The BBC has been accused of patronising and ignoring its viewers after complaints its latest Sunday night period drama was drowned out by background music.

Howards End, the corporation’s much-anticipated new drama, was rendered barely audible to some viewers, who complained the levels of sound meant piano music and violins overpowered the characters’ lines.

Calling it “intrusive”, “excessive” and “infuriating”, some licence fee-payers said they spent the hour trying to change the sound levels on their televisions to improve it, or had given up to switch off entirely.

Viewers' grievances come in the wake of numerous other BBC sound problems, with programmes including Jamaica Inn, SS-GB, Brian Cox’s Wonders of the Universe and a range of natural history programmes suffering poor dialogue and noisy background music.