U3A January Lecture - Charlie and the Dig

Today we had the first U3A Bury St. Edmunds monthly lecture of 2022 at the APEX.

"Charlie Haylock is one of Suffolk's leading entertainers. His informative and hilarious one-man shows are legendary in the county and his books have all been best sellers.", says his website.  After hearing him today I would agree.

He told us the story of his involvement as dialogue coach for the film The Dig, about the archaeological excavations at Sutton Hoo. He was personal dialogue coach to Ralph Fiennes, who played Basil Brown and we heard how he "Suffolkated" the script and helped Ralph become Basil. 

"Ralph very early on decided to remain in a Suffolk dialect all the time till filming was completed. Ralph and Charlie went into cafes and some country pub public bars so Ralph could practice his Suffolk dialect with the locals . . . by doing this . . Ralph could not only hear the spoken Suffolk dialect . . . but also listen to the rhythm of the dialect . . . the intonations . . . the speed it was spoken, not very fast . . . and those famous Suffolk pauses." 

You can read more about how he did it here.

Here he is in action...

As well us telling stories about the experience, he explained how he annotated the script to indicate the sounds to be made. He also gave us an abbreviated version of his dialect tour of the UK, from the Scottish Highlands, through Edinburgh, the North-East, Liverpool, Birmingham and Cockney to West Country. It was all quite fascinating and very entertaining.

If you get a chance to hear him give the talk, then do. He told us at the end he had 49 more speaking engagements to tell the story of The Dig - you can find his schedule here.

You can listen to him explaining some Suffolk dialect words and phrases here...

Thank-you Charlie!