Quintin Jardine's blog

My wife was born in South Shields, a few years before Cheryl Ann Tweedy emerged into the watery sunlight, just across the river in Newcastle. That gives them a sort of kinship, even if Eileen is a  better singer. And so, when Cheryl was booted off the American X Factor because not everyone might have understood her accent, I took it personally. Having been fed over the last few years on British TV a steady diet of Sopranos, CSI, The Shield, The Wire, and various other US urban soaps, all of which could have been sub-titled, I find myself more than a little pissed off  that the show’s producers regard a Geordie accent as off limits for a US audience.