Cold Feet star Robert Bathurst slams actors who mumble on TV - but are they to blame?

Cold Feet actor Robert Bathurst has reflected on the poor speech of actors in recent television dramas, but could it be our televisions that are to blame?

Actor Robert Bathurst has joined in the criticism of performers who do not speak clearly on TV.

The Cold Feet star also admitted he sometimes struggles to understand others on set due to their mumbling.

And Bathurst even claimed there are directors who are too afraid to ­criticise the culprits.

The 63-year-old pointed to screen legends such as David Niven, George Sanders and John Le Mesurier as ­examples of stars who knew “what value they could give to a line of dialogue”.

Writing in The Oldie ­magazine, he said: “All these actors, along with many others including Alec ­Guinness, Trevor Howard and Jack Hawkins, shared one underrated quality… you could hear what they said.

“It is a taboo in some circles now to say that an actor is inaudible. I’ve worked with directors who are too scared to say so or too cloth-eared to notice.”

Speaking of his own ­experiences, Bathurst – who played David Marsden in ITV’s Cold Feet – “I once filmed some dialogue with an actor who was four feet from me but the only way I knew it was my cue was that his lips stopped moving.”

The row over mumbling on TV has raged for several years.

In 2017 there was a spate of complaints about unclear dialogue on shows such as Jamaica Inn – and more recently Poldark.

But some experts insist the sound on flatscreen TVs may be to blame.

"The sound that comes out of most flat screens is appalling," says sound recordist Simon Clark, whose notable work includes Wolf Hall, and which was slammed for its sound quality upon its original airing.

He wasn't the only one to blame it on what people were watching the television series on.

Happy Valley writer Sally Wainwright previously said: “I found it really offensive because when it left the editing suite it was absolutely fine.

“I don’t think it’s rubbish that people can’t hear it, I think it is about your equipment rather than what we do. If you’ve got a big flat-screen TV and put it up against a wall, it muffles the sound.”

What do you think is responsible for the sound issue? Let us know in the comments below.