Ladhood’s Liam Williams: ‘Almost as soon as I got to university, I felt my accent changing’

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails Sign up to our free breaking news emails SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. It created a nice sense of belonging in the group.” He adopts a Yorkshire accent, presumably reminiscent of one he once had: “’Ow’re you doing lad, ’ey up lad.” I meet Williams in an old-school pub in London, perhaps an appropriate setting to talk about laddishness, with the final series of his critically acclaimed coming-of-age BBC Three sitcom Ladhood about to be released. I know it was voluntary to an extent, but on some level, maybe it was my own paranoia, I felt like turning up with a broad Leeds accent, I wouldn’t be taken seriously enough… And then I’d go back to Garforth and people would be surprised and even slightly distrustful, ‘Why have you changed in this way?’” open image in gallery L-R: Aqib Khan, Samuel Bottomley, Oscar Kennedy and Shaun Thomas Williams begins to downplay the impact these moments had on him, then considers. “When I was ‘on the rise’,” he begins, making sure I note his use of air quotes, “Every night felt like a fun challenge… But I’d done that three years in a row. But being this year and seeing the shows and just being back in that environment really, the itch is back.” open image in gallery Young Liam and the Narrator in ‘Ladhood' If Williams is to return to stand-up, he says it’ll be with a “more mature attitude” and a revitalised appreciation for the medium.