[Mithalwen]

I think Denethor's table mannerswere awful and if they hadn't meant to have been they wouldn't have focussed on them so much. I think they were intended to represent his decline into selfish concerns to the point of madness - greed and decadence in the face of disaster. Book denethor was a noble lord among noble lords, proud and cultured - and to an extent Gondor was a more "civilised" land than Rohan a place of scholars not just soldiers. Such a man would not have eaten like a pig - to eat thus has been poor manners I would say even in a time that did not use cutlery as we do.

As for Sean Bean's accent - I know that Sean Bean is from that generation that didn't have to shed accents to get on (unlike say Edward Petherbridge who came from Yorkshire perhaps 20 years earlier, or the divine voiced George Irving (Meyer in "Holby City" ) who came from South Shields. However, to my mind it is as bizarre as everyone speaking RP to have not got him to clean up the accent when his Australian "father and Brother" spoke accentless English. I didn't mind Pip haveing a different accent since he came from a different part of the shire (tho really Merrry should have had the Celtic tones !) . And by ROTK I had stopped Bernard Hill to say "go on gissa job" and accepted him as Theoden. As far as I recall from articles about the making they had toyed with giving different peoples different accents and I think some of these indecisions seem to have lurked - Eowyn sounding unevenly irish at times and Viggo..... so Lal while I agree about what you say about peoples .... I expected the same family to sound more alike... but then hardly anyone in the Archers sounds like they belong in the Midlands... grr 'cept for when Will was younger with a pet Badger "it will be moider if they kill Stroipey" ....