Is there any way of turning off the random speeches made by characters?, I am fed up of listening to minsc, yoshimo, and Jaheira going on every minute and saying the same things over and over.

yes, look for the options button on the save / load screen, there should be a sounds tab where you can adjust volumes & char selection sounds have 3 settings all the time, some of the time, none of the time.

(that's about a clear as mud but the best i can do from work)