Author Topic: SS GB  (Read 12858 times)

Wascally Weasel

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SS GB
« on: 20 February, 2017, 01:10:12 pm »
Sadly not the documentary about the SS Great Britain that I was expecting

I read the book some years ago and remember linking it. Was moderately excited about the new BBC adaptation of it.  Sadly it's marred by having a lead actor who looks like a moody twenty year old (my memory of the character was a lot older but that might just have been me as I haven't read the book in about twenty years).

The worst thing is the incessant mumbling which just seems to be a thing now.

Pity, it might have been good but I'm guessing it's going to lose audience in droves (except that special portion of the population who get all excited when they see swastikas draped over everything).

Re: SS GB
« Reply #1 on: 20 February, 2017, 01:43:44 pm »
I rather enjoyed it. I haven't read the book (no spoilers please), but I'm looking forward to finding out where the story goes.

mattc

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #2 on: 20 February, 2017, 03:14:11 pm »
I rather enjoyed it. I haven't read the book (no spoilers please), but I'm looking forward to finding out where the story goes.
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citoyen

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #3 on: 20 February, 2017, 04:08:20 pm »
Sadly not the documentary about the SS Great Britain that I was expecting

Glad I'm not the only one.

The trailer did make it look like an exercise in Naziporn, which puts me right off it.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: SS GB
« Reply #4 on: 20 February, 2017, 06:20:28 pm »
Never really took to the book altho' I tend to enjoy Len Deighton.  Have watched a lot of the first episode and will persevere for a bit longer. 
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Basil

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #5 on: 20 February, 2017, 07:11:40 pm »
Started to watch it, in an effort to do something televisual with Mrs B.   Unfortunately I had to give up as i just couldn't hear what half the characters were saying.  Shan't bother with it next week.
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Re: SS GB
« Reply #6 on: 20 February, 2017, 08:25:10 pm »
Started to watch it, in an effort to do something televisual with Mrs B.   Unfortunately I had to give up as i just couldn't hear what half the characters were saying.  Shan't bother with it next week.

We also have difficulty on our big telly.  On the tinny little cheapo telly I can hear it a lot better!
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Mr Larrington

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #7 on: 20 February, 2017, 10:22:35 pm »
You are right, Mr Weasel.  Superintendents are not that young even if there is a war on.  They haven't taken too many liberties with the book (yet) apart from turning Harry into a Scotsman and sending Sylvia some way upmarket.  I shall persevere with it.

I just wish Mr Deighton hadn't nuxed any repeat showing or video release of "Game, Set & Match" coz I thought it was rather good.
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Re: SS GB
« Reply #8 on: 20 February, 2017, 11:15:39 pm »
You are right, Mr Weasel.  Superintendents are not that young even if there is a war on.  They haven't taken too many liberties with the book (yet) apart from turning Harry into a Scotsman and sending Sylvia some way upmarket.  I shall persevere with it.

Deighton's one of my favourite authors, and though it's been ages since I read SS-GB, in my mind Archer was older and a bit more weatherbeaten than he was shown here. Kellerman and Huth worked well though, and it's nice to see proper German (as opposed to just Achtung Schweinehund! &c.) being spoken. Good use of some of Deighton's more sardonic lines as well I thought. I'll try and catch the next episode.

I just wish Mr Deighton hadn't nuxed any repeat showing or video release of "Game, Set & Match" coz I thought it was rather good.

I did not know that - I'd wondered why I'd been unable to find it; I think one of my copies of the books is a TV tie-in edition.

Kim

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #9 on: 21 February, 2017, 02:55:48 pm »
The mumbling complaints appear to count as news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39038406

Re: SS GB
« Reply #10 on: 21 February, 2017, 03:15:39 pm »
Watching the TV without subtitles is like riding up a hill without using the gears :)

Re: SS GB
« Reply #11 on: 21 February, 2017, 03:16:10 pm »
I heard two radio debates today where the agenda had been set by 'The Tracy Ullman Show' The first episode of the current series started with a skit on 'Happy Valley' with mumbling Northerners. Obviously, as Lancastrians we don't notice that in the actual 'Happy Valley'. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08d3gdk/tracey-ullmans-show-series-2-episode-1

What we hate the most are posh actors trying to speak as we do, and getting it wrong. That's different from recording things badly, but they bugger up the visuals too, with all manner of gratuitous effects.

Kim

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #12 on: 21 February, 2017, 03:20:14 pm »
Watching the TV without subtitles is like riding up a hill without using the gears :)

Sigged  :thumbsup:

T42

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #13 on: 21 February, 2017, 04:36:39 pm »
The worst thing is the incessant mumbling which just seems to be a thing now.

Crikey, I thought it was me lugs. Haven't seen SS GB but much of the dialogue in other films now seems to consist of breathy mumbling.
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citoyen

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #14 on: 21 February, 2017, 05:04:43 pm »
The mumbling complaints appear to count as news: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-39038406

I don't know if it was the same woman who is quoted in the piece but I heard some idiot TV critic on the radio this morning who tried to justify the mumbling as an artistic decision by the actor. She reckoned that he had made a conscious decision to speak like that 'in character'. She also reckoned that if an actor decides to do that, there's nothing you can do to make them change. Which is bullshit because it's part of the director's job description to make sure the actors project their lines properly.

Not so long ago, I watched the superb 70s adaptation of the Barchester Chronicles with Alan Rickman and Donald Pleasance. It certainly lacked the sophistication and expensive sets and costumes of a modern TV drama - it all looked a bit 'stagey', like they had just stuck a camera in front of a theatrical performance - but it didn't matter because the acting was spellbinding and what's more, you could hear every single damn word they said clearly.
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caerau

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #15 on: 21 February, 2017, 05:13:03 pm »
This mumbling business completely mystifies me.


This is the second time I've come across this in something that I've actually watched and on neither occasion do I have the first idea of what these complaining people are on about frankly.
They must have been watching something different to me.


The first time for me it was that thing set in Somerset or Devon period drama thing (can't remember what it actually was now) and my only conclusion was that maybe some were moaning about regional accents or something.  This time I'm truly lost - I had no problem hearing what anybody said in this programme last night at all.


Aside from that, overall we thought this was quite slow but seemed promising by the end.
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Re: SS GB
« Reply #16 on: 21 February, 2017, 05:14:47 pm »
I blame Scandi Noir and 'The Wire'. Once that style become the norm, everything follows it. I heard someone on the radio saying that the German diction in SS GB is actually very good. A bit like the over-articulated 'English' accents in US shows. Who can forget Daphne Moon and her 'Manchester' accent in Frasier? I'm used to Americans not understanding a word unless I do RP.

citoyen

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #17 on: 21 February, 2017, 05:18:57 pm »
They must have been watching something different to me.

I haven't watched it but the clip they played on the radio this morning was totally incomprehensible. Not that this proves anything - I'm sure they deliberately chose the most mumbly clip they could find, and it's always going to be harder to follow speech lifted from TV without the visual cues.

Often it's not so much the clarity of the speaking that's the problem but the background music drowning it out.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

caerau

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #18 on: 21 February, 2017, 05:22:48 pm »
Having followed the link and had a bit of a read now, I do wonder a bit about the quality of the tellys people are watching it on maybe - some modern flat screeners do not do sound well.
It's a reverse Elvis thing.

citoyen

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #19 on: 21 February, 2017, 05:26:13 pm »
Having followed the link and had a bit of a read now, I do wonder a bit about the quality of the tellys people are watching it on maybe - some modern flat screeners do not do sound well.

Yes, that point was raised in the radio discussion this morning.
"The future's all yours, you lousy bicycles."

Re: SS GB
« Reply #20 on: 21 February, 2017, 05:31:20 pm »
Having followed the link and had a bit of a read now, I do wonder a bit about the quality of the tellys people are watching it on maybe - some modern flat screeners do not do sound well.

Yes, that point was raised in the radio discussion this morning.
I use my stereo for sound but still had problems figuring out what the main character was saying.

red marley

Re: SS GB
« Reply #21 on: 21 February, 2017, 06:14:05 pm »
I've yet to watch it but am looking forward to doing so.

Someone on the radio pointed out that the UK is one of the few countries in Europe that has not been invaded within living memory. And as such we have not had to face the "what would you do?" question that many Europeans (or their parents/grandparents) have had to deal with. The ambiguity of the protagonist in SS GB supposedly reflects the pull between collaboration and resistance that at least in theory could make a compelling drama.

Kim

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #22 on: 21 February, 2017, 08:03:03 pm »
Having followed the link and had a bit of a read now, I do wonder a bit about the quality of the tellys people are watching it on maybe - some modern flat screeners do not do sound well.

Yes, that point was raised in the radio discussion this morning.

Programme makers should be auditioning their final mix on a crap telly thobut.  Problem presumably is that either they don't bother, or they've been working on the material for ages and could recite half the dialogue from memory by the time they get to that point.  (And selection bias, in that people mixing audio for a living probably have above average listening ability.)

Plus you've got to balance the artistic aims of realistic diction, background music and certain types of microphone technique[1] versus the SNR requirements of the significant minority of the population who have some sort of hearing loss but prefer to complain about mumbling rather than use better audio kit or turn the subtitles on.


[1] I find the up-close-and-personal microphone approach common in USAnian television drama can be quite distracting at times.

Re: SS GB
« Reply #23 on: 21 February, 2017, 08:20:55 pm »
I've yet to watch it but am looking forward to doing so.

Someone on the radio pointed out that the UK is one of the few countries in Europe that has not been invaded within living memory. And as such we have not had to face the "what would you do?" question that many Europeans (or their parents/grandparents) have had to deal with. The ambiguity of the protagonist in SS GB supposedly reflects the pull between collaboration and resistance that at least in theory could make a compelling drama.

<coughs>

What about the Channel Islands?
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Mr Larrington

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Re: SS GB
« Reply #24 on: 21 February, 2017, 08:35:04 pm »
I didn't find "SS-GB" nearly as mumblesome as the last series of "Sherlock" but it goes at least as far back as Rafe Spall in an adaptation of a Jake Arnott novel (I forget which).
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