This should be an interesting project, and British audiences might well enjoy the results.

One of the reasons why Scandinavian crime dramas are popular here, is because sub-titles oblige one to concentrate and follow the dialogue as well as the action, and they enable one to do so, too. With English-language drama, actors’ poor diction (it’s apparently trendy to mumble or gabble) and sound engineers trying for ‘atmosphere’ over clarity can make our own dramas a lot harder to follow than the producers would like to believe, even if no Glaswegian accents are involved.  Sub-titles immerse one in the story, dubbing does quite the opposite.

The trick with crime dramas set in a small real-life community, though, is to bring the project to a natural end before Jersey/Oxford/Ystad/Siglufjörður is seen to become so dangerous that it’s incredible that anyone might still choose to live there.

Yours,

Matthew Spencer, Bedford, U.K.

PS: see: http://mswritingshowcase.blogspot.co.uk/ which gives details and links to places where my own writing can be found.