It really has been quite a season for ITV drama so far this year. I know that in the US, many series have already been cancelled, and that shows that are already in the can will probably never see the light of day (unless Trio decides they’re worthy of revisiting), but here in the UK we’re not used to it. It’s simply too expensive to have these things unshown (although there is a strange accountancy practice which can see a show sitting on the shelf for a very long time before the channel can afford to show it).
So we’ve had Fortysomething (Hugh Laurie vehicle) banished to late nights after two weeks on Sundays, then Family (Martin Kemp vehicle – supposedly a UK version of The Sopranos) similarly banished, even though it got a repeat showing the same week to get viewers into it. Now we have Sweet Medicine (an admittedly appalling sounding drama about a family of doctors with the surname Sweet – geddit?) similarly banished into the small hours. In each case, they tend to get shown around 11.30pm which really isn’t where you put expensive drama. In return we get additional episodes of Holiday Aiport and the like.
The latest drama failure is Single, starring Michelle Collins. At time of writing, it’s holding on grimly to it’s Saturday night slot, despite garnering 3.7m on Saturday. I think that at this stage it’d be utterly embarrassing for ITV to shift it – but there are at least another 2 weeks to go. Oh, and it follows on from Pop Idol – not a bad lead-in numbers-wise. And PoW (very poor from the single episode I saw) scores scarcely better with 4.3m this week – 600,000 better than BBC2 at the time.
May I humbly suggest that ITV have been simply far too cynical in their commissioning process. 8 million tuned in for Henry VIII a few weeks back, but simply putting out dramas lead by soap stars and plots that are simply based around puns on names is not enough.
Drama should be an ITV staple, and now that poor John Thaw’s dead, it shouldn’t be left to David Jason to carry the whole can.
And don’t just use soap stars. Make some stars, using good actors! Look how This Life, and the wonderful Our Friends in the North used lesser known casts who now appear just about everywhere. Have a go.
Be daring with the stories, and not derivative. Cast actors, not names, and live a little dangerously.