Egypt4u

I am becoming increasing vexed and my enjoyment diminished by the excessive use of music in programmes and films.

Of course sometimes suitable music adds atmosphere or tone, but it's really not necessary to have it from beginning to end and often swamping the dialogue.

It's difficult to get away from, if anything advertisements are even worse!

I hadn't realised how much I hated it until a very clever Welsh company started to use a silent advert. It immediately attracts attention when the TV suddenly goes quiet. Clever move, but maybe not PC in view of Blind "viewers" not knowing why their device has gone quiet.

Anyone else got an opinion on this?

I certainly have MD and it is one of complete agreement with you. It is the bane of my life trying to listen to a program only to have it ruined by loud background music
OK, I am sure that over the years my hearing has diminished especially with my work background which was often quite noisy at times, however it is not that bad. I have had an hearing test before and it would seem that my hearing gets affected at certain high levels of sound although under normal circumstances it is not a problem. However, a program with actors speaking in all sorts of muffled and muttered voices with this ridiculous overpowering music and that's it, I can hardly follow the plot. I have also noticed the lack of clarity in speech nowadays with many actors muttering along often in a foreign dialect (usually Southern USA drawl) and even without the music it is hard to follow. My other pet hate is when they use young children in programs and they speak in a monotonic whispered voice with no inflections at all, most times I have not got a clue as to what they have said as I stopped speaking 'baby' many years ago. The latest irritant is the setting of programs in places like Sweden or in France and we get say Swedes or French actors interspersed with English speaking ones of all dialects, its like trying to read a book in several languages at the same time as you try to adapt to the voice pattern of each accent.
End of rant.

YES to all of the above . . and .... CANNED LAUGHTER - GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR . I have found I have no need of being told when to laugh -

We both have good hearing, mine is particularly acute but Horus has listed all complaints that apply to us as well. We use subtitles quite a lot but in the programs that Horus mentions where we have foreign accents, they (the broadcaster) then puts small text dialogue in case you didn't get it. They obviously KNOW that there will be difficulty understanding the dialogue or why subtitle it?

We then have two rows of subtitles on screen

With forethought, when I built my lounge extension I included hifi sockets in each corner. After about 30 years they have now come into their own......I plug the TV into one corner and we each have big over ear headphones plugged into other corners. Can't hear the phone or the doorbell, or each other, but we Can hear the dialogue

I do so agree with all of you. My situation is made worse by this horrible (but expensive) TV that goes with my house. the sound is dreadful.

As far as possible I watch TV on my laptop or Kindle Fire HD - that has the best sound and picture of all actually.

I think and hope fads come and go and lately I think the fad is to overplay the background music. The music makers union in Hollywood must've scored or something. Hopefully this will fade SOON.

What really bugs me and I make a super strong concerted effort to avoid TV but what really bugs me is when the commercials are totally blasted out way above the sound of the show. It aggravates me even more because I can't stand TV commercials in the first place so really try and avoid television and any shows that might have commercials.

I quite enjoy Netflix as the shows on there do not have commercials and find I'm really down to watching TV News on TV but sadly even the TV News suffers commercials

I also agree with Jayway - I don't need canned laughter to cue me to laugh. If it is funny I will chuckle and the funnier it gets the more I laugh. Don't need prompting.

Talking of TV, loud or otherwise, did anyone else see 'A Song for Jenny' on BBC1 at 9pm last night? Extremely well acted I thought and well worth watching.

No, I just knew that I wouldn't be able to take it emotionally, for no positive outcome.

My daughter missed the disaster because she was unusually late for work.

My other daughter missed a bomb at a cash point she was going to because they were running late and her boyfriend said, "I'll pay for the meal" thank God that tight Git had an unexpected rush of decency. They turned and walked less than 50 metres and the bomb went off.

I have been through an awful lot of "what could have been" since then, and now I try not to work myself up too much. It doesn't do me or anyone else any good,

For me, as long as I didn't hear those fateful words "I forgive them" then I can cope with programmes like this. I expected it because the mother was a vicar!

"I forgive them"

No way, there is a wonderful quote from Ezechiel, spoken by Samuel L Jackson in the film 'Pulp Iction' (and not a quote written by someone over on the Blue side as they would have you believe )

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee."

So if anyone harmed any of mine and I could exact revenge, I would, there would be no forgiveness

#1 - What is "The Song for Jenny" ?

#2 - There would NEVER be forgiveness if you hurt any of mine - "Vengence would be MINE"

I have always been a fan of vengeance but decided when young, it was better to wait a couple of years ( preferable to a prison sentence )

LLL, A Song For Jenny was a dramatisation of the bombings in London, ten years ago today. A mother of one of the victims, who happens to be a vicar, wrote a book about her personal reactions to the atrocity, which was subsequently made into a play for TV.

@RS - thanks for the info. I hadn't heard of it but was thinking it was maybe a persons life with cancer........but bombings.......gotcha!