Gor blimey, eh-oop and begorrah bejasus, go on, go on. Aaargh.

What with The Wire done and dusted and an occasional hole in our evening entertainment, I sought out Burn Notice and we gave it a little watch. It’s likable enough escapist nonsense (although I figured out who done it and why for the pilot pretty quickly) and could grow on one. But one thing is utterly mystifying.

There’s this chick -- Fiona -- who is the main guy’s ex flame, current flame, fixer; Peel, if you will, to his Steed, although a lot more brazen, the hussy. And the mystery is: where on earth is she supposed to be from?

Her accent is, at best, not American. English, maybe. But here, there and everywhere. Northern, Estuary, Mummerset. Suddenly, three-quarters of the way through the pilot, we learn she was with the IRA. Irish? GMAFB.

I was speechless. Gobsmacked. Almost as gobsmacked as I was when I discovered that Stringer Bell and Jimmy McNulty (and for all I know other Baltimorons too) were being played by English actors. In the case of The Wire, my surprise was occasioned by the fact that both were undetectable. Even The Squeeze, a native born Murcan, had no idea the actors were English. But for dear Fiona Glenanne, my mockery of the casting director’s inability to find a local actor capable of doing a decent Irish (not easy, I agree) turned to ashes in my mouth when I discovered that the actor is English.

Dear God but she is terrible. Appalling. Truly, she may be the one thing that makes it impossible to watch the series. We shall see. But really, was nobody else available? Hell, either Pauline McLynn or Octavia of the Julii would have been a better choice, and that’s not saying much.