In recent years it seems to me as if many TV drama series are filmed in the dark or half-light while the actors mumble their way through the dialogue, or speak in whispers, to such a degree that they are practically incomprehensible.
For Example, I found SSGB a perfect example of this type of production. Only the actors playing bombastic German characters, speaking perfectly clear English, were audible, but I found the whispered English of the British characters so difficult to follow I gave up watching after the first episode!
The Week (Jan 25) reported Martin Deacon writing in The Daily Telegraph.
Mumbling actors.
“Perhaps it was bound to happen to us eventually. The other evening my wife and I watched Martin Scorsese’s film The Irishman. Right from the start, we found ourselves straining to make out the dialogue. After five minutes we gave up and switched on the subtitles. Much of the dialogue was strangely indistinct as, as if the cast had arrived on set after a painful encounter with a dentist. ‘Whur hur a hur hur,’ one gangster would sternly say to another. ‘Hur whur a whur HAR!’ the other would indignantly reply. If I ever meet Mr Scorsese, I’ll make a polite suggestion about his mumbling actors. ‘Mur bur a hur mur?’ I’ll ask. ‘Hur mur bur a whur mur?’ I’m sure he’ll understand”
I sympathise entirely with Mr Deacon’s sentiments!
Meanwhile, in the same edition of The Week this brief letter, originally published in The Times, made me smile.
The royal spud.
“Sussex Royals” sounds like a variety of potato. Fits in nicely with Jersey Royal, British Queen, Duke of York and King Edward.”
Andrew Harrington, Brompton, North Yorkshire.
Now I wonder who Mr Harrington could be thinking of!?
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