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 ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
10/06/2026
DAZN-owned digital-media company launches three fan-first series leaning into cr...
10/06/2026
Clear-Com has announced the appointment of Jason Dino as Southwest Regional Sales Manager USA, covering Southern California and the Southwest region. Dino joins...
10/06/2026
An 11% decrease in number of global broadcast deals reflects the organization...
10/06/2026
The Women Without Boundaries Awards recognize women whose work is advancing the future of media, broadcast, AV, workplace technology, digital experience, and re...
10/06/2026
Today is match day minus two for FIFA and HBS. On Thursday, there will be two ma...
10/06/2026
SES is supporting broadcast distribution of the world's biggest football tou...
10/06/2026
NDI has announced that BirdDog has become the first hardware manufacturer to achieve full NDI 6.3 compatibility across its complete lineup of cameras, encoders,...
10/06/2026
Vince Caputo and Scott Carter, winners of the 2026 Sports Emmy for Outstanding Post Produced Audio have been announced as presenters for the 2026 SVG Advanced A...
10/06/2026
FOX One today unveiled a slate of new product features and enhancements designed to elevate the viewing experience for fans on the official streaming platform o...
10/06/2026
Primary production partners Dome Productions and Raycom Sports once again played...
10/06/2026
The Women in Sports Filmmaking Experienceship is an immersive professional devel...
10/06/2026
The league has expanded its HSAN architecture for the NBA Finals to manage more ...
10/06/2026
The inaugural MoonPay X Games League (XGL) Winter Draft will take place Wednesday, September 16, 2026 at Cosm Los Angeles from 7-9 p.m. PT. The event will strea...
10/06/2026
The University of Oklahoma (OU) Athletics Department and Learfield have announce...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has released TR-06-4 Part 8, a new specification for RIST Satellite-Hybrid: Out-of-Band Method. The specification creates a mecha...
10/06/2026
Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, supporting live medical proc...
10/06/2026
A still from The Doom Generation by Gregg Araki (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
By Lucy Spicer
Have you checked out our Sundance Film Festival 101 list yet...
10/06/2026
Get Hands-On with Interfaces & Mic Preamp Brands
If youre after a new interface or preamp, then GearExpo UK is the place to be! Well have a whole host of au...
10/06/2026
November 13-14 2026, The Midway, San Francisco
Following their recent rebranding, MONO Music Conference (formerly Music Expo) have officially announced thei...
10/06/2026
Debut instrument free for limited time
deFORM is the debut release from newly founded developer ebbandflow, and it's being offered as a free download fo...
10/06/2026
Alone Australia Season 4: Meet the Cast
10 June, 2026
Media releases
WATCH THE TRAILER
Smash-hit survival series Alone Australia drops its highly anticipa...
10/06/2026
DEADLY THEN, DEADLY NOW, DEADLY ALWAYS: SBS & NITV IGNITE NAIDOC WEEK 2026 WITH ...
10/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF advance laser-based drone defense with THORIS LCS Rohde & Schwarz is showcasing THORIS at ILA 2026: A sovereign, end to end counter...
10/06/2026
MAHLE and Rohde & Schwarz develop application for sensor testing of modern drive...
10/06/2026
Production and Development Funding supports the creation of compelling, commercially viable, artistic and culturally relevant South African screen content. Deve...
10/06/2026
Media buyers and sellers can now compare YouTube reach from computer, mobile, an...
10/06/2026
Accedo, Humans not Robots, and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) have announced the launch of Ecoflow X. Formerly an IBC Accelerator project, ...
10/06/2026
Frequency, the engine powering the world's leading streaming television channels, today announced that James Smith has joined the company as General Manager...
10/06/2026
At the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Lisbon, Riedel Communications provided the communications infrastructure for live medical procedures s...
10/06/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media, and entertainment managed services, today announced the launch of its Content Exchange platform powered by Or...
10/06/2026
Klvr will showcase how venues, integrators and production teams are rethinking disposable battery usage at InfoComm 2026 (Las Vegas, June 17-19, booth #N6311). ...
10/06/2026
The Video Services Forum (VSF) has further enhanced the Reliable Internet Streaming Transport (RIST) protocol by incorporating a new feature, RIST Satellite-Hyb...
10/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
10/06/2026
10 Jun 2026
VEON's Banglalink Brings Every World Cup 2026 Match to Football...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
How to watch every ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 match live on Sky Sports
Where is the ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2026 availabl...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
P RLA brings first-ever Beautifully Clean Oral Care'...
10/06/2026
Wednesday 10 June 2026
Sky reveals pulse-pounding first teaser trailer for upco...
10/06/2026
Wuppertal June 10, 2026
Riedel Artist at the Heart of the 14th World Live Neurovascular ConferenceAt the 14th World Live Neurovascular Conference (WLNC) in Li...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Showcases New Mobile Experience, Collections and Games Vision in APAC
Product
10 June 2026
GlobalSouth KoreaJapan
Link copied to c...
10/06/2026
Back to All News
Ready to Join? The Netflix Fan Club Arrives at Cannes Lions
Business
10 June 2026
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Download all assets
N...
10/06/2026
Chemists snap together complex 3D molecules from highly reactive radicals-without losing their shape Scripps Research team develops stereoretentive radical-radi...
09/06/2026
Kiswe announces an expanded long-term partnership with ONE Championship (ONE), t...
09/06/2026
SiriusXM will broadcast FOX Sports' English-language commentary for all 104 FIFA World Cup 2026 matches from June 11 through July 19, available to subscribe...
09/06/2026
EVS has announced it is changing its corporate name from EVS Broadcast Equipment to EVS, reflecting the company's expanded portfolio beyond broadcast equipm...
09/06/2026
Fox Corporation and the NFL have announced a multi-year agreement to bring NFL c...
Sound designer Steve Fanagan tells David Davies how the soundscape behind the recent BBC One series, The Listeners, was created
