attack of the chirpy Cock-er-nees!

[baratron]

Oh dear. It's nearly 5am, and Richard is completely unable to sleep because his head's full of Cockney. I volunteered to help Brit-pick for an American writer, and we were brainstorming various phrases that are peculiarly British, and Richard went into a spontaneous "Eastenders" or "Only Fools and Horses" script. So far he's come up with:

'So I got on the blower and said "John, me old mucker, the motor's on the blink." So John got on the trolley and came round and had a butcher's at the business end, and said "Blimey, guvnor, you've been done, mate. Fat 'Arry must've seen you coming to set you up with a ropey old banger like that. "So now I'm right browned off, see, 'cos Fat 'Arry swore blind he'd sort me out something pukka. So I might 'ave to send the boys round to do 'im over.'

which means, loosely translated,
'So I got on the phone and said "John, my friend, the car's broken down". So John got on the bus and came round and had a look under the bonnet (hood) and said "Gosh, my friend, you have been conned. Fat Harry must have known you were easy to fool, to sell you a dodgy old car like that." So now I'm really annoyed, because Fat Harry promised he'd sell me something good quality. So I might have to send my heavies round to beat him up.'

Yes ;) We had particular trouble translating "the boys", because they could be his actual sons, or his hired help - the idea being that they are gang members of some sort, but the person speaking is in charge of the gang, the one who gives the orders.

Poor silly wuzzie. I hope he can sleep soon. He needs to be up in 2 hours for paintball.

Comments

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Some of us do use "on the blink," but I think that's the only one I've heard here and it always sounds a little Anglophilic.

[otterylexa.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that "dodgy" isn't a britishism too.