BBC sitcom Whites is cancelled Page 2

Quote: Ian Wolf @ March 1 2011, 3:51 PM GMT

If all it takes for a BBC show to be recommissioned is to be good, why do Two Pints and Coming of Age keep getting picked up again and again?

2 possible reasons spring to mind...

1) Both BBC in-house productions serving quite specific remit demographics, shot mainly in studio on VT rather than on expensive-upkeep film, with cheaper cast & crew.
2) See 1)

Quote: Tim Walker @ March 1 2011, 4:04 PM GMT

in-house productions serving quite specific remit demographics

Morons?

I've not seen the show but you don't want to know what I thought when I saw the title! Laughing out loud

Quote: John Owen Jones @ March 1 2011, 4:47 PM GMT

I've not seen the show but you don't want to know what I thought when I saw the title! Laughing out loud

I was just about to post the same thing. When I saw it on the TV guide, I didn't click in it was supposed to be a comedy and by the time I realised it had finished. Oh, well. Not a Alan fan anyway.

Quote: Leevil @ March 1 2011, 4:56 PM GMT

I was just about to post the same thing. When I saw it on the TV guide, I didn't click in it was supposed to be a comedy and by the time I realised it had finished. Oh, well. Not a Alan fan anyway.

IF ONLY THERE WAS A...

Oh, I give up. Unimpressed

I do read the front page pretty much everyday, but it must have passed me by. And to be fair, I'm not sure even you would list and alert people to documentaries about white fundamentalists on a comedy guide.

I thought Whites was a good, solid sitcom. As Aaron says, not groundbreaking, but certainly very watchable. Shame it's gone. Thought Darren Boyd was excellent in it.

Quote: Nat Wicks @ March 1 2011, 3:55 PM GMT

Well I was wondering if it was viewing figues, but didn't it finish around 1.8m? Similar figures to Episodes, right?

I thought the cast was fantastic, but it wasn't compulsive viewing. I missed the last episode or two.

Episodes aired concurrently on Showtime in America (a quick Google search put the premier episode with 900,000 viewers (which isn't bad for a premium cable channel)). Also what's rarely reported is on-line/on-demand viewing figures which I'm sure the corporations have available to them.

Either way... I kept wanting Whites to be funny and it kept letting me down.

I thought it was good - but maybe there wasn't much potential for it to develop.

Quote: Ian Wolf @ March 1 2011, 3:58 PM GMT

Only the first episode of Episodes got that high. The second got ratings of 1.53, and the rest hovered between 1.1 and 1.3.

Was I the 1 or the point 53?

Ah, that's a minor shame. Was the first time I'd ever enjoyed Alan Davies as an actor. Of the 'low-key' BBC Two sitcoms this was easily my favourite, but having said that I probably won't give it another thought now. Ah well.

Quote: radiat10n @ March 2 2011, 11:06 AM GMT

Was the first time I'd ever enjoyed Alan Davies as an actor.

My opinion was that Alan Davies was a poor casting choice.

I thought it was OK. Lacked a bit of chemistry really, the only decent comedic relationship was the one between the sous chef and the lazy one.

I still have the last 2 episodes on my Sky+, have done since they aired. I care enough not to have deleted them but not enough to watch them!

Go on, take an hour out tonight to do so.

No-one has mentioned the biggest concern with this news.

Katherine Parkinson!

Where will she find work now? She might be off our TV screens for a whole week at this rate.

Which leads to me consider if this was a factor in the decision, contractual obligations elsewhere with one or two of its stars. It is an increasing problem TV companies have nowdays, there is rarely a mid to long term running sitcom or comdram that doesn't go through cast changes, and as most viewers will tell you (we know best), we do not like our shows to have cast changes!