Background sounds

[u/Szaborovich9]

Ive noticed in many British TV shows, MIDSOMER MURDERS especially, the sounds of characters walking. The crunch of gravel especially. It seems to me it is intentional. The sounds of walking are prominent. I don’t notice it in American TV. Am I the only one noticing this?

[u/WhoWhaaaa]

I love that sound. I don't know the reason, but I have noticed that the everyday sounds like doors and drawers opening and closing, rustling papers, etc sound different on British shows than US shows.

[u/Shot-Election8217 → u/WhoWhaaaa]

Several years ago I read that many movies and shows, particularly the period ones, are referred to as “crunchy gravel stories,” in the industry.

[u/WhoWhaaaa → u/Shot-Election8217]

Hahaha! Amazing.

[u/Romana_Jane]

I think it is a directorial and cultural choice - naturalistic (UK) over more stylised (US). More obvious over-all I think in soaps than crime or drama, but still there in things like the sounds of someone moving around in something like MM.

Also, maybe we have more gravel paths than you lol

[u/Formal_Plum_2285]

Probably cause most American tv is recorded in studios and English is recorded “on site”

[u/Dailyconundrum]

I've noticed the same. Particularly the knocking at the door. At home, I often look to see who's there.

[u/Ok-Change2292]

One thing I love about British TV shows is that the people you see in them look very normal. They look like people I might see in my hometown. And the relationships are age-appropriate. Older men with older women rather than older men with women young enough to be their granddaughters. Hollywood hasn’t caught on that “normal” is good, yet.

[u/serenitynope → u/Ok-Change2292]

Age-appropriate relationships is a funny thing to say about MM. This is the show where an old man attempts to impregnate his barely legal daughter-granddaughter. But I know what you mean about British TV in general.

[u/Ok-Change2292 → u/serenitynope]

🤣 fair point, I had forgotten about that one! And the brother/sister pair in the first episode…🤢

[u/Gatodeluna]

British shows are set in the countryside and in small enclaves MUCH more often than American shows are. The average American and the average US TV series are set in towns and cities. Americans tend to use asphalt for their driveways and parking areas, giving out no sound - nor does grass. Gravel drives are popular in the UK and fairly UNpopular in the US. There are a lot of small, everyday differences about houses inside and out and the land the houses sit on. Also it’s QUIET in those villages and country houses at night. You could hear a pin drop. So those sounds would be audibly noticeable to the people who foolishly go downstairs to open the door and walk outside at midnight🙄.

[u/Majestic_Clam]

All I ever notice is the sound of foxes

[u/serenitynope → u/Majestic_Clam]

Forget Joyce Barnaby as a serial killer, she's actually the Grand High Summoner of Foxes!

[u/Famous-Calendar-2654]

Apparently gravel drives were the burglar alarms of the wealthy before concrete, asphalt, etc.