Actor John Hannah, known for his enduring Scottish accent despite living in England for over three decades, has stated that Scotland no longer feels like home. Hannah, 64, was born and raised in East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, before relocating south during the early stages of his acting career.
In a recent interview with Radio Times, the star of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" and "The Mummy" trilogy described his relationship with his birthplace, saying, "I think it’s somewhere I used to live." Despite this sentiment, Hannah's distinct Scots accent has remained unchanged since he settled in London with his wife, actress Joanna Roth, with whom he has 22-year-old twins, Gabriel and Astrid.
Hannah's remarks come ahead of his new show, "Benidorm Is Murder," where he portrays a former UK detective who moves to Spain to manage a bar, only to be drawn back into crime-solving when tourists begin to die. He described the series, set to air on Channel 5, as a "love letter to Benidorm," focusing on working-class Britons visiting the resort. He noted the location's surprising diversity and its realism as a destination for Britons compared to the Caribbean.
While Hannah acknowledged that Benidorm is not a place he would personally choose to visit, he speculated his parents would have enjoyed it had they still been alive. In 2015, reports indicated that Hannah returned to East Kilbride to sell his family home after the deaths of his father, John senior, and later his mother, Susan. He had previously spoken fondly of his childhood in East Kilbride, Scotland's first official new town, recalling "adventures, the schools, the brave new world of the new town."
Hannah, who also starred in "Sliding Doors" and "Spartacus," mentioned that his father, a toolmaker, and his mother, a cleaner, "certainly had a good time" in their new surroundings. He recalled previously stating that his parents' move from a Gorbals tenement to a house with a garden "must’ve been bliss."
