First Humans BBC documentary

The BBC have produced a documentary of the type they typically excel in i.e. story of first humans.

Is it any good?

I have no idea as the documentary has excessive background music LOUDER than the speech making it virtually impossible to listen to the sound track.

Shame on producers - where do you get the pea brained idea loud background music adds value to the documentary?

This is yet another sign of the decay of the BBC from being the Jewel in the Crown to just another 3rd rate broadcaster.
Don't even go there how they have destroyed Doctor Who LOL (I could but I would be breaking forum rules).

I, for one, will support getting rid of the tv licence!

cereberus said:

I, for one, will support getting rid of the tv licence!

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Stopped mine last year, I never use the BBC and never watch anything live these days.

cereberus said:

The BBC have produced a documentary of the type they typically excel in i.e. story of first humans.

Is it any good?

I have no idea as the documentary has excessive background music LOUDER than the speech making it virtually impossible to listen to the sound track.

Shame on producers - where do you get the pea brained idea loud background music adds value to the documentary?

Click to expand...

This sort of issue has been going on for years and not confined to the BBC. Other broadcasters and programme makers are equally guilty, often combining loud music with whispering/mumbling dialogue.

But I have watched all 5 programmes in the series and they are absolutely fascinating. I didn't find the loud music affected the programme much, but then I chose to watch the programmes on the PC using the iPlayer app. Sitting close to the PC means the sound is often clearer compared to being in a large living room where the sound bounces off the walls and introduces a bit of echo.

I have hearing aids for mild loss and I struggle to listen to dialogue in the living room. But not with this series watched on lPlayer. You can turn on subtitles (I did) and you can set a small font size so it does not intrude on the programme, unlike with Sky where it's a big box a third of the way up the screen and cannot be adjusted.

A really good programme series well worth watching.

RFS said:

This sort of issue has been going on for years and not confined to the BBC. Other broadcasters and programme makers are equally guilty, often combining loud music with whispering/mumbling dialogue.

But I have watched all 5 programmes in the series and they are absolutely fascinating. I didn't find the loud music affected the programme much, but then I chose to watch the programmes on the PC using the iPlayer app. Sitting close to the PC means the sound is often clearer compared to being in a large living room where the sound bounces off the walls and introduces a bit of echo.

I have hearing aids for mild loss and I struggle to listen to dialogue in the living room. But not with this series watched on lPlayer. You can turn on subtitles (I did) and you can set a small font size so it does not intrude on the programme, unlike with Sky where it's a big box a third of the way up the screen and cannot be adjusted.

A really good programme series well worth watching.

Click to expand...

Yeah - I know it is not confined to the BBC but historically BBC nature style documentaries have been of great quality both visually and aurally e.g. the documentaries with legendary David Attenborough. The BBC have lost the plot on these new ones for sure.

I use subtitles all the time when I can.

On the odd occasion a program does not have them, I use Windoews auto generated live captions. You can get these on mobile phones as well but they are much poorer with virtually no configuration of captions screen size/locations (like the pathetic Sky ones as well).

With the Windows live captions, I size it as a one line text output box that fits nicely over the taskbar at bottom, and does not intrude on screen.

Actually, I do not know why apps do let you place normal subtitles below or above screen as there is usually tonnes of space - I guess it just shows how little attention TV pays to the deaf community really.

cereberus said:

BBC nature style documentaries have been of great quality both visually and aurally e.g. the documentaries with legendary David Attenborough

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Those documentaries are real master pieces, honestly. Haven't watched the new ones yet, I hope they are good.

RFS said:

This sort of issue has been going on for years and not confined to the BBC. Other broadcasters and programme makers are equally guilty, often combining loud music with whispering/mumbling dialogue.

But I have watched all 5 programmes in the series and they are absolutely fascinating. I didn't find the loud music affected the programme much, but then I chose to watch the programmes on the PC using the iPlayer app. Sitting close to the PC means the sound is often clearer compared to being in a large living room where the sound bounces off the walls and introduces a bit of echo.

I have hearing aids for mild loss and I struggle to listen to dialogue in the living room. But not with this series watched on lPlayer. You can turn on subtitles (I did) and you can set a small font size so it does not intrude on the programme, unlike with Sky where it's a big box a third of the way up the screen and cannot be adjusted.

A really good programme series well worth watching.

Click to expand...

I gave it a go again, using subtitles and I agree it is quite good.

The presenter Ella Al Shamahi (Arabic descent but grew up in UK) is a really good talented presenter and shows her enthusiasm. On googling about her, she really is well educated and active in her field, and not just a pretty face.

Perhaps surprisingly, she is also a standup comedienne, and I watched a bit of one presentation on youtube where she shows the evolution of humans.

She asks the audience what is wrong with this drawing, and after little response, she answers "it shows evolution as being linear where in fact, it is more like a tree with branches that lead to extinction of various forms of humans".

That itself, is true, but then she asks the killer question "More importantly, what else is wrong with this picture"?

After zero response, with an impish smile, she unexpectedly answers "There are no women in the picture - how could humans have evolved with no women"!

The audience fell about laughing - to me it shows how talented this beautiful young lady is!

Also love her accent - she must be a regular to Albert Square .