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It’s the Welsh accent that’s been described as “Machynlleth via Minsk” and “Ivor The Engine crossed with Indian immigrant.”

And now Tom Hardy has revealed there’s a very good reason why the Valleys’ lilt he adopted for his latest film has come in for so much stick – the person he based it on actually turned out to be English.

The Hollywood heartthrob, who otherwise wowed critics with his lead performance in the hit low-budgetdrama Locke, admitted he made the slip-up after recently spending time in war-torn Afghanistan with a pal of his who’s an SAS veteran.

“I’d been telling every one in interviews that I’d based the character of Ivan Locke on this guy Bill Freear who runs a specialist risk management firm called Pilgrim’s Group,” said the 36-year-old Londoner, who plays a softly spoken and stoic family man haunted by a past indiscretion.

“I went with him to the Middle East because I needed to do some research for another film I’m working on, and Bill got me in and out of hostile environments like Kabul with no body armour and the minimum of fuss – a very low key, down to earth and practical bloke.

“And I spent a solid amount of time listening to him talk and thought to myself, ‘This is the guy, that’s Ivan Locke right there’.

“Funny thing is though – and this is how off target I was – he later rang me up and told me he’d been approached by WalesOnline to speak about his background and growing up in Wales.

“At which point he had to tell them he wasn’t Welsh at all.”

Indeed, the battle hardened hero is actually from Surrey.

“So God knows where I got that from – I can only imagine I must have been so scared at the time that I’d just thought, ‘You’re Welsh, that’ll do it for me’,” laughed Hardy.

“It’s just that, in my mind, the men that come from Wales have a certain gravitas and integrity.

“There’s a durability and toughness to them, an inner strength that’s very calming.

“Hand ups though, it was a total balls up on my part, and when my fiancee found out she went, ‘Oh Tom, you idiot’,” he added.

“So, if anybody out there is questioning my Welsh accent then they have good reason to do so .”

Apart from that though the Batman star – who played the villainous Bane opposite Haverfordwest’s Christian Bale in The Dark Knight Rises - confessed that making his character Welsh had been the perfect choice.

“We had to find somebody who was salt of the earth, someone who’d worked hard all his life to build himself from the floor up into a position of success,” he said.

“Wales is a very hardy terrain and you get a lot of very tough lads coming from there.

“But there’s also a gentleness to them as well – and the same goes for the Welsh accent.

“It doesn’t come with the same kind of baggage that other regional accents do.

“There’s a softness and soothing quality to it which Ivan need to have.

“He had to sound like Richard Burton, like he could put out fires with his voice.

“Ivan has to keep it together while all these crises are happening around him and everyone else is losing their heads.

“In fact , I listened to a lot of Burton reading Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood in preparation for the part.

“God, I wish I had a voice like Burton’s – but I don’t, sadly,” said Hardy.