BBC cancels The Hour
BBC period thriller The Hour starring Dominic West, Ben Whishaw and Romola Garai won't be returning for a third series...
In the spirit of felling tall oaks to let little acorns flourish (and other hackneyed metaphors), it seems BBC Two drama The Hour has run its course. Two series of the fifties-set news thriller starring The Wire's Dominic West, Skyfall's Ben Whishaw, and The Crimson Petal and the White's Romola Garai ran in 2011 and 2012, but the planned third season is no longer to be.
In comparison with another of the BBC's period dramas, Call The Midwife (which, unsurprisingly, will be receiving a third series), The Hour failed to thrive. "We loved the show," said the BBC's official statement, "But have to make hard choices to bring new shows through."
The news comes in the wake of the BBC drama department previewing a raft of new projects, including a Liz Taylor/Richard Burton biopic that's intended as BBC Four's drama swan song (the channel will have exclusively factual and comedy programming in future), starring Dominic West as the Burton to Helena Bonham-Carter's Taylor.
More comfortably in our remit are the six-part adaptation of Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, the recently announced fantasy series Atlantis, and BBC Three zombie comedy series In The Flesh, all of which we'll be keeping an eye on in the run-up to broadcast.
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Louisa, thanks for your updates, but what's this I see, snuck in at the end of your report, about an adaptation of Susanna Clarke's fantastic novel "Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell"? Tell us more, tell us more!
i loved the Hour, but i'm actually kinda happy this has happened, as series 2 ended in such a perfect way
Such a shame - the cliffhanger was heart wrenching and both my wife and I were desperate to find out what happens next. I guess it will be left to our imaginations, much like Survivors, The Fades and Outcasts
It was announced in November last year. Not many details are known yet except that the writers have worked on Sherlock, Doctor Who and the English language version of Wallander (Toby Haynes & Peter Harness).
For some reason links cannot be posted in the forum but if you type 'Norrell' into the search box at the top of the page you get a link to the full story printed on here before Christmas.
I bet they'd sell more DVD boxsets of a third series of The Hour for the next 10 years than they would for call the bloody midwife.
I thought the BBC had the remit to do different things. I see they've got their own 'reality soap' bollocks starting on BBC3 soon.
Lord Reith will be turning in his grave.
BTW There's probably a really sick headline for this story if you think a little.
6 parts for JN&MN? I'm assuming they're 4 hour parts then.
That is ambitious.
Will it be Gormenghast all over again? Too little budget, too little time?
Thanks for that, I'll go back to the story. Loved the book so will be fascinated to see how they transfer it to television. Clarke showed such a creative imagination at work in not just the main story of the two magicians but also the whole Faerie Lore background. Could be quite difficult to film well I think.
What?? NO. They CANNOT do that.
I'm glad it's being made into a series and not a film - gives it about three times as much time to fill the worlds out.
What utter tripe - whether you like the shows or not, the ratings speak for themselves...
The Hour had, on average about 1.2 million viewers per episode by the end of its run, Call The Midwife has something like 10.5 million.
The Hour was losing viewers (the first episode had 3 million, the final episode had 1 million) whereas CTM has been fairly consistent - beating ITV's flagship Sunday night show Dancing on Ice.
It's obvious what the money will go towards - the shows people actually watch - and it's not like The Hours wasn't given a chance to increase its viewers but it was a steady decline from episode one. They even cite ratings as the reason for cancellation - as part of BBC2's rules, a show must retain an audience of over 1.75 million to be commissioned for a further series
As much as I loved that show, I doubt it will be remembered as anything more than a cult show in the future.
I liked the show but if it had been popular enough to keep it's initial audience then there wouldn't have been a problem with it being renewed. The BBC has to have some rules to justify it's programming but it's always galling when quality shows just aren't appreciated in favour of the mass market programming that really should be left to commercial channels.
This is very bad news, not only for me, but for the BBC. I'm the only one who thinks that this past months Channel 4 fictions are beating up the BBC's? Right now, they've got on air Utopia, Derek and Black Mirror. BBC needs the return of Luther, Sherlock and Doctor Who...
Noooo! What happens to Freddie?! Surely part of the point of the BBC is that they can make great, non-mainstream dramas like The Hour. Is it just shows that my parents find 'gritty' yet ultimately comfortable from now on then? Tell you what, let's stick Fools and Horses and bloody MIRANDA on for ever and EVER AND EVER!