Monsieur Hulot's Holiday

Monsieur Hulot's Holiday is a black and white film from 1953, notable for being an early example of audio description voiced by a 'celebrity' narrator, comedian Willie Rushton.

While the film was broadcast on BBC2 at 9.05am on December 23rd 1994, shortly after the conclusion of the Audetel trials, the ambiguous wording of the ITC Guidance On Standards for Audio Description suggests that only part of the film was described:

''During the Audetel trials, the late comedian and broadcaster Willy Rushton was asked to describe the first few minutes of Jacques Tati’s classically whimsical film ‘Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday’, Rushton was given a script but asked to be quite free with his interpretation:

(Noise of a car backfiring)

‘Monsieur Hulot, as you may have gathered, has arrived. He lopes in through the door conveniently marked "L’entrée de l’hotel”…’ ‘Now a country road. A small veteran car chugs into view... attached to its right side... one of those butterfly nets, and a fishing rod standing upright like a sort of flag pole... The little car spews out smoke as it splutters along...’

''The people who remembered seeing the film, laughed a lot and thought the description excellent. They enjoyed Rushton’s opinionated asides and characteristic comments. Others, who had never seen the film, enjoyed listening to Willie Rushton but not having experienced the visual jokes for themselves, and no film dialogue to vary the rhythm found their interest waning after a while. Rowan Atkinson’s ‘Back to School Mr Bean’ was audio described for the Audetel test transmissions and received a similarly mixed reaction. Comedy that relies entirely on the visual does not seem to engage the visually impaired viewer. ‘Mr Hulot’s Holiday’ belongs to the ‘classic film’ category and therefore there is a stronger case for describing it. Mr Bean, and other totally visually humorous programmes, without a proven comedy writer on hand, may well be an example of a programme that will not be suitable for audio description.''