1 Emily: I’ve always been interested by how American English has diverged from British English.
2 Minnesota Jones: Actually it’s the British who have drifted more linguistically. American pronunciation is closer to the original Anglo-Saxon.
3 Emily: Really? That’s fascinating!
3 Minnesota Jones: Yes. I should know; I’m fluent in Anglo-Saxon.
4 Minnesota Jones: I’m also a student of the culture. I enjoy playing their traditional music.
4 Emily: I had no idea you were an anglo-saxophone!

This idea is sometimes mentioned: that American English has actually diverged less from the Early Modern English of the 16th and 17th centuries than has modern day British English, and thus American English preserves more of the sound of the language of the Tudor era and William Shakespeare than British English does. In truth, of course, the story is a little more complicated than that. The linked BBC article concludes that American English pronunciations are in fact probably a bit more like 18th century British English than any of the previous centuries.