An English teacher is tormented by a continuous humming noise that seemingly only a few people are able to hear.

Catching the trailers for BBC One’s new Tuesday night drama, it was hard to know whether The Listeners fell into Sci-Fi Bulletin’s paranormal remit or not. The clips of Rebecca Hall haunted by mysterious low frequency sounds that no one else could hear implied that it did. This looked like a great WotHummedIt – one of my favourite genres! – with the primary suspects being either aliens, or military tech, electricity pylons or a brain tumour. I was hopeful, as I always am, for the aliens! Who doesn’t love a humming alien?

However a visit to the BBC Media Centre webpage told me the following: ‘The Listeners explores the seduction of the wild and unknowable, the human search for the transcendent, the rise of conspiracy culture in the West, and the desire for community and connection in our increasingly polarised times.’

Wow! I couldn’t help wondering if the real sci-fi was happening in the BBC’s very own press office, where they are surely employing an AI to write their copy with its ‘Pretentious Word Salad’ filter turned up to eleven.

None the wiser, but undaunted, I tuned in, still hoping for aliens.

After two episodes, well, I think I’m going to be disappointed on the extra-terrestrial front, but The Listeners is an intriguing drama nonetheless. There have been several news stories about communities bothered by low frequency hums both here in the UK, where residents in Woodland, County Durham have been plagued, and also in Windsor, Canada, the inspiration for writer Jordan Tannahill’s original 2021 novel.

In genre terms, this is an interesting mash-up. Tannahill certainly employs the established tropes of paranormal screen drama, which effectively draw us in, but he’s telling a different story… at least so far.

It’s a snaky narrative that explores what happens when we start to perceive the world differently from those around us, even our closest family. When Rebecca Hall’s Claire finds her husband and daughter doubting her sanity she starts to seek solace with individuals who are sharing her experiences, which, in her role as English teacher, gets her into a whole heap of trouble.

But if the hum isn’t real then is she experiencing a psychosis, and are her fellow ‘hum-hearers’ nothing more than a cult, manipulative operators exploiting her vulnerability? At the half way point, any combination of these realities could be true which makes for a more-ish watch, despite one or two rather obvious plot implausibilites.

Verdict: The Listeners makes a decent stab at bridging the gap between sci-fi and psychological drama, and despite some sillinesses only the most incurious wouldn’t want to find out what happens in the concluding parts. 7/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com