Claire, a Manchester secondary-school English teacher played by Rebecca Hall, is pitched into panic by a bass-line drone no one else acknowledges. Her husband Paul (Prasanna Puwanarajah) blames stress, her daughter Ashley (Mia Tharia) slams doors, yet recordings pick up nothing and doctors offer only antidepressants. When she tracks down an online forum, she finds Omar (Amr Waked) and Jo (Gayle Rankin) hosting a drab community-centre support group whose members trade tinnitus tips and conspiracy print-outs until the hum becomes a shared religion. Shot in washed-out winter light by Jody Lee Lipes, the four-parter keeps the noise off-screen, letting silence throb louder than any score. Composer Devonté Hynes supplies only sparse pulses, so the viewer, like Claire, strains for confirmation of what might be machinery, blood flow, or collective delusion.
Creator Jordan Tannahill adapts his own 2021 novel and hands the direction to Janicza Bravo, who frames suburban cul-de-sacs and empty classrooms like crime scenes. The series premiered at Toronto’s Primetime strand before airing on BBC One and iPlayer in November 2024. Critics praised Hall’s brittle restraint: she moves from briskly diagramming Keats to kneeling on the lawn at 3 a.m., convinced the earth itself is calling her name. Viewers split into two camps online, either insisting the hum is real or congratulating the BBC for dramatising psychosis without cliché. Either way, every radiator click or fridge hum in your own house becomes suspicious once the credits roll.
Production Details
BBC One / 1 Season / 4 Episodes / 2024
Created by: Jordan Tannahill
Showrunner(s): Alice Birch, Jordan Tannahill, Rebecca Ferguson
Writer(s): Jordan Tannahill
Producer(s): Ed King
Cinematography: Jody Lee Lipes
Music: Devonté Hynes
Main Cast
Rebecca Hall as Claire
Ollie West as Kyle
Prasanna Puwanarajah as Paul
Mia Tharia as Ashley
Amr Waked as Omar
Gayle Rankin as Jo
Samuel Edward-Cook as Damian
Karen Henthorn as Emily
Lucy Sheen as Teresa
Franc Ashman as Cassandra
Shreya M. Patel as Seema
Ian Mercer as Tom
