My dad was almost Long John Silver … sort of. Well, you see, my dad was born in Gloucester, in the West Country, and in 1939, due some sort of kerfuffle called World War 2, at the age of 17, he enlisted in the Royal Navy. During that time, he served with the actor Robert Newton, who was from Dorset and therefore had a similar accent to my dad. They became pals, or comrades, or crones or something. But all I can remember my dad saying of Newton, was that he was ‘ a mucky bugger’ and had to be thrown into the bath to get cleaned up. Anyway, in 1950 Robert Newton played Long John Silver in a smash hit production of Treasure Island. Indeed, the ‘pirate accent’ that is still used to this day - especially on ‘talk like a pirate day’-is based on Newstion’s West Country accent. Wether he comtinued to be a mucky bugger after her became famous, I really don’t know.
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So, by that logic, all pirates are Gloucester people in sailor garb...
Great behind the scenes story Paul. Newton was the perfect Pirate and Treasure Island was and still is an absolute classic in my opinion.