The majestic and indomitable Julie Andrews appeared on Fresh Air last week to talk about her new memoir. I only heard part of the interview (you can hear it here) driving around on my lunchbreak, and once again I marveled at how recognizable Andrews’ voice is, even in speaking instead of singing.

Her speech is impeccable, and it was funny to hear her describe the process by which she learned a Cockney accent to sing Eliza Dolittle in My Fair Lady on Broadway. Apparently she had the words to certain songs written out phonetically as to get the full Cockney effect, though you can still hear her erudite English sneaking through the ‘Enry ‘Igginses in the original Broadway cast recording. In this regard, Audrey Hepburn and Marni Nixon (dubbed as Hepburn’s singing voice) did a better job.

In these modern times, people no longer so adamantly work toward Received Pronunciation (the official title for Henry Higgins’ ideal English accent) — even the BBC no longer holds RP as its standard.

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