The Politics Show

Yesterday evening I got a little bit enthusiastic with the rewrite. Things were going well so I just kept going. By the time the computer was powered down and I crawled into bed, the sky was infused with a healthy blush of pre-dawn blue.

Four hours later I was awake. A couple more hours sack time would have been good, and enough to meet my recent average, but I hadn’t factored in a not-so-neighbourly neighbour eagerly flexing his DIY muscles by cutting a door to fit. Pretty much right outside my bedroom window. Thanks.

Since I was awake, I figured I might as well get up. Although the fact that I only just managed to finish The Times’ Samurai Su Doku within the allotted time limit might suggest that wasn’t the best decision.

Maybe I should have packed it in earlier last night. After reading English Dave’s new post last night perhaps I should have just packed it in for good.

Apparently Holby Blue has been given a second year. More horribly bland when it comes to contemporary cop dramas, in the last two weeks of published BARB ratings, the show had failed to place in the BBC1’s top-thirty programmes.

Beaten even by Springwatch, the numbers show that it’s not a drama the public is that inspired to watch. Still, it looks like the BBC isn’t giving up just yet. Having started out with an initial eight-episode run, next year Holby Blue will run for longer in its second year.

It looks scarily like they’re sticking to the formula used for Holby City, the first Casualty spin-off. First broadcast in early 1999 as a short nine-episode commission, it came back later in the year for a further sixteen. By Autumn of 2000 it had been bumped up to thirty shows and then, after a summer break, was increased to 52 episodes a year.

Is that their game plan for Holby Blue – digging their heels in and keeping it on the air through sheer bloody-mindedness until viewers are forced into liking it? If it does reach the same saturation as its predecessors, what will be the next spin-off following in its wake?

That’s just too frightening to even consider.