ITV’s flagship winter biopic tracking Cary Grant’s rise from a poverty-stricken childhood to Hollywood stardom has deafening music but barely audible dialogue, viewers fume

It's ITVX's flagship winter show – a critically acclaimed, big-budget biopic that follows Cary Grant's rise from poverty-stricken childhood to Hollywood stardom.

But Archie, starring Jason Isaacs as the super suave movie icon, is proving to be a major turn-off for viewers – thanks to its 'terrible' sound.

Frustrated viewers on the streaming channel say they are forced to keep turning up the volume to hear the dialogue before running to the remote to turn the volume down for the “deafening” music and sound effects (SFX).

'Why is the sound all over ITVX's Archie – I have to constantly turn it up/down. Jason Isaacs is fantastic so it's a shame,” comedian Jenny Eclair wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Another frustrated viewer of the drama, which aired on November 23, wrote: 'The sound in Archie is terrible.

'Speaking parts are very difficult for the viewer to hear, my TV volume was at maximum! But any music numbed everyone within a ten-mile radius.”

Jem Roberts, an author, joined the chorus of disapproval, complaining, “The dialogue is inaudible below volume 60, but music and SFX are deafeningly loud around 40.”

One viewer asked the ITVX Help account on

The response was: 'Can you provide more information about the sound problems you are having while watching Archie? Can you also let us know which device you use to access ITVX?'

But viewers were still struggling to watch a few days later when someone wrote on November 28: “Whoever the sound editor for Archie is, they should be fired!”

The BBC recently made a similar accusation against new restaurant drama Boiling Point, with viewers complaining that they could not hear the dialogue above the background noise.

Simon Clark, head of sound recording production at the National Film and TV School and director of the Institute of Professional Sound, said viewers watching Archie without surround sound systems may struggle to understand what is being said. He calls it the “cocktail party effect,” where the brain filters out other sounds in a loud room and focuses on a particular conversation.

Older viewers who have trouble hearing the dialogue can take a tip from the younger generation. A YouGov survey shows that 61 percent of viewers between the ages of 18 and 25 turn on subtitles when watching TV.

Despite the apparently poor sound, viewers of Archie, which also stars Laura Aikman as Grant's wife Dyan Cannon, were quick to warm to Isaacs' portrayal of the actor, born Archibald Leach in Bristol in 1904. Co-produced by Grant's only child, Jennifer Grant. , 57, and her mother, Cannon, 86, the drama tells the story of the tortured man behind the kind personality.

The Mail on Sunday has contacted ITVX for comment.