Not So Sure Thing

The festivities over. Back home, after Work Buddy and I had locked our schedule for this month. Writing.

Work Buddy’s girlfriend had two of her chums over from the Nether regions for the New Year. Over there the Dutch can pick up some, but not all, of the British television channels. They wanted to see what this Torchwood series was all about. So we all sat and watched the two-part finale on BBC3.

Their reaction:

Eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww!!!!

Which they expressed on very regular occasions. I would have joined in but for the ninety minutes I was struck dumb while desperately trying to stop myself clawing my eyes out and stamping on them.

As the final credits were rolling and everyone was taking the sort of deep breaths that help fight back nausea, Work Buddy’s Girl read out a line from the Radio Times regarding the show:

But if and when Torchwood returns, we’re going to have to care a lot more about the characters than we do now.

Not exactly the harshest criticism doing the rounds in print, but it was the “if and when” that caught our attention.

It may just be the two-week Christmas issue had been printed before the second series was given the green light. But buoyant with New Year optimism we hoped it might mean the BBC channel controllers had seen the low ratings as the writing on the wall and changed their minds. Or possibly the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation had wised up to the fact that the money they put in as part of the co-production deal could be better spent at home, placing any further episodes in jeopardy.

For now we can only live in hope.