There is much anguish in some quarters at the news that the BBC has axed The Hour, the Abi Morgan-penned series for BBC Two about the workings of a 1950s current affairs TV programme based at the Corporation's old studios at Lime Grove. A BBC spokeswoman said: "We loved the show [yes, clearly] but have to make hard choices to bring new shows through." The news came as a blow to producers Kudos, who had anticipated making a third series, and the company's chief executive Jane Featherstone was "sad and disappointed".
Despite The Hour's cliqueish allure and platinum-plated cast, which included Dominic West, Romola Garai, Ben Whishaw and latterly Peter Capaldi, it floundered badly in the ratings (supposedly not the BBC's primary concern, but hey). The first season pulled about 2.2 million viewers, but the second, which ended in December, struggled with an average audience of 1.47m. Most of these wrote in to theartsdesk to complain about Adam Sweeting's review, which ridiculed its absurd plots and unbelievable characters and described it as "the silliest show on television".
Some inklings about the BBC's upcoming plans were let slip this week by Ben Stephenson, the Beeb's controller of drama. Slated for comebacks are the Idris Elba vehicle Luther (pictured right), Ripper Street, Call the Midwife and Death in Paradise, while a special 3D Doctor Who is in the pipeline to celebrate the Doc's 50th birthday. There'll be telly-isations of Daphne du Maurier's Jamaica Inn (written by Emma Frost) and PD James's Death Comes to Pemberley (Pride and Prejudice recast as a murder mystery), and a couple of one-off plays by David Hare, Turks and Caicos and Salting the Battlefield.
Brand new series include Breakdown, The Interceptor and Gwyneth Hughes's three-part mystery Remember Me, while Atlantis, created by Howard Misfits Overman, will fill BBC One's Merlin slot on Saturday evenings. There will be no more drama from BBC Four, however, which will make its swansong with the biopic Burton and Taylor, about Hollywood's most notorious couple. There's some consolation for the now Hour-less Dominic West in that he plays Richard Burton opposite Helena Bonham Carter's Liz Taylor.
"We are the adventurous, gung-ho market leader that the competition can only follow, and sometimes maybe copy," raved Ben Stephenson. "No other broadcaster in this world has drama so firmly embedded deeply in its DNA."