ve been asked on many occasions, why I haven't lost, dropped, worked-on-eliminating or getting rid of my British accent. I mean, I have been here for almost half a century. Trouble is, I'm stuck with it. What if I made a determined effort to, as so many thespians manage to do for acting parts, sound American? For actors hiding their nationality, one can go as far back as that superb Southern belle, Vivian Leigh, in "Gone With The Wind"- scratch the surface and there was a cultured British accent. But back to the point, what if I decided to work at dropping my Brit voice, with no regional dialect, what would it gain me? And what region of the USA should I sound like? Brooklyn? Texas? New England? You get the idea. I remember a word of advice I was given by one of the legendary CBS newsmen who advised me about the accent, before I ventured to cross the Atlantic. He said, at first it will be a handicap, and if you make it in radio and television, sounding as you do, the voice will likely become a trademark. I heeded his advice and it worked out fine. The newsman was Charles Collingwood.

Why would I bring that up now? Well, this morning I made a guest appearance on the Tonight show in Studio 11 at NBC Burbank. I parked right next to the largest, reddest Ferrari I have ever seen. Obviously one of the vehicles driven by the host, Jay Leno. What I had been asked to do was dub my voice in a couple of scenes, making it appear to come from the usually slurred mouth of the very cockney, Ozzie Osborne.

I didn't get to see Jay, newly ensconced at his old address, nor did I meet up with Barbara Walters (I gather she was one of the guest stars). After having done the dub, one of the writers said, "Now do it in French". We did. If, as they say in the biz, it doesn't all end on the cutting room floor, I think I'll be Ozzie...Ozzie Jackson this coming Wednesday (Or maybe Thursday).

Mr Leno, I'd have done the "gig" for nothing. It was fun. Just one request; next time, knowing you have a short racing track on the backlot, would there be any chance I could try out that Ferrari?

Good luck. May sanity prevail.