Our latest focus on distinct accents on the British isles turns to Northwest England. Our guest Kathryn Mather comes from Rochdale, historically part of Lancashire but now part of Greater Manchester. “Likkle girl down in hospical” - have you heard that one before?

Kathryn was crowned winner of Frog and Bucket World Series in 2017 (Manchester’s prestigious comedy club’s new act competition) and was placed third in Leicester Mercury Comedian of the year in 2019. She and your host Kuan-wen started comedy around the same time and did all those dreadful open mics together, as you can tell from their banters they have known each other for a long time. Kathryn shares why she chose to relocate to Southern England - for the weather! What a shocker - and how the same joke based on Northern stereotypes gets reactions for very different reasons in the south or the north of England.

People still mock her accent. When asked who does so? “The southerners!” The conversation ends on the class divide in the UK and how the comedy industry’s take on working class representation still fails to tackle the structural issues. Kathryn explains why she rarely mentions her working class background - for she feels fraudulent, based on the society’s twisted definition of a working class family. Kathryn also explains how the privilege works for performers from a more affluent background and candidly why she wished she’d never started doing comedy.

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Follow Kathryn on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/beforenowafterthen/

Kathryn’s Historical Hot or Not podcast on Spotify and on Apple Podcast

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/kuanwencomedy/

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00:49 Why can’t English people speak another language most of the time? Kathryn’s self-defence

08:24 Moving down south from northwest England and losing the accent

10:44 Southerners making fun of Kathryn’s accent

12:58 “Likkle Girl down in hospical”; examples of Lancastrian/Mancunian accents

15:36 Is mocking someone’s accent just (acceptable) banters (if between friends)? Are British bantz mean-spirited?

22:21 “It seems like I am the only act without any accent tonight!”

24:05 London centrism and the North (of England) ignored: how accent hierarchy reflects structural regional disparities in the UK

27:40 How Kathryn accounts for her Northern identity when gigging in different parts of the UK

31:32 The bad press Rochdale is somehow known for

33:41 Why Kathryn chooses not to mention her working-class background often? How she sees the portrayal of being Northern and working class on the comedy scene

42:49 Case in question: In what ways is it tougher for a comedian to make it when they don’t have much money or born with certain privileges

47:30 Some more upbeat final message

50:12 Kathryn’s social media

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

A year end review based on 2025 Spotify Unwrapped and the podcast platform statistics, released on the penultimate day of 2025!

In case you are not a stats nerd on where the podcast is consumed, this monologue episode also includes a brief discussion on the Bennet scale, also called the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity. The framework was developed to analyse how people react to cultural differences and can be a useful tool when someone experiences cultural shocks. Your host came across this framework listening to an *international career coaching podcast (in Mandarin) and interprets this framework as a stand up comedian.

Wrapping up this monologue episodes, your host Kuan-wen shares his observations on changes to comedy rooms after a far-right rally in London.

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Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

https://www.instagram.com/kuanwencomedy/

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00:32 Intro

03:11 2025 Spotify Unwrapped

07:50 2025 statistics (July to December) from the podcast platform

11:55 Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity (Bennet Scale)

14:37 Six intercultural sensitivity stages

20:09 What if the audience is at a different of intercultural sensitivity for a foreign stand up comedian?

22:50 A non comedy example of mutual cultural understandings when it comes to toasting

25:45 Accents v.s. speaking English “wrong”

30:40 Changing political climate/Impact of Tommy Robinson rally in the UK on comedy shows

37:49 Some final encouraging words

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/comedywithanaccent/ or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe

Language itself should be a neutral issue; but it never is in the real world. Dimitri Bakanov is a London-based Ukrainian comedian. He is also a native Russian speaker, having lost the full fluency of his Ukrainian when he moved away with his family at the age of 11. When languages are tangled with identity, life throws in a big warfare on top of the existing nationalist tensions, things get complicated.

Dimitri talks about his accent (when he speaks English) that can fool other foreigners but remains nonetheless foreign in the ears of the Brits. Having come to the UK as a young child, he is no longer able to “do” an East European accent naturally. But he would not have even if he could, as explained in this episode.

The fairly anglicised accent of Dimitri’s also reflects a more westernised life style/value system, as he remarks on certain cultural differences between him and some other immigrants from Ukraine. The use of language becomes a more evident issue after the second Russian invasion of in 2022, as his native tongue is considered the language of the aggressor, the use of which is deemed unpatriotic by many of his compatriots.

Dimitri explains in this episode his curious and complex relationship with the land he was born in and left as a child and shares his thoughts why as a comedian, he does not mind having an irreverent persona on stage when talking about the war in Ukraine.

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Follow Dimitri in Instagram

Follow your host Kuan-wen on Instagram

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01:07 Intro

02:39 Anglicised pronunciation of Dimitri’s name

03:50 A Russian-speaking Ukrainian

05:28 An accent that non-native English speakers believe to be British but actual British people know it’s foreign

08:29 Incapable of doing “an East European” accent; timing of learning English

11:07 When native English speakers not knowing their language (eg your vs you’re) and foreign English learners getting too pedantic

14:57 Wouldn’t do a great East European accent even if he could

17:54 How comfortable Dimitri feels claiming the “Ukrainian comedian in the UK” label?

19:04 Cultural differences/clashes with some other Ukrainian immigrants

21:26 Do comedians “have to” explain their accents? Dimitri’s take

26:28 Strong Ukrainian accent when Dimitri speaks Russian

29:16 Impacts of Russian invasion on Dimitri’s comedy career and choices he made on stage

31:26 Not wishing to lecture the western audience the war support

36:15 Divided reactions from Ukrainian audience with the irreverent jokes

37:47 How Media fishes for someone to be on TV in the case of an invasion

39:02 Dimitri’s complex relationship with Ukraine

44:17 Dimitri’s complex relationship with the Ukrainian language

49:55 How the timeline of the Russian invasion is defined in western Media

50:42 Summary and caveats

53:39 Life goes on in Ukraine despite the war

55:52 Dimitri’s social media

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If you like the episode, please share it and leave a review. For any comments or suggestions, please contact us on Instagram or email comedywithanaccent@gmail.com

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Podcast intro music by @Taigenkawabe