Puppeteer creates spider with a Suffolk twang

A familiar twang has caught the attention of some viewers on a new children's television show.

Playtime Towers has launched on CBeebies and features a character named Tincy, a spider with a Suffolk accent.

Tincy was created by artist Laura Bacon, from Haverhill, Suffolk, whose work has included performing stage puppetry for Coldplay during the band's world tour.

"I stopped hearing [a Suffolk accent] when my grandparents passed away. It wasn't until then that I realised I really missed it," she said.

"I also moved out of Haverhill. I now live in London and I missed it a lot, so I sort of relax into the accent a lot more than I did when I actually lived there.

"People who aren't from Suffolk don't really know how it sounds because they just assume it's kind of 'oh ah, tractor'.

"It's definitely difficult to learn because it's a dialect as well and it's the way you say things, not just the accent."

Ms Bacon rose to prominence in the industry after reaching the semi-finals of Britain's Got Talent in 2014.

She later worked on the television shows Sesame Street and Spitting Image and on stage as Piglet during the UK tour of a Winnie the Pooh musical.

Another of Ms Bacon's characters, Mavis, also speaks with a strong Suffolk accent and the puppeteer said she was pleased to be doing the same with Tincy on Playtime Towers.

"Tincy isn't as old as Mavis, she's a bit more like an excitable, hyperactive little Mavis. Lots of her scenes are with songs, sort of based on original nursery rhymes but with a modern twist.

"Tincy has her own language, she says things like 'terrifically wonderlicious' and 'splendiddly' - so it's quite nice because I got to switch around certain words.

"There's a certain way that Suffolk people talk, like instead of saying 'she does', saying 'she do'.

"So one of the episodes is called Towel and instead of Tincy saying 'look there's a towel', I changed it to 'there's a towel, look'."

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