The Listeners

Do You Want
To Hear A Secret?

The Listeners
Directed by Janicza Bravo
BBC Four Episodes
November 2024

The Listeners is a BBC TV show, based on the novel of the same title written by Jordan Tannahill, who also writes the screenplay in this TV version. One of my all time favourite modern ctresses, Rebecca Hall, plays the lead, an English teacher called Claire. She wakes one morning to find she can hear a sound, a bit like a low level hum, constantly in the background of her head. Her husband and daughter assume it’s something like a mental health problem or tinnitus but she knows it isn’t. Furthermore, one of her students, Kyle, played brilliantly by Ollie West, can also hear the sound and it’s not long before, in their mutual exploration to figure out just what the sound is, they come into conflict with the education community and Kyle’s mother, who all assume the two are having an affair (which in spirit, in a way, they kind of are).

The idea for the novel came from the real world phenomena known as The Hum, which can be found in various countries and cities, sometimes named after each area in which it is found (such as the Aukland Hum or the Windsor Hum). Sounds which are audible to some folk but not others and which can provoke reactions from people who just want to be free of the noise (much like tinnitus) and which are often explained away by concrete things such as gas pipes when, yeah, it seems they’re obviously not.

The TV show (I haven’t read the novel so can’t say anything about that) is a gripping drama and Rebecca Hall continues to prove she is one of the best actresses of her generation as she and Kyle discover and then become regular attendees of a group... started by and comprising of people, from all walks of society, who are able to hear the noise. Coping mechanisms and discussions as to the origins of the sound are the order of the day there, including the advice of the people running the group to embrace the noise and open themselves to it. But, in terms of the drama or the intent of the writing, it’s not there to seek an explanation of the mystery of the sound itself (at least that’s my belief and the last episode certainly doesn’t bring the audience any closer to understanding the nature and intent of the sound, if indeed intent is something which it has) but instead, like all good science fiction or speculative fiction, to explore the very human problems which result from the pursuit of the mystery at its heart.

So, for the main protagonists, it becomes about living with and handling (or often not handling) the fallout of the noise in their family and work spaces and also takes a look at the group and flirts quite strongly with the idea that Claire and Kyle might possibly have been indoctrinated into a cult, perhaps caught up in something far more sinister and about human control. Or not in that last case… depending on how you look at it.

What can I say? The acting is wonderful, the musical score is glorious (sadly not available on CD), the cinematography is awesome (and really beautiful in some places) and the sound design, with the sound the protagonists’ hear taking over the soundtrack and being used often as an indicator of the turn of emotions and to interrupt the flow of the situations (rather like what a good musical score can do), is also absolutely brilliant. My one down point is that the ending, in terms of the solution to the mystery, is pretty much non-existent. It’s one of those endings which leave it up to the viewer but without giving them a clear option as to what it could actually be. Which makes me want to read the novel although, since it’s written by the same guy, I suspect I won’t get much more insight in regards to that matter.

So yeah, that’s me done with this one and I may, if it comes down to much cheaper, grab the Blu Ray at some point in a few years. I’d also like to see or hear an opera from a few years ago, also based on this novel and, again, with the same title but, alas, I can’t find it on CD or Blu Ray so, it looks like I’m out of luck on that count at the moment too. But, regardless, The Listeners is a great TV mini series and, if the ending is a little underwhelming, the journey getting there is certainly worth taking.