h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

ITV have changed their mind about making TV shows for the family audience due to the high costs of making shows like Primeval.

An ITV source is quoted as saying that ITV have changed their policy about drama before 9pm in that they’ve decided they really don’t want any, at least not of the quality and cost of Primeval. The source continued saying that at the point where they finished the third series, they had every reason to believe we would be doing a fourth. He said that, had they known there was any likelihood of cancellation, they wouldn’t have left half the cast marooned up a tree in the distant past. They apologised for that ending.

There is a rumour that Warner Brothers are interested in the buying the rights to produce an American version.

Soon there'll be no good British s/f on TV...

Sadly no. But what is scary is the rationale given. ITV don't seem to want to do Family Drama any more. If they don't then they don't deserve to be treated as anything more than another niche channel, off in some corner of Digital TV land, maybe in the Sky Box 200s. They don't deserve to be given a voice in any comlaints about the BBC.

Primeval was fun, and it deserved to survive. I hope that some if its monsters comes back to bite the powers that be at ITV, metaphorically.

A pity yes, but suprising not really. The audience figures were good enough to justify a new series but in all fairness it was up against very little and its obvious high cost made it a prime candidate when you can turn out dross like "you filmed another video mishap" etc.

Perhaps the best we can hope for is a "Firefly" backlash and at least get a two hour special to tie up the loose ends.

PS I hope this board kicks off, its nice to chat to other SF fans

I do, too. There was something on POV, but, because a lot of changes are being implemented at the moment, it is no longer possible. It would be nice if the news got round, and people would be able to use it.