You may suspect that Det Supt Douglas Archer might just get one past the Nazis who are now running London in the drama SS-GB, which started on BBC1 on Sunday night. After all, who can understand a word he’s saying? Our reviewer said he used subtitles, while viewers took to Twitter to complain they couldn’t hear it. Inaudibility seems to dog many dramas these days – Taboo and Rillington Place were difficult to decipher in parts, while Happy Valley, Shetland, Southcliffe and Broadchurch have all been criticised for sound quality. The 2014 BBC drama Jamaica Inn was not only muffled – the picture quality was so dark, it was hard to see what was happening.
Who can we blame? “What is recorded by myself and my colleagues is always an absolutely precise representation of what happens on the set, so it ain’t us,” says Simon Clark, a drama sound recordist whose recent work includes Wolf Hall. There is, Clark says, an increasing trend among actors “for what they call ‘realism’ and what we call ‘unintelligible’. I have recorded people on a set, and I’ve looked at my assistant quizzically and they’ve looked back at me and shrugged and we’ve no idea what they said.” He will tell the director, who has to decide if they like that style, or whether to ask the actor to do it again. That can be tricky, says Clark. “Some actors are quite ... rigid in the way they do things.”
During post-production, sound technicians edit the sound and add effects and music, but the director is still in charge – and if the director wants the atmosphere that comes with muffled words and clashing sounds, that is what the viewer will get. When poor sound quality is blamed on transmission, he says, it is “a bit of a red herring.”
Where you watch TV will also affect what you hear. “The sound that comes out of most flatscreens is appalling,” says Clark. Putting your flatscreen against the wall – if you have good, smooth walls – will allow sound from the speakers behind the TV to bounce back into the room, but curtains and bumpy wallpaper will affect it.
One good thing about mumbly TV shows is you will be forced to end the modern trend for multitasking – it’s hard to tweet and concentrate on the subtitles at the same time.
