ITV axes 'Heartbeat', 'The Royal'

Wednesday, January 28 2009, 09:20 GMT

By Lara Martin

Source: digitalspy

 

ITV has axed police drama Heartbeat and its spinoff show The Royal.

 

The broadcaster has decided not to recommission the programmes in a bid to

save money, according to the Daily Mail.

 

"'Staff have been kept holding on another series of Heartbeat, but there has

been nothing. People on the show have been told at the moment that there is

no recommission," said a source.

 

According to insiders, the success of reality shows including Dancing On Ice

and I'm A Celebrity... has been partly blamed for the demise of traditional

dramas.

 

Another source said: "'Heartbeat has been there for years. This is a big

deal. I would have to say even if ITV was not in trouble, you would have to

admit this is a series that is at the tail-end of its career.

 

"'It's like all the things that Yorkshire TV has been founded on, they are

all coming to a close."

 

Heartbeat, which debuted in 1992, is currently filming its 18th season. The

show pulled in around ten million viewers at its peak, but that number has

now dropped to between four and five million.

 

Viewing figures for The Royal are around four million.

 

This news come one week after ITV announced that it would be scaling back

production on long-running police drama The Bill.

 

Good riddance, I hate both shows

Good riddance, I hate both shows

 

Same here.... I cant believe the description of Heartbeat... "police drama".... Err, just where was the drama then.....? More like 'last of the summer wine with a few coppers'..... :rolleyes:

 

Your actual Police drama would be stuff like Prime Suspect, Taggart, NYPD Blue or The Wire......

Aww poor Heartbeat! :(

Used to love it, before it went all crap. The Royal was always pretty bad tbh though!

Personally i'd rather see an end to reality shows especially The X-Factor, if any programme

has been done to death it's those.

 

On the Heartbeat front

ITV have released this press release

 

ITV has denied it plans to axe long-running drama Heartbeat, and spin-off series The Royal, but will not take a view on recommissioning either series until 2011.

 

Heartbeat and The Royal, produced by ITV Studios, will be on screen for the next two years, with several episodes from the current series yet to be aired, and a new series nearing completion.

 

"Heartbeat and the Royal are an important part of the ITV schedule," he said.

 

Although it had a good run, and all programmes have to end sometime.

 

Personally i'd rather see an end to reality shows especially The X-Factor, if any programme

has been done to death it's those.

 

Well, yeah, that goes without saying.... :lol:

 

I guess if I had a choice between axing BB and X-Factor and axing Heartbeat/The Royal, well, it really would be no contest, BB and X-Factor would get the boot.... At least if you dont like Heartbeat you can avoid it, stuff like BB and X-Factor has saturation coverage all over the media, it's nigh on impossible to avoid the hype unless you go and live in a log cabin in the woods for about 10 weeks.... <_<

i hate heartbeat.... it thinks that if it plays random 60's tracks over a dodgy drama it makes it authentic...IT DOESNT. in the 60's music was VERY contemporary... it was 'mod' and up to date, you DIDNT get early 60's rock n roll tracks played alongside later 60's tracks...

 

you either set it clearly, unambiguously, in a specific era (not only to the year, but the month too) and play the music that would have been heard then.... or forget it.

I've always though that both shows were just waste of spaces. They're both ridicolous though, as they've been stuck somewhere in the middle of the 60's for years.

Now if only the BBC would finally put Last Of The Summer Wine out of its misery.

As IF Heartbeat is getting also this hate! Brilliant, cosy, silly Sunday evening drama. Nothing better than snuggling up on the sofa and sticking Heartbeat on and just winding down. LOVE it. Glad there's at least two more series left to go, even if it has been in 1969 for a decade now!

As IF Heartbeat is getting also this hate! Brilliant, cosy, silly Sunday evening drama. Nothing better than snuggling up on the sofa and sticking Heartbeat on and just winding down. LOVE it. Glad there's at least two more series left to go, even if it has been in 1969 for a decade now!

 

I agree. For me Heartbeat lost it when it did not move on to the 1970s.

 

Considering it started in 1992, so doing the Maths the show should have now moved on to 1977 by now.

 

Imagine the sleepy village of Aidensfield being invaded by generic teenage punk rockers played by former cast members of Skins, Hollyoaks, Eastenders, Emmerdale, etc gobbing their way and causing anarchy around the Yorkshire countryside in safety pins & drainpipe trousers to a soundtrack of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Ramones, The Jam, Siouxsie & The Banshees, etc. Now that would have made entertaining TV and brought the ratings in! :rofl:

 

No wonder it has lost it. :lol:

I really loathe both shows.... if I want snuggly telly, I'll watch Last of the Summer Wine....

 

Now can ITV PLEASE get rid of The Bill, too? Hateful rubbish.... even the theme tune makes my hackles rise...

Considering it started in 1992, so doing the Maths the show should have now moved on to 1977 by now.

 

Imagine the sleepy village of Aidensfield being invaded by generic teenage punk rockers played by former cast members of Skins, Hollyoaks, Eastenders, Emmerdale, etc gobbing their way and causing anarchy around the Yorkshire countryside in safety pins & drainpipe trousers to a soundtrack of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Ramones, The Jam, Siouxsie & The Banshees, etc. Now that would have made entertaining TV and brought the ratings in! :rofl:

 

I'd have watched the early-to-mid 70s, simply to see if the characters adopted the clothing of the glam rockers of the time.

I didnt watch either show so i wont miss them but it is getting worrying that all drama style shows as they are called are getting the axe,,i do love x factor big bro etc myself but for tv they are so much cheaper to make which means they will keep making them to save money

Imagine the sleepy village of Aidensfield being invaded by generic teenage punk rockers played by former cast members of Skins, Hollyoaks, Eastenders, Emmerdale, etc gobbing their way and causing anarchy around the Yorkshire countryside in safety pins & drainpipe trousers to a soundtrack of The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Buzzcocks, The Damned, The Ramones, The Jam, Siouxsie & The Banshees, etc. Now that would have made entertaining TV and brought the ratings in! :rofl:

 

Now, that would make me actually watch it.... :lol:

 

And I agree with Rob on the music front.... It seemed to be totally random and ridiculous the tunes that they would play.... At least the producers of "Life on Mars" and "Ashes to Ashes" pretty much got that aspect spot on.... In fact, in terms of drama, BOTH of these shows utterly pish on Heartbeat.... From a great height.....

but it is getting worrying that all drama style shows as they are called are getting the axe,,i do love x factor big bro etc myself but for tv they are so much cheaper to make which means they will keep making them to save money

 

I agree with that... Stuff like BB and CBB are cheap and easy for lazy producers who dont want to really make any effort... It's one of the reason why I hate "reality" shows, they've just become synonymous with cheap, nasty TV..... It used to be bloody endless amounts of Game Shows that were vociferous about 10-20 years ago, those were the "cheap, nasty" telly.....

I started watching it after Nick Berry (bloody awful actor) left ... and then I stopped watching pretty much after Jason Durr left. And the whole show lost something when it lost its main centre of interest ... Bill Maynard. I always detested him in anything else (Selwyn Froggit! :puke2: ) but in Heartbeat ... well Claud Greengrass WAS Heartbeat. Nobody ever considered it a serious police drama ... it was a soap opera and a cosy one at that but it was entertaining for a while.

 

However, to axe it, quoting 'money saving' measures is just plain nonsense. Not while that steaming pile of elephant crap 'Wild At Heart' still infests the airwaves primetime on a Sunday night - this must be one expensive show to do but it is terminally boring. And as for Stephen Tomkinson ... I had such high expectations of him after Drop The Dead Donkey and Brassed Off.

 

Norma

And as for Stephen Tomkinson ... I had such high expectations of him after Drop The Dead Donkey and Brassed Off.

 

Norma

 

yeah, he just lost it didn't he....? Made some extremely bad choices..... Wild At Heart being one of the worst......

 

Same here.... I cant believe the description of Heartbeat... "police drama".... Err, just where was the drama then.....? More like 'last of the summer wine with a few coppers'..... :rolleyes:

 

Your actual Police drama would be stuff like Prime Suspect, Taggart, NYPD Blue or The Wire......

Personally I like heartbeat/Royal to watch on a Sunday. I don't like that Wild at Heart crap (sorry to the fans) i just feel thats a bit pointless.

 

Heartbeat however is very unrealistic, i mean todays copper ... what exactly is that? is that the guy in uniform that people shout "hey jim" from across the street? Police were there to give authority....now you see how many on the streets at night? 0? correct.