How a Wigan accent saved a crash driver

A caller by the name of Mike contacted Simon Mayo’s Drivetime show to reveal he had resorted to “broad Wiganese” in order to elude a threatening truck driver whose wing mirror he had smashed 12 years ago.

The BBC Radio 2 show has a Confessions segment where listeners write in to disclose their darkest secrets and beg for forgiveness.

While driving a rented motor vehicle around British Columbia and Alberta with his wife, Mike said that they had taken a wrong turn and ended up travelling over an old, narrow bridge.

With nowhere to stop or turn around, they were forced to gingerly cross the bridge, avoiding traffic on the opposite side.

It was here where they encountered a reckless pick-up driver who sped past, subsequently clipping the motor vehicle, and smashing its own wing mirror.

When confronted by the driver, who looked “peeved,” Mike turned to his local dialect for assistance.

He told how, despite not possessing a particularly broad accent, he decided to converse with the Canadian driver in as broad a Wigan accent as possible.

This confused the driver to the extent that he “let out a frustrated scream and drove off.”

Mike said that he had contacted the show in order to relieve himself of the guilt that had “festered” inside him ever since the incident.

In order to demonstrate the full Wigan burr, the show brought Wigan-born broadcaster and author Stuart Maconie into the studio.