh voice when she was young,' said Dame Helen.

'But now even the Queen, while she isn't quite dropping the ends of her lines - though her grandsons do - there's a tiny bit of estuary creeping in there.

'I can use all that to signify the age range and we'll come up with other things.'

This is not the first time the Queen has been accused of dropping her high standards of speech.

A study of the Queen's Christmas Day broadcasts carried out in 2000 showed that her accent had gone from clipped in the 1940s to one more in common with a Radio 4 presenter.

Dame Helen has admitted to having reservations about playing the monarch again, but the play's director, Stephen Daldry, convinced her otherwise.

Dame Helen in a scene from 'The Queen', the new play, due to open in Februrary 2013, has the same writer in Peter Morgan

'I certainly don;t want to be known as the actress who played the Queen, so there was a slight sense of apprehension about that element,' she said.

'I was thinking "You shouldn't really be doing this, Helen. I don't think it's right." And the thought of doing a play - you can't go anywhere for six months.'

She admitted she came around to the idea because of the people involved: 'Here are some of the best people at what they do in the world. If you don't do it, you're an absolute idiot. So here we go again.'

The play opens next February at London's Gielgud Theatre, and is written by Peter Morgan, the author of The Queen.

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I thought that the queen was asked to soften her accent, also it could be due to old age, but she never umms or arghs like so many public speakers do today, she also never ends her sentence with " you know" she never used slang and does have an excellent grasp of the "proper" english language, so all you people who cannot speak English properly (I include myself in that) take note of her Majesty, The problem with being a Royal they can do nothing right no matter how they try, I do like helen Mirren as an actress, she plays the Queen well but at the end of the day the decision to play the queen comes down to how much money she has been offered to play the role, so i think they have offered a very good payout for her to pay the Queen, And she would be silly not to take it.

- daisymay , auckland, New Zealand, 23/9/2012 21:03

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She a smashing job as the Queen. Well done her.

- Mick , Sydney, 23/9/2012 20:51

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I think she's suffering from brain damage. Perhaps from an infection or a stroke. A closed or penetrating head injury could also be the mechanism at work here.

- Beate , London, United Kingdom, 23/9/2012 19:59

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..... the accent of the North East which is beyond crazy but I believe reflects to an extent the Norwegians sailor's who visited and settled there..... - artdeco88, St Annes, 22/9/2012 16:00 Blimey O'Rheilly, just one single Norwegan sailor who did all that - when was that and who was he? He must be catalogued somewhere, on Lindisfarne Island maybe, but what a fountain of knowledge that Scandinavian turned out to be! Would be interesting to know the source of this info', his name, and date of arrival if poss...

- Hotspur , Geneva, 23/9/2012 16:16

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Is it your queen who's been giving asensions to treaties that envelope you into the EU ? - that would make an interesting documentary.

- ferret , on nut, United Kingdom, 23/9/2012 12:46

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As an American: What is an estuary accent? What do Brits mean by speaking "posh?" I am an Anglophile and like to learn these details. - Aravis, USA, 22/9/2012 Estuary accent is a reference to the form of English spoken in the area of the Thames estuary ie broadly from Southend to Windsor on both sides of the river and including London. It is really an extension of Cockney but for what it's worth not quite. It is not 'standard English' but a loose form of what has become to be known as 'Mockney' ie neo Cockney. Those who subscribe to it are given to describe 'Standard English' as 'posh' . The term 'posh' itself is a vulgarism reflecting some twisted envy towards those who benefitting by/from some kind of elitist education. The irony of this is that a certain number of higher education students even reject the idea of a form of standard English to speak in Estuary terms eg not pronouncing consonants ie practicing the glottal stop as in "wo'a ma'er ma'?" for What's the matter mate?"

- Hotspur , Geneva, 23/9/2012 11:01

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...and 1 more thing. You take Helens comments so seriously. Relax. I mean if we 'hated' celebrities from the US who move to the UK, and they say stupid things all the time. I mean so many of them, have moved to UK/rest of Euro...and we here about the culture, blah blah...the better way of life, blah blah..and then 4 years later they move back to the US. We are still waiting for the 'celebs' who said if Bush was elected again, they'd leave the country.. STILL ALL HERE.

- Laura , Sarasota Florida USA, 23/9/2012 10:06

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She better speak proper for all the taxes I pay. - Try this at home, London, 22/9/2012 6:21 -------------------------------------------------------my favorite comment. thanks for the laugh.

- Laura , Sarasota Florida USA, 23/9/2012 10:01

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"Her cut glass accent is the one by which all others are judged." All others? Really? Are you serious? I speak RP English and would hate to be compared with how the royals speak. They are just as bad as those at the other end of the scale who speak with a false "Estuary" or "Mockney" accent.

- Major Catastrophe , Niedersachsen, 23/9/2012 08:32

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"The Mirren woman is so up herself,criticising Britain to the Americans,her family came from Russia, Mirren shouldn't have agreed to play our Queen when she obviously has no respect for her."- Hey nonny nonny, Englandland, 22/9/2012 20:34 ---- Well, that's a silly attitude. The actor Colin Firth, who played King George VI in 'The King's Speech' isn't a royalist, either. So he shouldn't have agreed to take that part, either? Helen Mirren and Colin Firth are both good actors and the only important thing is they play their parts well...which they did.

- Sam , London, United Kingdom, 23/9/2012 08:18

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