speaking as a mum of one of the so-called 'estuary english' children, the idea that the children (of whom there were many)at the last audition spoke in this way was ridiculous!! These were all children who had taken goodness knows how many lamda exams etc. Some were going on to drama school and had no clear regional accent of any sort that I could determine. But they did not speak in '1930's/40's' English a la Brief Encounter or indeed Miss Agutter in the Railway Children.
I think this kind of English is indeed disappearing, but to imply that 'estuary english' or an eastenders variety is the alternative is simply untrue.

MRS A DE VERE, marlow, uk

I live in America, and I've always loved the way "received pronunciation" sounded , so posh and cultured. The sound of Cockney was like that of finger nails dragged across a blackboard. But that was because the only times I heard cockney spoken was when a lower class person used it (usually in a film or tv show). Nowadays, I hear "Estuary "spoken by all classes of people,both lower and upperclass; when the person is intelligent, he speaks an intelligent form of Cockney. When the person is not cultured or intelligent, his Cockney sounds crude. But it is all Cockney. So let us not bemoan the loss of "Public School" English. Language is busy doing what it always does: it changes! If it didn't, you all would be speaking Norman French., not that that would be such a terrible thing.

john raguso, Buffalo , USA, NY State

My daughter is bilingual - she speaks Estuarine English and at school and properly at home and in drama classes - hence the cattle call audition we are attending tomorrow - thank you, Times!

Fiz, Buntingford,

I disagree that there are a shortage of young girls with RP accents. I work for a children's theatre school and have seen the casting details for this. I have also spoken to parents whose children have gone to today's casting.

For the part of Posy they want a girl who can play a 9 year old and is en pointe. The very earliest that most reputable ballet school will put a girl en pointe is about 11 years old with 12 beinng more of an average. At todays casting they were rejecting any girls approaching 5 foot tall, only consider girls well under 5 foot.

Finding such a small, young looking girl who can dance en pointe is a very tall order, regardless of accent.

Also for the part of Pauline they want a 16 year old (for child emplyment reasons) who can play a much younger girl. I know of several 15 year olds who can not go for this casting though they fit the bill in other ways. Children are, in general developing earlier, they are taller and reaching puberty earlier.

Julie, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffs

Here's an interesting fact. The actress who played Petrova in the BBC's 1975 adaptation has, for the last 20 years, been playing barmaid Tracey in Eastenders who rarely gets to speak at all. Now what does that say about estuary English v RP?

Liz, Scotland,

HUMBLED AND CORRECTED

To J Roberts, Seaford, England:

So, I asked my wife:

"Which men come to mind as having good voices and great commands of the English language?"

She thought for a while and answered:

"Sean Connery and Richard Buton!"

Connery, of course is Scots, or Scottish, if you prefer, and Richard Burton was Welsh.

I am, of course, deeply wounded that she did not mention my name.

Don't the English speak English anymore?

I thought of one: Alaistair Cooke!!!

Garth Rex, Glendale Heights, USA

The voice is a tool. Just as an excellent artisan will take pride in using his/her tools so will those people who look on their voice as a tool try to make it a good one. What is a good one? We all recognise a good voice when we hear one. It does not have to be a 'Home Counties' voice either. A regional accent can be rich in sound, well modulated, and full of light and shade. In other words a tool well used. And what is wrong with Received Pronunciation? RP does not take the accent or dialect out of sound,.RP is exactly what it represents. The pronunciation of the word. A person may have a strong regional accent and also have excellent RP.

Jim, Auckland, NZ

Don't be tiresome and silly, Garth Rex: the finest English has always been spoken by educated Scots.

J Roberts, Seaford, England

my daughter is mixed raced and speaks rather good english .and that as allways been held against her, in the dancing/acting/ trained ballet dancer/ world of show bussiness, my opinion , not her's.but she has never given up, still hanging in there, working hard, then watching all the x factor and other talent shows, must make these kids really frustrated, i say u go in 4 them but the answer is always the same, no!! i think , !! ok then do it the hard way.

julia, burnham, uk

I recently tuned into BFBS Radio-Germany- the other day. I have never in my life heard such ugly English accents. What part of the UK they came from I have no idea. I switched off immediately.

Brooks, Munich, Germany

I wonder : beyond accents, will English follow the fate of Latin in its way to globalisation ? Or will it stand as a vehicular language for a worldwide communicability ? With an impoverishing academic constraint, or a flourishing but dispersing “let it go” ? As for me, I feel a bit lazy to begin learning Chinese.

Garnier, Paris, France

I predict (or rather hope for) a backlash - mockney and esturarine are just so ugly!

Please note that I have no problem with genuinely regional accents but there is a lot to be said for clear pronunciation that doesn't turn Rs into Ws and drop both vowels and consonants with gay abandon, turning "police" into "pleece" and "brought" into "bought". Clarity assists understanding and avoids problems in communication!

Anne, Ilfracombe,

/sigh/ While hardly posh myself, it seems I'm fighting a losing battle. Most of the TV watched by my daughters seems to be spoken so fast and in such a bizarre accent as to be barely comprehensible. Just don't get me started on the imported TV shows...!

I do not believe, though, that 'talking down' is a new phenomenen. We did it in the 70's but all my friends seemed to lose their accents at university, adopting a far more general-pupose middle-class accent.

Ann McCrory, Bucks,

In my opinin, it's down to schooling and the general attitude of the governement these days. If more money was spent on schools as the government say they are doing then children would be taught better. I went to a British Public boarding school purely down to the fact that my parents were sick of my brothers and I reading Jenny Yellow Hat at 8 years old in our primary state school when we should've been progressing and developing ourselves.
If the school's curriculum wasn't developed around teaching children about other country's religions then maybe they would actually get taught what the country pays their taxes for school's to teach them. It's not always down to how a child is raised, but also what they're surrounded by in school. If children weren't faced daily by news readers and children's tv presenters where you can't understand a word they say then children these days would have a better chance of speaking properly.

Louise, Newcastle,

I suspect the wealth of ill speaking girls and boys at drama schools are the result of pushy parents (who tend to be very plebby from what I can tell from the drama school success stories).

I hate the thought that a backlash against such plebby offspring might encourage casting agent to only employ posh folk - in which case we shall end up with the Bonham-Carters, Day Lewis or Swahalia type clans hogging the best roles.....

Another thing I hate is actors who put on fake posh accents - Billy Piper seems to be doing this of late in order to be taken seriously as an actess or is it that she pretended to be more ordinary than she really was at the beginning of her career? Her adoption of the accent/ugly glasses in interviews and a prospective marriage into an acting dynasty should put paid to any problems for her anyhow!

Lesley, London, UK

Unintelligable accents are nothing new. I can remember an early 50s documentary about painting the Forth Bridge.
The English compained so strongly that the program was shown again the following week with subtitles - and the Scots whent mad!

Mike Bibby, St Albans, England -not EU

Frankly, it comes from the home environment. I myself have no problems speaking properly. I can even manage to string a few words together, and sound perfectly normal. In my opinion there are now too many sons of builders etc going to public schools as opposed to comprehensives, which I went to as a matter of fact. And at which I was beaten up regularly for having a "posh" voice.

Chris, Exeter, Devon

The growth of ‘Estuarine’ English and other regional variations at the expense of Received Pronunciation might be viewed as the natural evolution of the spoken word. Clearly TV and radio play a large role in this change. However, I think there is a distinct difference between allowing a broader range of regional (or class) accents onto TV and Radio – with their variations in pronunciation and intonation - and allowing broadcasters and TV performers to mutilate the language by disregarding the accepted rules of grammar. The BBC, as the nation’s own TV and radio service, has a duty to educate as well as to inform and entertain. This includes ensuring that TV and radio presenters understand and use the language properly. The BBC should ensure that its performers and broadcasters use grammatically correct speech unless it is necessary, within a dramatic context, to do otherwise. They set an example, especially to the young. Encouraging youngsters to talk badly is in no-one’s interest.

Kevin, Kent,

At last! The millions the Australian government has spent on the long-term 'Neighbours' project has finally worked. Hurrah!

It's only a matter of time before the entire English speaking world are adding o's and y's to the end of every word.

Mwaaaaah!

Jake, Melbourne,

Looks as if middle-class accents are disappearing altogether - in twenty or so years time our kids could be listening to records of us speaking now and laughing as we laugh now at records of people saying things like 'thet het look ebsolutely wonderful on you, Pemela'...

Val, London,

I think it is time that the English - who have it much worse than the Scots, Welsh or Irish - get over this accent/class relation. I find it comical that crooks often still speak with cockney accents on TV series and bosses still have a private school English pronunciation. Thankfully, the times are changing: when we hear old Pathé news reels the reporters' accents sound like nothing spoken now! Nor should actors try to preserve these old pronunciations: nobody acts Shakespeare using sixteenth century English pronunciation. So hopefully in 50 years time, parlour maids will be able to speak with the same accent as their employers without any of us thinking it is incongruous. Then Eileen Atkins and her like will give up perpetuating the speech patterns of another era and the English will have taken a step in overcoming their class demons.

jimbo, Oslo, Norway

Garth, You're not wrong. I know a Chinese girl who speaks with a very posh English accent. And she came top of the class in English - when she was at boarding school in Cambridge - beating the native English-speakers.

It just proves what I tell my students here in Germany: the English can no longer speak and write their own language.

Tina, Duesseldorf, Germany

I say! How jolly inconvenient! Have you chaps tried
India..Australia...New Zealand? I understand that English is still beautifully spoken in Hong Kong!

"Why won't the English...teach their children how to speak? The French speak French...the Greeks speak Greek...!?"

Ah! Professor 'enry 'iggins! We need you! Where the blazes are you?

Garth Rex, Glendale Heights, USA