Ignorance isn't really an excuse, although one of the first people I ever spoke to in the US asked if I was German. Confusing my London accent with a German one is just bizarre.
You don't generally see the same sort of comments from Americans about all the British or Australians doing American accents. 'The Walking Dead is great but what's up with Ricks accent?' 'Fear the Walking Dead is great but where is Alicia meant to be from?' 'The Good Doctor is completely ruined by Shaun and Claire's terrible accents'. 'What's up with Matt in Chicago Fire's accent, where's he meant to be from?'
It's usually the other way around when someone like Matthew Rhys does an award acceptance speech in his own Welsh accent and everyone loses their shit that he's not actually American.
Casting a New Zealander to do a London accent when they can't do a London accent just seemed a bit strange. I can't believe that anyone who heard it, where ever they're from could have thought it was in anyway convincing. Simon Pegg must have been on set when he was doing it, they could have just asked him. And..... why cast Simon Pegg as an American when his accent isn't good either.
If you're right though then why not just have Karl Urban do it in his normal NZ accent? Americans still wouldn't be able to tell.
Adding a tiny bit to Butchers back story would have worked too, say he moved to London from Wellington NZ at 18 and joined the police and it's all good.
