Barrowman Unhappy over Fewer Torchwood episodes

Written by Doug Lambert

Tuesday, 30 June 2009 08:19

Lead Torchwood actor John Barrowman has spoken about his unhappiness about the reduction of episodes for the third season of the popular Doctor Who spin-off. The third season launches next week on BBC One but will be five episodes long compared to 13 episodes for the previous two episodes. However, the third season is in the format of a five-part story while previous seasons mostly compromised of stand-alone episodes.

For the third series the Cardiff based Sci Fi is being promoted to BBC One having originally premiered on BBC Three. After a hugely successful first season on the digital channel its second season was promoted to BBC Two and when a third series was commissioned the BBC announced another promotion for the series – to BBC One.

"We moved to BBC2 because the ratings were so good; the ratings were great again [averaging 3.1 million] and we were beating shows that had been on BBC2 for a long time. The decision was made to go to BBC1 – and then we were cut. From 13 episodes down to five. The five episodes, the miniseries as I call it, are incredible – I have no doubt about that – but personally, I felt like we were being punished. Other shows move from BBC3 and 2 to 1, and they don't get cut. So why are we? It felt like every time we moved we had to prove ourselves." – John Barrowman in an interview with the Radio Times.

Torchwood creator and executive producer, Russell T. Davies, doesn’t share Barrowman’s sentiments over the reduction in episodes and believes changing the format of the series will keep the show fresh. However, the writer did reveal that BBC America – the station which airs Torchwood in America – where furious over the reduction in episodes.

“BBC America, who show Torchwood, are furious that we've changed the format. But they're not our paymasters. It's the British audience we make these for. And I don't think audiences are remotely lost by a change in format." – Russell T. Davies

Torchwood: Children of Earth will air across next week and will also see Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd reprise their respective roles in the series while guest stars include; Liz May Brice, Lucy Cohu and Peter Capaldi.

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