"I haven't identified a single word that is pronounced the same in America as it is in England," Hugh Laurie told Entertainment Weekly. "And that can really take you out of the moment, having to constantly listen to yourself and check your accent. It makes it harder to immerse yourself in the scene.

"It's as if you're playing left-handed. Or like everyone else is playing with a tennis racket and you have a salmon. I moan about it a lot."

Laurie plays Dr Gregory House, the eccentric doctor who heads a medical team specializing in rare disorders at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.