I have appeared as a language expert on various TV and radio broadcasts, discussing a variety of language-related stories from youth language, to language and identity, to accent prejudice, to punctuation, to new words in the dictionary, and of course in relation to You’re All Talk. In 2019-2020 I was the ‘Resident Linguist’ on the BBC Radio 3 Programme The Verb.
Recent appearances include:
- BBC Radio 4 – The Today Programme. Dialects. October 2023.
- BBC Radio Lancashire, Nottingham, Three Counties, Hereford and Worcester, West Midlands, Humberside, Cumbria. Accents and dialects. October 2023.
- BBC Radio 6 Music. Lauren Laverne – Accents and dialects. October 2023.
- Good Morning Britain (ITV). July 2021. (available here)
- BBC Radio 4 – East Meets west. November 2020 (available here)
- BBC Radio 4 – Archive on 4 – Could the PM have a Brummie accent? July 2018 (available here)
- BBC Radio 3 – The Verb
- accent and regional identity, Mar 2018 (available here)
- synaesthesia, Jan 2019 (available here)
- the subjunctive, Feb 2019 (available here)
- insects and language, May 2019 (available here)
- the moon, July 2019 (available here)
- the male body, Nov 2019 (available here)
- sports writing, Dec 2019 (available here)
- the language of lockdown, June 2020 (available here)
- BBC Radio 3 New Thinkers Podcast, July 2019 (with Erin Carrie – available here)
- BBC Radio 3 – Free Thinking – accent and status/identity, Feb 2018 (available here)
- BB Radio podcast – The Localist (Multicultural British English) (available here)
- BBC Breakfast (BBC1 TV)
- Victoria Derbyshire (BBC2 TV, July 2017 – short clip available here)
- Granada Reports (ITV), Manchester Voices. October 2020.
- The Russell Brand show (Radio X – available here)
- BBC World Service (Why do we find some voices irritating? Sep 2016 – available here)
- BBC World Service (When parents can’t keep up, Feb 2017 – available here)
- BBC Radio 5 Live
- The Emma Barnett Show, 4th June 2020 – available here.
- BBC Radio Manchester
- The Dead Good Show, Oct 2019 – the evolving Mancunian accent
- Other regional BBC radio stations including: Lancashire, Merseyside, Newcastle, York, Cornwall, Leeds, London, Cumbria, Hull, Jersey, West Midlands.
- Lexis Podcast, Episode 2 (available here)
- The Editing Podcast, Season 3, Episode 2 (available here)
- Podagogy – the TES Podcast. Slang and Standard English (available here)
I have written for The Conversation on various language-related topics such as language pedantry (which also appeared in The Independent), the banning of slang in schools, grime and youth language, the accent and subsequent discrimination of Angela Rayner MP, the reason why people sing in an American accent (with Erin Carrie), the rights and wrongs of correcting rogue apostrophes, and accent and identity in The Archers.
I have also contributed to stories in various other media outlets including BBC News, BBC magazine, The Independent, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, Metro, and Manchester Evening News.
I give public talks on language and identity. In June 2019 I was invited to give the Annual Linguistics Lecture at Northumbria University. In July 2019 I gave a talk at the English Grammar Day event at the British Library.