The Listeners review: Creepy and absorbing thriller is a showcase for Irish actor Ollie West

Rebecca Hall generated headlines recently when she said she regretted apologising for working with Woody Allen. She cuts a far less controversial figure in The Listeners (BBC One, Tuesday), a quietly creepy sci-fi thriller co-produced by Dublin’s Element Pictures and co-starring Irish actor Ollie West.
In the realm of television, Element is perhaps best known for its work on the BBC/Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, the project that turned former Kildare under-age star Paul Mescal into a future Oscar contender – the biggest upset in Lillywhites football since they reached an All-Ireland final 26 years ago. The Listeners, however, is more abnormal people than everyday drama. It stars Hall and West as a teacher and student whose sanity is threatened by low, incessant droning.
None of their families or colleagues can hear the sound. Claire (Hall, grippingly discombobulated) is initially driven to distraction and left to question her hold on reality. She is relieved when her pupil, Kyle (West, making the most of the part of thinly sketched ingenu), reveals that he’s been struggling with the noise, too. They form a bond and the series hints that there might be something untoward about their connection. Claire’s teenage daughter, for instance, overhears her mother talking to Kyle on the phone and assumes an affair.
The obvious inspiration for The Listeners is the Omagh Hum, the baffling sound that plagued residents of the Tyrone town before mysteriously vanishing. In The Listeners, there are indications the noise might have a psychological source. Could it connect to unresolved tensions or traumas in the back stories of its characters? Claire, for example, is a former bohemian who has ended up married to boring Paul (Prasanna Puwanarajah) and teaching English at her dull local comprehensive. Is the droning the funeral march of the bright future she never experienced coming back to haunt her?
hear the sound and who are sharing their experiences at AA-style meet-ups. Further twists clearly await – in both the broader story about the background noise from hell and in the Claire-Kyle relationship. Creepy, absorbing and a showcase for Hall and newcomer West, The Listeners proves that you don’t have to make a lot of noise to leave a lasting impression.
The first episode ends with Claire and Kyle tracking down a group of people who can also hear the sound and who are sharing their experiences at AA-style meet-ups. Further twists clearly await – in both the broader story about the background noise from hell and in the Claire-Kyle relationship. Creepy, absorbing and a showcase for Hall and newcomer West, The Listeners proves that you don’t have to make a lot of noise to leave a lasting impression.