tali122

How many of the famous/iconic British tv series were dropped suddenly(not including those due to death of star such as Bless This House) as opposed to those that were planned? (Blackadder, Fawlty?, Crossroads)
Blind Date iirc was an unplanned one with Cilla's on screen announcement.I assume most were a planned final series?

I hear the Union Jack still remains.I see Namijira in custody
and I see Truganini's in chains.

Mark O

Terry and June, the last episode was transmitted in August 1987 as I recall, but no goodbye or nothing........boo hoo!

Mark

Steve Crook

What about Headcases? This was meant to be an updating of Spitting Image using new CGI techniques rather than making puppets.

There were one or two good gags but the majority of it was dire.
I don't think it completed its first series and it certainly didn't like up to the hype
Does anyone know how many episodes were actually shown before they gave it up as a bad idea?

Steve

bhowells

Richard Warings My Wife Next Door didnt return for a second series even though it was a success.

Dont know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, his comedies were formulaic.

Dandy Forsdyke

I suspect Cilla jumped before she was pushed. ITV were already sizing up a replacement and Davina McCall's name was mentioned.

Jackdaw

As an extreme example, how about the 1987 comedy Hardwicke House, starring Roy Kinnear as the headmaster of an appalling London comprehensive school.
This didn't even complete its first series, being taken off in response to vociferous complaints by those of a Whitehouse disposition, who, as usual, entirely missed the point.
A lot of us thought it was quite promising and were enjoying the performance of a good cast.
Rumour has it that, although seven episodes were shot, the whole series was wiped with most of it being unseen.

"Hardwicke House" (1987)

CaptainWaggett

I believe only two episodes were transmitted. Another from the same era was the ghastly Minipops in which heavily made-up small children performed pop standards (much to the excitement of Philip Larkin and Kinglsley Amis).

dremble wedge

Hardwicke House has come upon before in these pages.

Bats provided the following fascinating links:

Some Of The Corpses Are Amusing

OFF THE TELLY: Comedy/School's Out!

Marky B

They were rubbish!
Ta Ta
Marky B

I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas - how he got in my pyjamas,I'll never know

EHV_Emmetts

I watched the first couple of episodes and a bit of the third. I agree it was awful. The funniest part was the image of Jordan and her massive squeaking b**bs.

Jackdaw

Excellent links, thanks.
It's hard to believe that all this happened only just over 20 years ago.
50's attitudes writ large in the 80's.

samkydd

The following were just duds I think:

Bachelor Father - Ian Carmichael sitcom

Queenie's Castle - Diana Dors sitcom

The Dustbinmen - Bryan Pringle

Oh Brother - Derek Nimmo

The Gnomes of Dulwich - Terry Scott and Hugh Lloyd

The awful ITV sitcom about the milkman starring Robin Asquith

The awful ITV sitcom about a cockney chauffeur starring Jim Davidson

Alternatively The Brothers was highly successful and also The Onedin Line but they were pulled. Shoestring was finished after Trever Eve wanted "to do other things" and was replaced by the Bergerac series, which I didn't rate very highly at all apart from the location filming. It could have been a good 'un but John Nettles didn't seem to have much character at all for a main character. The best actor in it was Terrence Alexander as Charlie Hungerford and we didn't see enough of him.

Big Deal also ended at the height of its success, and Ray Brooks's Robbie Box character was the nation's favourite at the time.

"...the chairman of Littlewoods stores made a Keynote speech!"

CaptainWaggett

Of course, there's always the legendary El Dorado.

EHV_Emmetts

A BBC series called 'Roger, Roger' - it was about a taxi firm, was either pulled or cancelled depending on who you read.

GRAEME

The Melting Pot.

Wasn't it pulled after episode one?

All men leak.