Sound bites The good old days
BBc executive producer nicola Shindler blames our inability to adjust our TV tone controls to make unclear TV dialogue clearer. If this were the case, other TV films, documentaries and series would require similar adjustment.
When I worked in the dubbing theatre at Granada TV, sound quality was of paramount importance, whether the production was shot with a twoman crew (cameraman and sound recordist) under hostile, war-torn conditions or coping with environmental sounds, like aircraft flying over coronation Street.
an executive sound engineer, Jeff White, had the specific job of ensuring all filmed output had a level and quality of audio that met very high criteria. Everything, including ads, transmitted by the studios had the same sound level, which eliminated the need for viewers constantly to reach for the remote control.
I don’t know if Poldark, Happy Valley, Quirke and the rest scrimped on sound crew, but a huge percentage of what we now hear on TV is the result of single crewing.
How can the viewer be expected to hear questions being asked of someone when whoever is producing, directing and filming is speaking from behind the microphone pointing away from them and at the interviewee?
With the advances in sound recording now at the disposal of TV studios, it must surely now be possible for difficult accents, busy scenes and background environmental noise to be rectified
prior to transmission. ALAN ASHTON, St Austell, Cornwall. I MuST take issue with the assertions of BBc1 crime drama Happy Valley executive producer nicola Shindler that viewers are not tuning their televisions properly and that’s why actors seem to be mumbling their lines.
We actually gave up on this series after suffering through the first episode. How Ms Shindler can deny that actors mumble their way through modern productions is beyond comprehension.
If the actors aren’t mumbling, why did we constantly have to adjust the volume on our TV? When we watch modern TV drama these days, we have to have the volume so high, it can even distort what actors are saying. This was true with some of the actors even on The night Manager, though there were notable exceptions. For instance, the most watchable, with clear diction, was the masterful Hugh Laurie.
When watching ITV, we find that we have to adjust the TV volume when the ads come on — if we don’t and leave it at the same volume, the sound of the ads would almost deafen us.
This prompts a question: do programme makers ever check the sound quality? It has even become a problem when watching documentaries. Why, for instance, do these programmes require loads of so- called ‘background’ music which overpowers the speech? This appears to be the promotion of art over substance.
The only exceptions appear to be when we view past series or films. The other afternoon, for example, my husband and I indulged ourselves and watched The Desert rats with richard Burton and Sink The Bismarck! with Kenneth Moore. Both films were viewed at half-volume and were comfortably, clearly audible.
One conclusion we have come to is that actors in the past ‘played to the gallery’ and so their diction, though sometimes stilted, as fashion then dictated, was clear and precise.
I believe Dame Judi Dench even advises her young co-stars, some of whom I would hesitate to visit the theatre to watch, to speak more clearly. Many also appear afraid to move their mouths.
as for tuning TVs properly, we have a new Toshiba digital set and it is simply not equipped with an option to adjust the bass and treble, only the volume.
Ms Shindler suggests that the problem might be that Southerners are unable to understand a Yorkshire accent. This is nonsense.
My mother-in-law came from Shipley and never lost her strong Yorkshire accent. My son-in-law is from Sheffield, and during my working life I was secretary to four northerners — three from Yorkshire and one from northumberland.
I also liaised in my last employment with engineers from all over the country, but most particularly from Liverpool, conwy, Leeds and newcastle, so I would suggest that my ear is quite attuned to accents other than my native Kentish.
ROSEMARY SAGE, Maidstone, Kent.