If you’ve watched even one tiny second of The Crown, Netflix’s sweeping costume drama about the life and times of Queen Elizabeth II, then you’ve tried to speak in Queen Elizabeth’s plummy, posh, fancy-as-fuck accent more times than you’d like to mention.
It’s a very specific accent—British (obviously), but not your standard drunk-asshole-doing-‘arry-Potter-at-a-party accent, either. It’s an accent that, as actress Claire Foy has mentioned while doing press, is difficult to master because it’s so foreign—even for someone who naturally speaks with a British accent. “Thank you” sounds like “thenk yew.” Vowels that should not be clipped are snipped within an inch of their life while others are stretched to their very limits. The word “yes”—a short, sharp bleat of agreeance—is now something more of a “eeeeyeeesss,” like a very posh screen door admonishing you for slamming it one times too many.
Point being: it’s hard. But it’s a challenge that three of the four resident Crown-heads at Jezebel decided to face head on. We tried our best, mum. Thenk yew.