Just as I was getting to university, the BBC broadcast a sitcom by Douglas Adams called The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, which became an international success through a TV series, a film, a stage show, and a novel translated into thirty languages. One of the pieces of technology described in the book was the Babel Fish, a small yellow fish inserted into the ear which simultaneously translates from one spoken language to another as its nutrition processes convert sound into brain waves, 'neatly crossing the language divide between any species you should happen to meet whilst travelling in space'.

I was thinking about the Babel Fish while reading about Apple's Live Translation feature available on iPhones from version 15 onwards. It can translate your voice or Facetime calls from and to English (both the UK and U.S types), French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, and Castillian Spanish. Still in Beta testing but it's the Babel Fish made real. I already see tourists using the Google Translate app to translate their voices, and understand what is being said in return. Now Google's Interpreter mode makes that even more powerful.

In the media world, 'localisation' is the industry term for translating and adapting programmes from one language into another, and global streaming has made it a fast-growing sector. Some estimates give the value of the language services industry as £55 billion worldwide. It's now embracing AI (like so many services) but I don't think that human localisers are now all out of a job.

Language shouldn't be a barrier to how documentaries travel, and it's good to have seen French-produced history documentaries on the BBC in recent weeks. Some of the translations of the commentaries on docs originally produced elsewhere can jar though - they can seem to be direct translations of the original language, rather than adaptations into English. Clunky commentaries can really detract from the production quality of the films. (As a fluent French and German speaker I'm maybe more aware of this than some.)

A human rewrite of a machine translation can give the cultural understanding, nuance and creative interpretation that AI can't replicate. English-speaking audiences are also used to a more familiar, and sometimes more factual style than say the French language often uses - so it's important to change the language rather than just translate.

In the past months I've worked on a series for Pernel, a film for Bleu Kobalt, and I've done work for distributors including Incognita and Newen Connect on their treatments and marketing materials. If you have a doc to do an English-language version for - either for a sale to a platform in English, or to market it as a distributor, do get in touch. And if you're at an earlier stage with a project I can offer storytelling and market consultancy on your project or subject.

I can't adapt or translate from Vogon though - you'll need the Babel Fish for that.