Accent on Mr Big

Auckland University of Technology language expert Andy Gibson says Australian actor Matthew Newton, who plays New Zealand drug lord Terry Clark in the series Underbelly, is using “fush and chup” vowels where real New Zealanders wouldn’t. “He sounds like the stereotype of how Australians think we sound, not how we actually sound,” Gibson said. Ironically it was this line, “Us Kiwis have got to stick together”, that really gave him away. “That just doesn’t sound right,” he said. “We don’t speak like that.” The second series of Underbelly is rating well in New Zealand with 409,200 tuning in this week to watch the latest installment in the adventures of Terry Clark, aka Mr Big of heroin drug ring fame. Clark, also known as Alexander Sinclair, died in Parkhurst Prison on the Isle of Wight in 1983.