WHEN watching television I am resigned to using subtitles for all programmes made after the 1970s and so I expected the worst when this assist malfunctioned when I was recording an episode of “Strike – The Cuckoo's Calling” on the BBC.

Sure enough when I played the programme back I was only able to hear the odd word until, that is, Martin Shaw appeared and immediately I could hear the dialogue clearly and the same happened when that wonderful actress Sian Phillips also spoke in the same episode.

I had previously put my inability to hear TV dialogue to numerous factors, age, inferior sound systems, noisy work environs but it would seem much of this is to do with present day actors giving a fair imitation of Peter Brough (a radio ventriloquist of the 1940s).

It would seem that older actors with extensive theatre experience needed to learn how to project their voice.

V J Connor, Bishop Auckland