Doc martin regional accent essay

editing:
match on action with doc martin and dog
track and dolly used when walking down street

sound:
background music- non diegetic
plumber- cornwall, bit stupid, illiterate, can't explain himself, blue collar workers. older one doing all the work
doc martin- higher class, doesn't understand some of the dialect used by plumber, has more time for the higher class people. Comes from south, higher class
english women- higher class, complex words
older woman- works on farm, with  vegetables but is also a teacher, poorer works 2 jobs
cornwall slang

mise en scene:
little cottage type setting, small, old fashioned, beams
by the sea, small village with winding streets and small novelty shops.
Everyone knows one another

camera:
wide shot when water is spilling out everywhere


Doc Martin is set in a rural town in Cornwall, it is situated around a doctor who moved from London to Cornwall to carry on his profession. In the extract that we watched it portrayed the difference between different regions. Doc Martin is original from south London, the stereotypes of this region are that everyone is rather well off and have good, well paid jobs. This is because sterotypically most people from the south are associated with living or working in or near the capital of London.  Doc Martin is portrayed as being well spoken and intelligent. He is also rather popular, perhaps because of his knowledge and therefore authority.

Doc Martin can be compared with the other characters we see in the extract. The two plumbers, who are working on a job in the doctors surgery, originate from Cornwall and have a very different accent and dialect to Doc Martin. The older plumber can be seen sitting down doing hardly any of the work, whilst the younger man is doing all the work. The older plumber has a thick accent that is hard for Doc Martin to understand. "Use some more nouns would you" is something that Doc Martin says to the plumber, this can be showing how illiterate the plumber is. This comes from the stereotype that people from cornwall are typically less intelligent then any other region.

Wide shot of the setting of the programme is a small town in Cornwall, it is a quaint little town with winding rounds and novelty shops. The stereotypically backdrop of lush green rolling hills can be seen as well as it being beside the sea. In terms of mise-en-scene none of the characters are seen with mobile phones or high tech gadgets. This follows the stereotype that people from Cornwall are behind the times and sort of live in their own bubble.

One of the characters that interacts with Doc Martin is an older lady who can be assumed to have lived in Cornwall her whole life. She has a very strong accent and uses many Cornish slang terms e.g, Bodmin. She can be seen offering Doc Martin some of her vegetables, this reflects the rural area of Cornwall and the stereotype that everyone is a farmer and produce their own goods. As she continues to talk to Doc Martin she reveals that she is a teacher at the local school. The fact that she has two jobs could portray that she is less well off than Doc Martin and needs two jobs to help her live.

Within the editing of the programme, jump cuts were used to connote his fast paced busy life in London, this contrasts with the locals who live a slow paced, calmer life. It could have been used to create a divide between Doc Martin and the local residents of the village.

In the first scene we see a dog run into the doctors with a policeman chasing him. This could be portraying that in the village the worse things that need to be solved by the police is a lost dog. This contrasts with the lifestyle in London where big crimes will be being solved.

Branston and Staffords theory applies to Doc Martin; Doc Martin can be seen as the archetype for South London, he is stereotypically more well off and is more literate than the locals of Cornwall. The plumber could be seen as the archetype for the people of cornwall, he is stereotypically shown as being more illiterate than Doc Martin and is a blue collar worker, this could show that he earns less.

Dyers idea of hegemony can also be seen in the extract we watched; Doc Martin is seen as being the authority figure throughout the village, he wears a suit to show legitimacy of authority and credibility. In the scene with the plumber Doc Martin is physically towering over the plumbers, this is a visual representation of how he is seen as more knowledgeable than the two plumbers.

Overall within the extract of Doc Martin there is a clear divide of the regional differences between those from Cornwall and Doc Martin from South London. Doc Martin is represented as being more well off as he is from South London with the stereotypes of him being more knowledgeable and having better job opportunities. It could be seen that there is a bias towards Doc Martin as the other characters in the programme are seen as slightly dim and behind the times.