Jamaica Inn on the BBC

[prendrelemick]

Anybody else see this? Not one of the BBC's major triumphs I have to say. We watched the first episode with growing bemusement as the actors mumbled and grumbled incoherently, Suddenly it all became very funny - you just could not tell what anyone was saying. We started making up daft guesses as to what Uncle Joss said. -Ooare donkey got casserole eh!

The next day it was announced that there had been technical problems with the sound and adjustments were to be made.

It was a bit better but the spell had been broken, we were looking for things to mock, we waited expectantly for Uncle Joss's lines, we felt disappointed if we could understand him.

So last night came the final episode, It was dramatic and disturbing, but we were too busy spotting mistakes and problems, they wrecked ships in daylight, they had rapid fire muzzle loading pistols. The writer had changed the story too much, characters were doing improbable stuff. This sort of thing wouldn't matter if you could commit to the drama, but by then we were about as involved as rubber-neckers at a car crash.

It is a great shame, the BBC is constantly under attack from vested interests and their political allies. This will be used against them, when most of their output is streets ahead of the opposition.

[cacian]

QUOTE=prendrelemick;1258963]Anybody else see this? Not one of the BBC's major triumphs I have to say. We watched the first episode with growing bemusement as the actors mumbled and grumbled incoherently, Suddenly it all became very funny - you just could not tell what anyone was saying. We started making up daft guesses as to what Uncle Joss said. -Ooare donkey got casserole eh!

LOL so true!!!! I thought it was me. it could not make head or tail of what they were saying at first. it appeared very distressing. I nearly did put the subtiltes on but then I thought better of it. I hoped it would eventually get a bit clearer. it did and did not. still no subtitles from part. I was adamant I was having none of it. :D


The next day it was announced that there had been technical problems with the sound and adjustments were to be made.

the next day? I must have missed this one. because it watched all the three parts.


It was a bit better but the spell had been broken, we were looking for things to mock, we waited expectantly for Uncle Joss's lines, we felt disappointed if we could understand him.
I did not understand him at all. I did not get his issue/;personality/attitude. he remains a complete enigma to me.


So last night came the final episode, It was dramatic and disturbing, but we were too busy spotting mistakes and problems, they wrecked ships in daylight, they had rapid fire muzzle loading pistols. The writer had changed the story too much, characters were doing improbable stuff. This sort of thing wouldn't matter if you could commit to the drama, but by then we were about as involved as day trippers to the seaside.
haha I enjoyed some of the scenery/beach/stones when there was light to be had. it reminded of the latest movie of Jane Ayre. it had that dreary depressing remote feel to it. and it also had a feel of a William Faulkner too.


It is a great shame, the BBC is constantly under attack from vested interests and their political allies. This will be used against them, when most of their output is streets ahead of the opposition.
to be honest it always complex to think one could translate a book onto a tv film. it is not the easiest to do but yes I agree there was not much of a bite to it. I watched it. :)

[Lokasenna]

I didn't see it, but the 'mumbling actors' were all over the Today programme when the story first broke, and I couldn't understand them.

You would think that someone from the production team would... you know... watch the thing before sending it to be broadcast.

A shame, when you consider how much it must have cost. Also, I share your objection to BBC screenwriters who think they are better at creating plot than the writers whose works they are adapting. I remember being particularly irritated by the BBC's Great Expectations from a few years ago, the writer of which decided that neither of Dickens's endings were much good and made up his or her own ridiculous happy-ever-after ending that was completely against the spirit and meaning of the novel.

That said, dubbing your own lines into films is a great group activity, particularly after a few drinks. Some friends and I once spent a grotty evening stuck in a third-rate hotel room, mid-transfer, where the television had only one channel that seemed to be broadcasting about 20 hours of continuous wrestling in German - our ad hoc and increasingly unhinged 'translations' gave us several hours of convivial amusement.

[kev67]

The BBC is under attack, but they rarely transmit anything I would want to watch. It has been a long time since they televised anything as good as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I still like BBC radio, however.

[MANICHAEAN]

I must confess that I enjoyed the series, swallowed dialogue inclusive. Stange accents and modes of communicating verbally are stimulating. Perhaps it had something to do with trying to understand aunts and uncles with broad West Cork accents visiting us in London when I was a child. I also found it amusing once when returning back from a long stretch in Saudi to put on the news and see Malcom MacDonald ( West Indian with a Scottish name), doing an item from Belfast in what can only be described as perfect Queen's English.

[LitNetIsGreat]

I have recorded this but not watched it yet but have heard about the sound issues. As I have not seen it myself it is difficult to comment, but I just can not understand how something could be broadcast with such bad sound and how this can be possible in this day and age.

[prendrelemick]

Thinking about it now, I can see that the dialogue was minimal anyway - all those taciturn Cornish smugglers- you could tell what was going on, you could feel the menace etc without hearing every word. From Mary's point of view (which was our point of view) Jamaica Inn was a dark secretive place full of half heard plots and whispers. I wonder if this was why the director wanted his "locals" to mumble all the time. Mumbler in chief Uncle Joss was an unhinged presence of physical intimidation, he was not into winning hearts and minds.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Well I got around to watching this depressing adaptation and yes, I couldn't understand some of the dialogue (he was particularly bad, Joss was it?) but still quite liked it anyway. I liked the brooding setting and the horses.

[RobbyA]

I stuck the subtitles on after 15 minutes of the first episode which detracted from it somewhat, but the sound quality wasn't my main problem with it. For me, it wasn't creepy enough and neither the key characters nor Joss's band of smugglers were fleshed out enough. There was never really a moment when I felt truly afraid for Mary. The Aunt Patience of the novel is a far more frail, faded woman than the one Joanne Whalley portrays, who is positively sparky in comparison! And they missed out the single most brilliant moment from the book - the part where Mary finds the Francis Davey's illustration in his desk drawer. Maybe I'll have to take a look at the Hitchcock film to see how it compares...

[LitNetIsGreat]

The Hitchcock version is a very grainy affair as I remember. It is a very early Hitchcock, probably made with a low budget so the production quality is not very good unfortunately.

[Emil Miller]

The Hitchcock version is a very grainy affair as I remember. It is a very early Hitchcock, probably made with a low budget so the production quality is not very good unfortunately.

Yes, it was made in 1939 and was Hitchcock's last British venture before leaving for Hollywood. Given that the story is pretty hammy, it's hardly surprising that it failed in cinematic terms. What is surprising is that Robert Newton, who subsequently played characters as diverse as Bill Sykes, Long John Silver and the mad artist in Odd Man Out, was cast as the romantic lead in Jamaica Inn.

[LitNetIsGreat]

Yes, it was made in 1939 and was Hitchcock's last British venture before leaving for Hollywood. Given that the story is pretty hammy, it's hardly surprising that it failed in cinematic terms. What is surprising is that Robert Newton, who subsequently played characters as diverse as Bill Sykes, Long John Silver and the mad artist in Odd Man Out, was cast as the romantic lead in Jamaica Inn.

Yes, I've got a big Hitchcock collection and I remember that I don't think we could watch it through as the quality was so bad. Though, it seems, modern productions of this don't fair much better either...

[RobbyA]

The Hitchcock version is a very grainy affair as I remember. It is a very early Hitchcock, probably made with a low budget so the production quality is not very good unfortunately.

Hah, maybe I'll give that a miss then! Seems like it's impossible to do a really good adaptation of it - I saw a theatrical production of it a few years ago and it was pretty abysmal too. I guess it's even harder to translate to the stage though.