That is very interesting. So they tried to get y'all in Australia (or New Zealand, in auntie's case) to speak more like the English? Did they try to do the same in Scotland or Ireland? And is that why Indians sound very English?

Yes, RP = Received pronunciation - "The Queen's English", "Oxford Voice" etc.

Children like my Manchester-born mother were taught "elocution" - speaking in nice round vowels, very much like Susan and Peter in LWW. It was the standard accent for BBC presenters, and also for actors, for a long time.

I can't speak for the development of the Australian accent, but in NZ for many years there was no local accent, as most white settlers were from England and other parts of Britain. People spoke as their parents did. The children from working class families spoke like their regional or east London parents, causing plenty of comments by school inspectors about the dreadful colonial children and their awful speech.
The NZ accent gradually developed from a number of sources, including parts of London and Ireland. Linguistics experts spoke of three NZ accents in 1970s-80s, a refined accent (closer to RP), a general middle accent that was recognisably NZ, and a broad one that tended to be heard in rural areas and was thought of as working class. In the last 10 years, even the better educated people seem to be speaking the general NZ accent, and only a minority speaking broad (children thought recordings sounded Australian) or refined (children thought it was English) NZ.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_English
I'm from a background that likes to speak more like RP, especially in some of my theatre circles and my speech and drama training.

More upper class people in Scotland and Ireland are likely to have a polished accent due to their families, and the boarding schools they went to.

Indians have their own accent, which can vary quite a bit depending on where they live or were born. In big cities some immigrant groups keep together and the accent is maintained. There is a distinct NZ Maori "accent" of English, even though English has been part of Maori culture for at least 100 years.

EDIT: Sorry this is going off on a few tangents, and has very little to do with the topic!

The real point is, whether or not changing the accents from a vaguely foreign Mediterranean accent to a more realistic and more bearable (for the actors) RP actually did VDT no favours? Were you, in USA, turned off by characters who sounded like they would be at home with the likes of Prince Harry?

Or would you think that having a leader who sounded 'posh' at least made him sound more like how you would imagine a king to sound?

I don't think we would pick up on the accents as much as you all would. Unless it is a striking difference, such as cockney versus RP, we wouldn't even notice it. Honestly, I don't even know what Prince Harry sounds like.

As far as Caspian, the lack of the Inigo Montoya accent was just a pleasant change.

Thank you muchly for your response, coracle. When it comes to English accents I fear that the subject is of such worldwide repercussions that I couldn't really deal with it on my own. I've also felt a bit annoyed that Alan Jay Lerner who wrote the song "Why can't the English learn... " could manage to include the USA in Professor Higgins' diatribe, but not any of the Commonwealth Countries who all have their own ways of speaking. For example I have found that the Scottish accent is diametrically opposed to the Australian accent, which makes day-to-day communication a little interesting, you might say.

I can't speak for the development of the Australian accent, but in NZ for many years there was no local accent, as most white settlers were from England and other parts of Britain.

Actually you could. Because from 1788, theoretically speaking, until 1 July 1841, New Zealand was, administratively speaking, part of New South Wales, after which it became the British colony of New Zealand, becoming self-governing in 1856. The Australian accent was heavily influenced by convicts, many of them from London, in particular, though my Tasmanian convict ancestress came from Scotland. It would seem, few convicts had anything to do with New Zealand, which as you say, got a lot of immigrants, especially Scottish, down in the South Island, around Christchurch, and, in particular, around Dunedin. My own family history, which includes one such Scottish family, suggests otherwise about how much interaction there might have been.

Prince Harry, like all his family, who can expect to do a lot of public speaking, speaks very 'proper'. He has recently served among the UK military troops sent to Afghanistan, where he seems to have performed creditably and effectively. I did note in those reports that the people serving with him did take note of his 'posh' sort of voice. And recently, his great-grandfather, George VI was depicted in the film, 'The King's speech', as having a problem with a stammer.

Since leaders such as Presidents and Kings have to do a lot of public speaking, as part of the position, it stands to reason that if George VI could manage to overcome this handicap, so might Caspian X also overcome a Telmarine accent in 3 years. But isn't this the sort of nitpicking detail the casual theatregoer would miss?

Although I suspect that in the end it is not really the concern of this apolitical site, I am still bemused as to why characters 'sounding like English Toffs', according to that particular reviewer, would be a reason why people should have avoided going to see VDT.