BBC admits 'issues with sound levels' after inaudible dialogue in new period drama Jamaica Inn leaves viewers furious

For God's sake stop mumbling: BBC admits 'issues with sound levels' after inaudible dialogue in new period drama Jamaica Inn leaves viewers furious

• Millions tuned in to the flagship period drama last night - but couldn't hear
• Viewers say they resorted to subtitles - or switched over entirely
• The Corporation received at least 107 complaints after the blunder
• The BBC fixed the problem on iPlayer and say new episodes will be audible

By SIMON CABLE and JOHN STEVENS

PUBLISHED: 15:35, 22 April 2014 | UPDATED: 23:40, 22 April 2014

As one viewer put it, the BBC should have renamed Jamaica Inn, its latest big-budget period drama, ‘The Unintelligible Arms’.

For hundreds who stayed in to watch it on Easter Monday night – including several actors – struggled to understand what was being said.  

The BBC has received more than 100 complaints over the adaptation of the novel by Daphne Du Maurier, while more than a million viewers switched off during the programme.  

Complaints: Viewers claimed they struggled to hear the first episode of BBC period drama Jamaica Inn when it aired on Monday evening

Bosses blamed technical issues  – but audience members put it down to the actors’ thick Cornish accents. They reported having to switch on subtitles or turn up the volume to the maximum setting to understand the dialogue.

The drama, set in 1821 against the bleak Cornish moors, follows Mary Yellan, played by Downton Abbey star Jessica Brown Findlay, who is forced to live with her aunt and smuggler uncle when her mother dies.

Not that viewers were any the wiser. Comedian Al Murray vented his frustration on Twitter, writing: ‘Find out what happens next in Jamaica Inn by getting your ears syringed!’

Blunder: Comedian Al Murray joked about the inaudible drama

'Faulty': Only Fools and Horses actor John Challis joined the chorus of complaint

Had enough: This viewer changed channels out of frustration

Only option: These two viewers found they could only follow the action by turning on the subtitles

'Going deaf': Another viewer struggled to make it through the flagship programme

New role: The programme stars Downton Abbey actress Jessica Brown Findlay, [Mary Yellan], who goes to live with her aunt after her mother passes away

John Challis, best known for playing Boycie in Only Fools And Horses, said he hadn’t heard a single word, while former Strictly Come Dancing judge Arlene Phillips asked her followers whether anyone else was having trouble with the sound.

Viewer Alun Rees tweeted: ‘Jamaica Inn. The Unintelligible Arms more like. Rule 1. Speak the lines clearly. Even with a Cornish accent.’ Emma Frost, who wrote the screenplay for the adaptation, suggested that a technical fault, rather than the way that the cast delivered the lines, was to blame.

She said: ‘There was no problem on the version I saw, but tonight I couldn’t hear. The director and executives were on the phone to the BBC from the off yelling, “Why can’t we hear it?” Too late I fear. None of the production team know what happened with the sound. It was fine before.’

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Philippa Lowthorpe, who directed the drama and recently won a Bafta award for Call the Midwife, told BBC Radio 5 Live: ‘I think there was a sound issue ... I don’t think anybody’s actually got down to the bottom of why it happened.

‘My mum and dad live in the North and they didn’t have a problem. So I don’t know if it was around the country or in some areas.

‘When we are dubbing, we always listen to it back on quite an old-fashioned ordinary telly. I suppose you can’t do everything for the vagaries of everybody’s telly.’

In an apology, the BBC blamed ‘issues with sound levels’, and said that although they could not be altered while the drama was on air, the dialogue was adjusted for last night’s second episode and the third which airs tonight.

Initially the drama attracted an audience of 6.8million. By the end, it had fallen to 5.7million, bringing the average audience down to 6.1million.

Last year viewers of BBC drama Ripper Street were left similarly frustrated, complaining of ‘muffled’ lines in one episode.

The latest complaints come almost a year after BBC director-general Tony Hall suggested bosses should look at how to stop actors ‘muttering’ in dramas. 

He also said that the BBC was addressing the issue of background music, which some viewers say drowns out dialogue.

Gripping: The drama, set in 1821 against the windswept Cornish moors, was directed by Philippa Lowthorpe, whose credits include Call The Midwife

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2610359/BBC-receives-complaints-viewers-struggle-hear-dialogue-Jamaica-Inn.html#ixzz2zhDwOs5E
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