Birdsong: viewers complain about BBC war drama's 'poor dialogue'
Eddie Redmayne stars as Stephen Wraysford in the BBC adaptation of 'Birdsong'
Viewers of the BBC’s high-profile new costume drama Birdsong have complained about its poor dialogue.
Audiences have protested at the actors’ poor dictation and mumbled lines on BBC One’s adaptation of Sebastian Faulks's best-selling First World War novel.
Other complaints have also centred on sex-scenes involving stars Eddie Redmayne, 30, and Clemence Poesy, 29, who play the tragic couple at its heart.
Poesy, a former star in the Harry Potter films, appeared topless in some scenes while she later performed a sex act on Redmayne, one of the Duke of Cambridge’s friends at Eton College.
On Wednesday, the BBC disclosed that 15 complaints had been lodged to the public broadcaster about the programme.
The corporation would not provide the reasons for the complaints but industry reports suggested many of them were about the dialogue.
Programme sources however, insisted the complaints were only a tiny fraction of the total audience number who tuned in.
Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, has received a "low number" of complaints about the show’s content, which was broadcast after the 9pm watershed. But viewers took to Twitter to vent their frustration about the dialogue.
"Is it me or is Eddie Redmayne swallowing his words? Enunciate, man!,” one viewer wrote.
Another wrote: “I couldn't hear what the main two were saying 80% of the time. They barely moved their mouths!”
One viewer, who otherwise praised the drama, complained: “I have only one gripe … I couldn't hear all the dialogue.”
More than six million people tuned in on Sunday night to watch the first instalment of the two-part dramatisation of Faulks's novel.
The drama, which enjoyed nearly a quarter of the audience share over its 90 minutes, tells the story of a lieutenant in the British Army, played by Redmayne, who fights in the Battle of the Somme and at Ypres.
The storyline goes back and forth in time from Amiens in 1910, when the two characters begin a passionate affair, and the trenches of the Somme.
BBC One has high hopes for the drama, which has been scripted by Abi Morgan, whose credits include The Iron Lady. Birdsong was published in 1993 and became a word – of – mouth hit for Faulks, 58.
A BBC spokesman confirmed that 15 complaints had been made but declined to comment further.
By Andrew Hough
7:00AM GMT 26 Jan 2012
Audiences have protested at the actors’ poor dictation and mumbled lines on BBC One’s adaptation of Sebastian Faulks's best-selling First World War novel.
Other complaints have also centred on sex-scenes involving stars Eddie Redmayne, 30, and Clemence Poesy, 29, who play the tragic couple at its heart.
Poesy, a former star in the Harry Potter films, appeared topless in some scenes while she later performed a sex act on Redmayne, one of the Duke of Cambridge’s friends at Eton College.
On Wednesday, the BBC disclosed that 15 complaints had been lodged to the public broadcaster about the programme.
The corporation would not provide the reasons for the complaints but industry reports suggested many of them were about the dialogue.
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Programme sources however, insisted the complaints were only a tiny fraction of the total audience number who tuned in.
Ofcom, the broadcasting watchdog, has received a "low number" of complaints about the show’s content, which was broadcast after the 9pm watershed. But viewers took to Twitter to vent their frustration about the dialogue.
"Is it me or is Eddie Redmayne swallowing his words? Enunciate, man!,” one viewer wrote.
Another wrote: “I couldn't hear what the main two were saying 80% of the time. They barely moved their mouths!”
One viewer, who otherwise praised the drama, complained: “I have only one gripe … I couldn't hear all the dialogue.”
More than six million people tuned in on Sunday night to watch the first instalment of the two-part dramatisation of Faulks's novel.
The drama, which enjoyed nearly a quarter of the audience share over its 90 minutes, tells the story of a lieutenant in the British Army, played by Redmayne, who fights in the Battle of the Somme and at Ypres.
The storyline goes back and forth in time from Amiens in 1910, when the two characters begin a passionate affair, and the trenches of the Somme.
BBC One has high hopes for the drama, which has been scripted by Abi Morgan, whose credits include The Iron Lady. Birdsong was published in 1993 and became a word – of – mouth hit for Faulks, 58.
A BBC spokesman confirmed that 15 complaints had been made but declined to comment further.
- Andrew Hough
© Telegraph.co.uk
