Casualty’s Duffy actress Cathy Shipton has revealed what really happened to her character’s original accent, after it changed over the years.
Lisa Duffin first made her debut on the ward back in 1986, and following a number of returns and guest stints over the year she finally rejoined the cast in 2015.
Cathy is currently tackling one of the BBC drama’s biggest storylines to date, with Duffy told she could be in the early stages of vascular dementia.
But as she took to the This Morning sofa on Thursday, hosts Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby had one question in mind.
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With her having been on the show for over 30 years, there was something that had noticeably changed about the character in that time.
When she first made her debut, Cathy had a West Country accent.
But over the years this dialect appears to have completely vanished, with her no longer sounding this way.
The actress is actually from Lewisham in London, so the accent from her past was faked.
Cathy laughed as Phillip showed her a clip from her first years on the show, before asking her why she sounded so different.
It’s then that she finally revealed the truth, and confessed she did change her accent intentionally.
She said: “I mean, okay, hands up. This was my first telly, I’d never done telly.
“Suddenly you’re on Saturday night TV, and one of the most inexperienced actors and they ask her to do an accent."
On why it changed she added: “We got a new producer and he said well Duffy’s been listening to Radio 4, and I went ‘Okay’ cos it meant I could be like this.”
Casualty continues Saturday at 8:25pm on BBC One.
