I missed the television broadcast of Jamaica Inn but, after the media furore about the sound and inaudibility of the actors, my professional curiosity was piqued.

I downloaded it to watch for myself. Despite my actor solidarity predisposition, I have to admit that I struggled to understand more of the dialogue than one might reasonably expect. The style was very dark, ominous and intimate, and the story dealt with smugglers who risked their lives in pursuit of their contraband. If caught they might hang.

This led to an understandable tendency amongst the characters to speak in hushed tones so that others couldn’t hear. Sadly on many occasions that meant us too. But it is unfair to lay the blame entirely at the feet of the actors, if at all. I have played scenes on film where the other actor and I could barely hear each other on set but were still asked by the director to give it less volume. On seeing the film, I could hear everything perfectly.

In the weeks of post-production on film and television projects, there are several layers of sound added to what has already been recorded. Atmosphere, background noises, special effects and music. Getting the balance right between all those different tracks is the job of the editorial team and the director. The composer of the music, for instance, may not always believe the dialogue is more important than his composition, although the sound should in theory enhance rather than obscure the story.

Also they have all read and heard the script many times over and have it in front of them while they are doing the edit. It is all too easy to forget that we, the willing audience, have variable hearing and are hearing it for the first time through TV speakers in busy homes, not a state-of-the-art dubbing studio. This time they did get it wrong, which is a great shame because it was beautifully imagined, designed and acted and, had the sound been better, would have been rightly considered a definitive adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s novel.

Don’t blame the actors though. On set we are totally at the mercy of sound recordists and directors, and afterwards on all the elements of the editing process.

On stage if you can’t hear an actor, it is entirely their fault. On film, not necessarily so.