Viewers sound off at BBC over Howards End’s intrusive music

THE BBC has been accused of patronising and ignoring its viewers after complaints that its latest Sunday night period drama was drowned out by background music.

Howards End, the corporation’s much-anticipated new drama, was rendered barely audible to some viewers, who complained the levels of sound meant piano music and violins overpowered the characters’ lines.

Calling it “intrusive”, “excessive” and “infuriating”, some said they spent the hour trying to change the sound levels on their televisions to improve it, or had given up and switched off entirely.

The complaints come in the wake of criticism of quiet dialogue and noisy background music in other BBC programmes including Jamaica Inn, SSGB, Wonders of the Universe and a range of natural history programmes.

But eight years since its first attempts to tackle the problem with a study into viewers’ experiences, the BBC is still besieged with complaints, to which it refused to respond.

One viewer said on Twitter: “Every time people complain to the BBC about loud soundtracks they are patronised and ignored.” Philip Andrews added: “The sound was awful, you couldn’t really hear the dialogue clearly because of the jarring background music.”

“Another ruined drama by the use of loud inane music,” said another viewer.

Jamaica Inn attracted almost 2,200 complaints about mumbled lines and thick accents. 125 Years of Wimbledon and the new series of Blue Planet are also among the programmes criticised for overbearing soundtracks.