Accents:
Philomena: Diane Morgan, the actress who plays the part of Cunk is from the North-West of England, around the Lancashire/Manchester area.
Interviewee 1: Modern RP (Received Pronunciation).
Interviewee 2: She is from a similar area to Cunk and shares a similar accent.
Interviewee 3: Modern RP.
Interviewee 4: Modern RP.
Interviewee 5: To my ear her accent is close to cockney, one of the accents traditionally spoken by the working classes in and around London.
It is a little more neutral than many cockney speakers, which could be because she is using a more neutral version of her accent for TV or when speaking with people from other regions.
If you want to read more about British accents, this Quora topic is quite insightful: https://www.quora.com/topic/British-Accents/
Notes:
00:13 - “Beyonce, I’m rather fond of.”
Rather is a common intensifier in the UK, similar to quite.
To be fond of sth/sb
To like sth/sb.
00:23 - “So, what? The work of a few straight white men just blows Beyonce out of the water?”
Blow out of the water is an idiom that has multiple meanings.
Philomena’s sentence means:
To defeat or destroy
To completely defeat or destroy someone or something, such as in a game or battle.
E.g. "They came to court with fresh evidence that would, they said, blow the prosecution's case completely out of the water."
01:03 - “There’s this sort of hey nonny no music.”
Hey nonny nonny is a nonsense refrain popular in English music during the Elizabethan era. It was often repeated as nonny-nonny, nonino to cover up obscenity. The earliest known use of the word nonny was in the writing of William Shakespeare before 1616.
Medieval plague poem
There is a medieval plague poem called Hey Nonny No by an unknown author.
02:02 - “In the Olympics athletes had to compete in the nude.”
nude (adj.)
Without clothes; naked
in the nude (phrase)
To be naked
E.g. "I like to swim in the nude."
02:13 - “With wrestling, with all that wriggling about, they’d have seen right up their bumholes and everything.”
wriggle about (verb)
To move around with small, quick, twisting motions.
E.g. "The puppy wriggled about in excitement when it saw its owner."
I couldn’t find any dictionary entries for wriggle that included the preposition about, but we very often, maybe 70% of the time, add about or its synonym around to the verb.
It seems to give the wriggling movement a sense of randomness or to intensify the motion.
bumhole (noun) - Vulgar slang - British
A person's anus.
02:25 - “Or ask people to close their eyes each time someone bends over?”
bend over (phrasal verb)
03:03 - “Is it a dig at his audience?”
dig (noun)
a remark intended to mock or criticise
E.g. "Her comment about his messy desk was clearly a dig at him."
03:39 - “And there was a lot of anxiety that young women might be…might be a little bit too turned on.”
turn sb on (phrasal verb)
To cause someone to feel excited or attracted, especially sexually.
E.g. "Her confidence really turns him on."
To make someone interested or enthusiastic about something.
E.g. "The teacher’s passion for history turned the students on to learning more."
03:47 - “People were prudish back then, weren’t they? If they saw his penis, they’d probably have a stroke, wouldn’t they?”
prudish (adj.)
Easily shocked or uncomfortable about matters related to sex or nudity.
E.g. "She’s so prudish that she won’t even watch romantic scenes in movies."
have a stroke
This is a great play on words (or pun as they are also known) based on two meanings of the word stroke.
There is the noun…
And the verb meaning to caress, or to pet...
It's no surprise the interviewee couldn't keep a straight face (i.e. fail to stay serious).
04:46 - “But soon they began creating white-knuckle fight scenes like this.
white-knuckle (adj.) - /waɪt-ˈnʌkᵊl/
Describing something very intense, exciting, or scary, often involving gripping tightly.
E.g. "The roller coaster ride was a white-knuckle experience!"
