Tuesday 22 April 2014

Jamaica Inn

How remarkable. I thoroughly enjoyed the BBC's first episode of Jamaica Inn last night.

Within five or ten minutes, I found it difficult to pick up parts of the speech.

This necessitated turning on subtitles.

I wondered whether it was just me, or if I ought to consider a hearing test.

The Daily Telegraph reports today that the BBC adaptation of Jamaica Inn suffered from “sound issues”, the corporation has admitted after hundreds of viewers complained they were unable to make out the mumbled dialogue.

The three-part Daphne du Maurier drama starring Jessica Brown Findlay began on BBC One last night.

When the Lord Hall of Birkenhead, CBE, was appointed as director-general of the BBC, he singled out poor sound quality as one area he was determined to tackle:
“I don’t want to sound like a grumpy old man, but I also think muttering is something we could have a look at. Actors' muttering can be testing – you find you have missed a line. You have to remember that you have an audience."
Jamaica Inn drew an audience of 6.1 million, but the BBC’s online messageboard was filled with complaints from disgruntled viewers.

The negative reception from viewers will be a huge disappointment to the BBC, which had marked Jamaica Inn as one of 2014's flagship period dramas. 

4 comments :

Anonymous said...

It was just as bad at times during last night's episode. I've remarked on it in other programmes too. Has it anything to do with the "digital" system?

Timothy Belmont said...

Anon,

Last night was no better. They mustn't be able to remedy the poor sound quality. A shame.

Irishlad said...

I watched it on BBC I player and it was just as bad,had to put on sub titles.It was filmed here but i didn't recognize any local scenes.

Timothy Belmont said...

I thought I recognized the familiar Mourne landscape in episode 3, during the final scenes on the "moor".