One Day: accent-uate the positive

Nerves have been up ever since Anne Hathaway was cast to play David Nicholls's much-loved Yorkshire lass, Emma Morley, in the adaptation of his novel One Day. Would Hathaway, Brooklyn-born, be able to pull off the distinctive accent? The film, directed by Lone Scherfig, is finally out this month – and early word on the intonation ain't promising. "Veers between RP and Jane Horrocks," reported one lucky preview-goer. "Hathaway only remembers to be from Yorkshire during the meaningful, emotional bits." A shame. At least there's no real fear of hers being the worst British accent in the canon: other horrors, in films past, ensure that. We revisit five of the worst. ROBIN HOOD (2010) Culprit: Russell Crowe. Playing: Nottingham fighting man Robin Longstride, an itinerant sword-for-hire who must have really got around in his youth, because Crowe managed to invest his accent with hints of Irish, Yorkshire and Australian . Horror rating: 3/5. Score upped by Crowe's absurd flounce-out, in 2010, when his accent came up for discussion in a radio interview. ST TRINIAN'S (2007) Mischa Barton - St. Trinian's Clip 1 by peachestrinian Culprit: Mischa Barton. Playing: An ex-pupil at the titular girls' school, who appears delivering lines in a curious hybrid accent that manages to shift between American east coast, west London, and even something like Barnsley, from one syllable to the next. Horror rating: 3/5. Barton had no real excuse, having grown up in London. OCEAN'S ELEVEN (2001) Culprit: Don Cheadle. Playing: Basher Tarr, a "cockney" bomb expert whose ludicrous name is only the beginning of his many character failings. With dialogue so heavy on rhyming slang he comes across like a pearly king, Cheadle's wretched twang makes his scenes genuinely unwatchable . Horror rating: 4/5. And Cheadle went on to torture us in two further sequels. DRACULA (1992) Culprit: Keanu Reeves. Playing: Vampire-encountering Victorian lawyer Jonathan Harker (right). It's not that Reeves's accent is inconsistent (he sticks rigidly to a pinched, pantomime mewl), rather that his is like no British accent heard ever before or since. Like Cheadle, however, he wasn't helped by a script that at one point had him shout: "Bloody wolves chasing me!" Horror rating: 5/5. The worst, ever. MARY POPPINS (1964) Culprit: Dick Van Dyke. Playing: Chimney sweep Bert, the cockney (or " cawwwk-nay!" as the character might have it) with an accent so terrible it has come to be remembered quite fondly. Horror rating: 2/5 Bad, yes, but after so many decades a collector's item. Van Dyke (" Viiin Doik!") we can forgive. All together now, supercalifragilistic …