Sound designer Steve Fanagan tells David Davies how the soundscape behind the recent BBC One series, The Listeners, was created
By Contributor
Published: January 10, 2025 Updated: January 13, 2025
Sound designer Steve Fanagan tells David Davies how the soundscape behind the recent BBC One series, The Listeners, was created
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
There have been many instances of innovative TV sound design in recent years, but it's hard to imagine there will be another series where it's more fundamental to every facet of the story and production than is the case with The Listeners. Broadcast on BBC One at the end of last year and available on iPlayer until November 2025, the four-part drama combines field recordings, vivid audio processing, a haunting new score from Devont Hynes, and existing music from seminal artists including Nick Drake and Richard and Linda Thompson to frequently astonishing effect.
Adapted by Jordan Tannahill from his own acclaimed 2021 novel, but with the action transferred from the US to the UK, The Listeners begins with English teacher Claire - played by Rebecca Hall - becoming acutely aware of a continuous humming noise that is apparently only heard by a relatively small number of people. What follows is a brilliantly unusual and affecting drama from director Janicza Bravo that variously evokes classic psychological thrillers, folk-horror, and even 1970s public information films like The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water.
Steve Fanagan, sound designer, The Listeners, image courtesy BBC Sound designer for the series is Steve Fanagan, whose credits in this role - and/or as a supervising sound editor and re-recording mixer - include Normal People, Swan Song and An Cail n Ci in/The Quiet Girl. It was wonderful to get to work on something that is as subjective and crafted as The Listeners, he says. I think Janicza is an incredible, visionary director, and that's apparent in all of her work. She's a very detailed person so there's nothing that isn't thought about, and that idea of meticulousness has translated to the sound work, where I hope that the sound feels deliberate and all the choices are about pushing the story forward. It's not sound for sound's sake, but instead something that's built into the narrative and is justified by the story unfolding on the screen.
Finessing The Hum' Inevitably, determining the noise as it appears to Claire was a high priority for the sound design. Research into the real-world phenomenon known as The Hum played a part, but with reports of frequency ranges differing around the world, as well as theories about its causes, there was always going to be a significant creative aspect here. So the starting point was a conversation with Janicza about what sort of sound this might be, how the character might be experiencing it, and the ways in which it could be used not only to represent the idea of a sound Claire is hearing or experiencing but also how it might evolve and change depending on where she is on her journey in the story.
So as might be expected, the initial awareness of the sound feels huge - very distracting and grating, and affecting Claire's ability to concentrate. It begins to affect her home life so that had to be reflected in a certain way sonically, but as the series progresses and she finds out that one of her students, Kyle [played by Ollie West], can also hear it, you have the first point where she begins to feel some relief - and so the hum becomes something that's a little more harmonised.
Ollie West and Rebecca Hall in The Listeners. Image courtesy BBC As the story twists and turns, so does the hum and its position in the overall soundworld. For the actual filming, Fanagan provided a collection of sounds that could be used on set as a reference point to help [the relevant actors] become distracted in the moment . Then, during post, the form of the noise continued to mutate with different treatments and processing - reflecting a wider ethos of perpetual revision to the series as it neared finalisation.
We were always working across the four episodes in post, confirms Fanagan. So if there was something we discovered in episode four that we were enjoying and thought was working, we might figure out a version of it that could be planted as a little seed in an earlier episode. And that helped it evolved into this much bigger, kind of transcendental sound.
Built into the script But as the first few minutes of the opening episode indicate - when Richard and Linda Thompson's glorious I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight bursts onto the soundtrack, and Claire and her daughter begin to sing along with it - music is also integral to the sound of The Listeners. Along with other existing tracks by artists including Nick Drake and This Mortal Coil, there is an innovative original score by Devont Hynes, who has also recorded prolifically under the names Blood Orange and Lightspeed Champion.
With a lot of the existing music - such as the Nick Drake track [Fly] we hear as the original recording and then played by [Ollie West], who learned how to perform it for the series - it was very much built into the DNA of the writing and the shooting, which was really useful, says Fanagan.
Then, with the original score, Janicza and the producers were very keen for me to be involved in the conversations with Dev, so that if he was asking about things that we might be experimenting with from a sound design point of view I could let him know what we were working on, and if he had concerns about frequencies I was hitting that he needed to hit - or vice versa - we could talk about all of those things. This was really useful because the sound design was always evolving with the picture. Sometimes you want it to not be obv
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
30/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/09/2026
The An Evening with Emerson, Lake and Palmer tour brings one of rock's most iconic bands back to the stage. These performances seamlessly blend live foota...
30/09/2026
Schibsted Media, one of Norways largest and most influential digital media publishers and content producers, has invested in mixers and digital signal processor...
30/09/2026
Big Blue Marble announces the addition of live multiview channels to Cloud Video Kit, its broadcast-grade video processing platform. The feature is powered by A...
30/09/2026
Leading video software provider Synamedia today announced that Telekom Slovenije, Slovenia's largest provider of telecommunications and TV services, is open...
30/09/2026
PODCAST EXPO 2026 Recorded Using Blackmagic Design Workflow
Brie Clayton September 29, 2026
0 Comments
Conference featuring 24 sessions over two days ...
30/09/2026
IBC2026 Show Report
David Kirk September 29, 2026
0 Comments
The International Broadcasting Convention has long been Europe's equivalent of the US...
30/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/09/2026
Mavis has launched Mavis Camera 8.2, the latest release of its professional camera app for the iPhone and iPad. This update brings support for iPhone 18 Pro and...
30/09/2026
How to Shop Well Now starts Monday at 9.35pm
on RT One and RT Player
On the...
30/09/2026
Building on nearly a decade of co-engineering, CoreWeave has built NVIDIA compute, networking and software into a cloud purpose-built for AI that's still re...
29/09/2026
Oak View Group (OVG) has announced Cisco as an Official Technology Partner, with plans to standardize infrastructure across its venue network on Cisco solutions...
29/09/2026
SportsNet Pittsburgh (SNP) won three honors at the 2026 Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
Program awards went to Bucs BP in the Sports Program Live category (produced ...
29/09/2026
The Professional Women's Hockey League has announced home openers for all 12 teams for the 2026-27 season, along with a broadcast partnership with CBC under...
29/09/2026
Manifold technologies has been recognized as a contributor to the Media eXchange...
29/09/2026
FuboTV has announced My Local Sports, allowing subscribers in select markets to add their local regional sports network (RSN) as an add-on to a Fubo Sports subs...
29/09/2026
Asian News International (ANI), a wire agency and video news provider based in India, has deployed Grass Valley's AMPP Media Operating System and Framelight...
29/09/2026
South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) has deployed Ikegami UHK-X600 cameras as part of an upgrade to IP-based production infrastructure. The deployment ...
29/09/2026
REMI, REMCO models will drive the bulk of the broadcaster's NHL productions ...
29/09/2026
Three years in, the facility is supporting more centralized race production, com...
29/09/2026
NBC, Peacock, and NBSN are carrying all four Wild Card series with a production ...
29/09/2026
19 Nonfiction Projects Across All Stages of Production to Receive More Than $1 million in Support as Documentary Film Program Approaches 25th Anniversary
LOS ...
29/09/2026
Two new plug-ins launch alongside updated bundles
Zynaptiq have just announced the launch of two new plug-ins, alongside new and improved versions of two of...
29/09/2026
All-in-one bus processor revealed
Wes Audio's ng product range has come a long way since it was first introduced, and now includes a tasty selection of ...
29/09/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Ikegami announces that the South African Broadcasting Corporation, SABC, has chosen Ikegami UHK-X600 camera systems as part of an advance to IP-based operation ...
29/09/2026
Blendkit Offers 20% Discount to Celebrate Crossing 150K Asset Milestone
Brie Clayton September 29, 2026
0 Comments
Blendkit, the largest 3D asset libr...
29/09/2026
Interactive streaming specialist Ease Live supported more than 76.5 million fan sessions across three major European media operators during this summers FIFA Wo...
29/09/2026
Ease Live has added support for VAST (Video Ad Serving Template) to its graphical overlay technology, opening up new ways for broadcasters, streamers and rights...
29/09/2026
Rise AV has announced the launch of the inaugural Rise AV Awards, a new global awards programme celebrating the women, advocates and organisations across the AV...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
29/09/2026
Clear-Com announced that First Baptist Nashville has upgraded its production communications with a Clear-Com intercom solution as part of a comprehensive sanct...
29/09/2026
Blackmagic Cinema Camera 6K Captured Action Shots for Sketch
Brie Clayton September 28, 2026
0 Comments
Camera's portable design and dynamic range...
29/09/2026
Kean Production Services Deploys AJA ColorBox to Deliver Consistent, Accurate Co...
Sound designer Steve Fanagan tells David Davies how the soundscape behind the recent BBC One series, The Listeners, was created
