By Oliver Brown

Copyright independent

‘I’m judged every day by my accent,” says Andy Farrell, in that distinctive Wigan inflection, neither Lancastrian nor Mancunian but a sound all its own. He concedes, too, that there was once a time when he would judge others by theirs.

“In Wigan, we don’t tend to travel the world. I used to think Blackpool was far away, even though it was half an hour down the road. As a kid, I couldn’t wait to get home. I come from a working-class background and, with different accents, you wrongly have thoughts about how people live their lives.”