BBC Drama Loses 2 Million Viewers Because of Mumbling Actors

[Teddy Bear]

I read a few days ago that many people had complained to the BBC about their new 3-part drama 'Jamaica Inn' because the sound quality had made it inaudible. The BBC said at the time that it was due to an equipment problem and that it would be sorted for the next episode.

However now it turns out that the main problem is the actors mumbling and making it difficult, if not impossible to understand.
Remember that this is the BBC business to make sure that that actors are speaking clearly. Just what has the director been doing to allow this situation to happen? For sure she won't be getting a BAFTA for this production.

Head of drama, Ben Stephenson, has this to say:
The BBC's drama commissioner Ben Stephenson admitted there was an issue with the show.

Responding to criticism he said: 'I think actors not being clear is one part of it, but my understanding about the complaints about Jamaica Inn was more complex than that, so I think it's probably not right to just single out that, but clearly we want actors to speak clearly.'

"...we want actors to speak clearly"
Somebody is supposed to be making sure that they do and did. I suppose now he will say that his £250,000 salary is not enough to also do that.

BBC 'apology' blames actors for mumbling in television drama Jamaica Inn after viewers said they could not hear as complaints surge and viewing figures slide

• The show lost one quarter of its viewers over the first night's sound issues
• BBC drama head claimed 'actors not being clear is one part of it'
• Viewers complained that they were forced to turn on subtitles to follow the drama
• Final episode watched by 4.1 million viewers after early high of 6.1 million
• Almost 1,400 complained about the show but BBC said they received some praise as well

By Darren Boyle

The BBC has blamed actors in the lavish adaptation of Daphne Du Maurier's book Jamaica Inn for mumbling in response to rising complaints about the poor sound quality.

The three-part adaptation began strongly on Monday night with 6.1 million viewers, but that plummeted to just 4.5 million on Tuesday. Last night's episode was watched by 4.1 million viewers.

Viewers complained that they could not hear the actors and in many cases their thick accents were impenetratable.

Following the first night's complaints, BBC Drama responded that they would change the sound levels for the two subsequent episodes.

However, a further 586 people complained about the show bringing the total to 1,384 over three days.

A BBC spokesperson admitted there had been problems with the first issue but said they could not adjust sound levels during Monday's broadcast due to 'technical reasons'.

They confirmed they adjusted the dialogue levels for episodes two and three. The spokesperson said they would like to apologise to viewers affected by the sound issues.

The BBC's drama commissioner Ben Stephenson admitted there was an issue with the show.

Responding to criticism he said: 'I think actors not being clear is one part of it, but my understanding about the complaints about Jamaica Inn was more complex than that, so I think it's probably not right to just single out that, but clearly we want actors to speak clearly.'

'Of course we want them to give brilliant performances and you've got to respect that, but if no one can understand what they're saying, then there's a problem.'

Only Fools and Horses actor John Challis complained on Monday about the sound. Last night he was back on Twitter claiming things had improved but it do not stop him from falling asleep.

Comedian Al Murray decided to have a laugh at the BBC's expense, informing his 357,000 followers that last night's final episode was 'brought to you by the Mumbles'.

However, following the controversy, book retailer Waterstones proposed a solution for viewers finding it difficult to understand the on-screen drama, suggesting fans should buy the book.

One viewer complained: 'Within seconds of the opening scenes of Jamaica Inn I had accessed my subtitle facility, last used in the days of Rab C Nesbitt.'

Another wit claimed: 'Due to the poor sound quality we watched it with subtitles turned on and it was just like watching Borgen or The Bridge, two programmes which we thoroughly enjoyed. Who needs Scandi Noir when we can have Corni Noir.'

The drama was based on Daphne du Maurier's classic novel Jamaica Inn and was directed by BAFTA-winning director Phillipa Lowthorpe.

It starred Jessica Brown Findlay, Matthew McNulty, Sean Harris and Joanne Whalley.

The adaptation is set in 1821 Cornwall and features strong west country accents, which has led to some criticism from viewers.

Despite the controversy, du Maurier's son, Kits Browning praised Emma Frost's adaptation.

He said: 'My mother had always hoped that a film company would remake her story for television and I know that she would be so pleased with Emma Frost's three-part adaptation of her book.

'There have been countless scripts in the past few years by writers who have tried to change the plot, drop characters from the book, invent new ones, and generally dig holes for themselves and so wreck what is a very good story.'

[Teddy Bear]

BBC Sound technicians have hit back at the BBC for being first blamed by them for the sound quality.

BBC blames mumbling Jamaica Inn cast
BBC blames actors for poor enunciation as drama Jamaica Inn attracts 800 complaints and loses quarter of audience

By Anita Singh

The cast of the BBC’s Jamaica Inn failed to deliver their lines clearly, the corporation’s head of drama has admitted after a quarter of the audience gave up on the drama.
Ratings for the Daphne du Maurier adaptation fell from 6.1 million for Easter Monday’s opening episode to 4.5 million for episode two.

Around 800 viewers complained about the “incoherent mumbling” of the cast – a record number for a sound issue – and 252 of those came after the second episode, despite the BBC promising to deal with the problem. Initially, the BBC blamed “issues with sound levels” on the master tape. The writer, Emma Frost, said there was a problem with transmission.

However, following a second night of complaints in which viewers said the sound had barely improved, the corporation appeared to backtrack.

Ben Stephenson, the head of drama commissioning, conceded: “I think actors being clear is one part of it.
“My understanding of the complaints about Jamaica Inn was more complex than that, so I think it’s probably not right to single out that, but clearly we want actors to speak clearly.
“Of course we want them to give brilliant performances and you’ve got to respect that, but if no one can understand what they’re saying, then there’s a problem.”
The BBC’s original suggestion that technical problems were to blame drew an angry response from sound mixers.

Ian Sands, vice-chairman of the sound branch for the London production division of broadcasting union Bectu, said: “If the actors are allowed, or encouraged, to mumble their lines then that is what is recorded. Low-level, mumbled lines are not a technical issue, they are an artistic issue. Many directors, and it may not be the case here, are very reluctant to tackle actors about their performance.”

Mr Sands said that modern flat-screen televisions exacerbate the problem because their speakers face the wall or the floor. He said programme-makers failed to understand that “the home listening environment is nothing like the high quality environment where the final mix takes place”.
Mr Sands added: “The final sound balance for transmission is signed off by the director and any adjustments and balance are done to the director’s requirements, whether they happen to be right or not.”

The director, Philippa Lowthorpe, declined to comment.
In an earlier interview, she spoke of her passion for Jamaica Inn and praised the script for being short on dialogue.

“A lot of the time it’s not about what the characters are saying, it’s about what they are not saying,” she said. “The dialogue in Emma’s script is spare, which makes it really cinematic, and gives room for the complexity of the relationships to come out between the characters in a more visceral and visual way.”
Viewers singled out Sean Harris, who played the evil uncle of Mary Yellan (Jessica Brown Findlay) for particular criticism.

“Sorry BBC, episode 2 was no better. It’s not sound quality that’s the problem, it’s diction. The actors, and it’s one in particular, just mumble and we cannot understand a word,” one viewer wrote on the BBC’s online messageboard.

[Teddy Bear]

It's apparently not only the mumbling that was a problem with this drama. The historical inaccuracies were picked up by many viewers, clearly more knowledgeable that the production team. The BBC have tried to justify their historical faux-pas, but I find their excuses rather dubious.

Jamaica Inn-accuracies add to woes of BBC's 'muffled' period drama
Viewers complain about Jamaica Inn's self-loading guns, ploughs that were not yet invented and hymns written before the composer was born

By Hannah Furness

When the BBC was flooded with complaints about a period drama that viewers could barely hear, bosses might at least have hoped to escape the usual gripes about historical inaccuracy.

But it was not to be. Eagle-eyed audience members who could not make out the dialogue in the much-criticised adaptation of Jamaica Inn picked up on visual errors instead. Licence fee-payers have reported inaccuracies ranging from the misuse of weapons, ploughs that had not yet been invented and hymns that had not yet been written.

One viewer noted that Mary Yellan, played by Jessica Brown Findlay, did not appear to adopt the custom of the time by tucking her floor-length skirt up, instead stumbling across moors encased in mud. Several noted the use of the flintlock gun in the last episode of the three-part series, which rapidly fired off three shots without its user pausing to reload. In reality, the gun would require a lengthy and technical reloading process.

A fan, writing on web forum Granset, claimed her husband had “roared at the improbably fast reloading of the flintlocks”, adding: “I half expected to see John Wayne behind one of the rocks.”

A spokesman for the BBC admitted the adaptation had used “some artistic licence”.

Readers of The Telegraph have already highlighted significant other inaccuracies. Bob Lomas, from Horsham, West Sussex, noted that the opening scene of the adaptation showed a field “partly ploughed by a large, modern, six- or eight-furrow plough”. The sequence went on to show a woman working the field with a wheeled hoe from the 1930s — more than a century after the Daphne du Maurier novel was set.

In the second episode, characters sang The King of Love my Shepherd Is in scenes set several years before the writer and composer were born.
Other viewers were amused to see Mary, the heroine of the novel and adaptation, invariably covered in mud after working and running in full-length skirts.
The criticisms were supported by a curator from the V&A, who confirmed it would have been customary for working country women to have tucked their skirts up for ease.

A spokesman for the BBC said: “Jamaica Inn is a costume drama adapted from Daphne du Maurier’s classic gothic novel. It is not a historical documentary but a drama and the programme makers have taken some artistic licence whilst doing their best to recreate 19th Century England.”

On the specific complaints, he added the sequence showing the reloading of weapons had been cut for dramatic purposes, with character Jem using two double-barrel guns instead, with creative "licence" used in the case of the hymn.
Mary's skirt, he said, was considered the choice of the individual character, while the plough - designed to be pulled by a horse - was shown being used by hand represent the poverty of her family.

The BBC received more than 1,000 complaints about the programme and lost a quarter of its audience after the first episode. Some viewers feared they were going deaf due to its muffled sound.

[Teddy Bear]

Now another drama has upset the audience with the poor audio quality.

Why can’t the BBC stop mumbling? Now viewers of new Sunday night drama series Quirke complain about the poor audio

• Dublin-based crime drama had first episode on BBC One at the weekend
• Dozens of viewers took to the internet complaining they could not hear it
• The row is reminiscent of the controversy over period drama Jamaica Inn

By Laura Cox

It's becoming a rather annoying ritual for BBC viewers.

You settle down to watch a much-anticipated TV drama – then have to crank up the volume or switch on the subtitles.

Just a month after the BBC’s Jamaica Inn was lambasted for its mumbling actors and poor sound quality, the corporation’s latest big release, Quirke, has been hit by the same complaints.

Viewers watching the crime drama on Sunday night were furious when they couldn’t make out what was being said.

They reported having to switch on subtitles or turn up the volume to the maximum setting, while others simply gave up and turned it off.

Set in 1950s Dublin and based on the novels by Booker Prize-winning author John Banville, Quirke follows the city’s chief pathologist, played by Gabriel Byrne, as he investigates a murder.

But it seems many of the 4.2million who watched the first episode in the three-part series struggled to follow the action, with TV presenter Richard Madeley leading the complaints on Twitter.

Madeley blamed the BBC’s sound editing, writing: ‘Was really looking forward to Quirke, BBC1, 9pm – but despite winding volume up to 100 per cent, still can’t hear at least a third of dialogue! Again!

‘And it’s definitely the programme – switched channels and sound boomed out massively loudly. Back to Quirke, and inaudible. Grrrrrr!!!!’

He persevered with the programme a little longer, then finally announced: ‘Oh well, I give up. Throws ear-trumpet away and hobbles upstairs to bed, prematurely aged by c*** c*** c*** BBCTV sound.’

Another viewer also blamed the quality of the sound editing, tweeting: ‘I spend 99 per cent of my time with subtitles! I’m 35 ... BBC buy new [microphones].’

But others blamed the actors for failing to enunciate properly, likening the effect to the mumbling cast of Jamaica Inn.

One viewer wrote: ‘Trying to enjoy BBC’s Quirke but too much mumbling and not enough enunciation! Jamaica Inn revisited?’

Before changing channels, another tweeted: ‘We turned over, can’t be bothered with whispers.’

They weren’t alone in turning off the programme in frustration.

Another Twitter user wrote: ‘How far into Quirke did you get tonight? Shades of Jamaica Inn – mumbling and dark. Was this same director? Turned off yet another drama!’

After it was broadcast over Easter, Jamaica Inn generated more than 2,000 complaints about ‘incoherent mumbling’.

The BBC originally said that technical faults were responsible but following an investigation admitted another problem was that some of the cast had failed to deliver their lines clearly.

Last night there had been no official complaints to the BBC about Quirke or to television watchdog Ofcom.

Responding to the Twitter row, a spokesman for the BBC said: ‘There were no reported problems or complaints following Sunday night’s opening episode’

[charmbrights]

May 27, 2014 17:19:04 GMT Teddy Bear said:

Now another drama has upset the audience with the poor audio quality.

...

Responding to the Twitter row, a spokesman for the BBC said: ‘There were no reported problems or complaints following Sunday night’s opening episode’

Perhaps the BBC policy of sending inane, or irrelevant, anodyne responses to complaints is working. People know that there is no point in complaining.

[Teddy Bear]

I for one know just how fruitless that line of action is.
Now I'd rather dance on their grave.

[Teddy Bear]

I see according to The Telegraph that there may be another reason the response reported by the Mail from the BBC may have occurred. On ecan only wonder why the first BBC spokesman didn't make it clear.
But then 'not making it clear' seems to be par for the BBC.

BBC in new mumbling row over crime drama Quirke
Complaints about sound quality in Quirke follow controversy over Jamaica Inn
By Bill Gardner

The BBC has been forced to defend another of its flagship dramas after viewers complained they had no idea what the actors were saying.
Earlier this month, the Corporation was caught up in a ‘mumbling row’ when viewers said they could not understand the dialogue in period drama Jamaica Inn.

And on Sunday night, the première of crime series Quirke was hit with similar problems, with viewers switching off in droves because of inaudible sound.

The drama, which stars Gabriel Byrne and is based on crime novels by Booker Prize-winning author John Banville, is currently the centrepiece of BBC One's Sunday night line-up.

Chat show host Richard Madeley tweeted: 'Was REALLY looking forward to Quirke, BBC1, 9pm - but despite winding volume up to 100% STILL can't hear at least a third of dialogue! AGAIN!'

The presenter eventually concluded: 'Oh well, I give up. *throws ear-trumpet away and hobbles upstairs to bed, prematurely aged by c**p BBC TV sound*'.

Even the BBC’s own Shelagh Fogerty, a presenter on Radio 5 Live, said: “'Quirke bbc1. More mumbling. But I'll forgive you, Gabriel.”
Dozens of other viewers expressed their frustration, including Mark Holliday, who added: “Another one of the BBC's dramas for lipreaders. What a mumbling mess.”

A spokesman for the BBC said it was not yet known whether there had been any official complaints because the office was closed for the Bank Holiday.

Last month, the BBC received more than 100 official complaints about the audio quality in Jamaica Inn, a drama about Cornish smugglers in the early 1800s.

An investigation found five reasons for the poor sound, including actors mumbling their lines and problems with the audio track.

[Teddy Bear]

I see according to The Telegraph that there may be another reason the response reported by the Mail from the BBC may have occurred. On ecan only wonder why the first BBC spokesman didn't make it clear.
But then 'not making it clear' seems to be par for the BBC.

BBC in new mumbling row over crime drama Quirke
Complaints about sound quality in Quirke follow controversy over Jamaica Inn
By Bill Gardner

The BBC has been forced to defend another of its flagship dramas after viewers complained they had no idea what the actors were saying.
Earlier this month, the Corporation was caught up in a ‘mumbling row’ when viewers said they could not understand the dialogue in period drama Jamaica Inn.

And on Sunday night, the première of crime series Quirke was hit with similar problems, with viewers switching off in droves because of inaudible sound.

The drama, which stars Gabriel Byrne and is based on crime novels by Booker Prize-winning author John Banville, is currently the centrepiece of BBC One's Sunday night line-up.

Chat show host Richard Madeley tweeted: 'Was REALLY looking forward to Quirke, BBC1, 9pm - but despite winding volume up to 100% STILL can't hear at least a third of dialogue! AGAIN!'

The presenter eventually concluded: 'Oh well, I give up. *throws ear-trumpet away and hobbles upstairs to bed, prematurely aged by c**p BBC TV sound*'.

Even the BBC’s own Shelagh Fogerty, a presenter on Radio 5 Live, said: “'Quirke bbc1. More mumbling. But I'll forgive you, Gabriel.”
Dozens of other viewers expressed their frustration, including Mark Holliday, who added: “Another one of the BBC's dramas for lipreaders. What a mumbling mess.”

A spokesman for the BBC said it was not yet known whether there had been any official complaints because the office was closed for the Bank Holiday.

Last month, the BBC received more than 100 official complaints about the audio quality in Jamaica Inn, a drama about Cornish smugglers in the early 1800s.

An investigation found five reasons for the poor sound, including actors mumbling their lines and problems with the audio track.