It may well be but are people expecting him to be broad Geordie after all these years? If he still was in sure he'd be slagged off for hamming the accent up for effect. He clearly very confident and fancies himself to an extent but nobody here really knows him. I'm sure he has been grumpy at times but it must be nightmare getting recognised all the time and having to smile and play the character for every member of Joe public you meet. We are one step away from someone declaring they've done building work for him and he made them shit and piss in a bucket
This. People always have to have a story about someone famous that they’ve bumped into for 30 seconds - they’re either a top bloke or an arsehole - when in reality most are probably just acting perfectly normal.
Disagree with you on the accent though. The likes of Green and Denise Welsh mangle their vowels into some sort of horrible posh Geordie. Whereas say Shearer maintains his accent but just slows down a bit for the BBC.