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Thursday 13 February 2014

The Paradise Cancelled

The period drama's situation is less Paradise City and more Highway To Hell...
The BBC have today announced that their period drama The Paradise will not return for a third season. First launched in 2012, the show faced stiff competition from its genre rivals such as Mr Selfridge and Downton Abbey from the outset, and with ratings for its second run only averaging around 5 million viewers a week, its dismissal from the studio's 2014 output doesn't come as a major surprise.

Or at least it wouldn't, if the BBC didn't have other channels to relegate Paradise to for an alternative broadcast. Yet they've decided to axe the programme not only from BBC One's 2014 schedule, but from their roster altogether. Wouldn't it have been more simple to shift the series to BBC Two, or perhaps to move it into BBC One's weekday schedule? We can't claim to be experts on its genre, but Channel 4 and Channel 5 would undoubtedly jump at the chance to possess a 5 million-averaging programme such as this were it offered up to them. After the studio's recent cancellation of Ripper Street (no confirmation as of yet of the rumours of its return on Netflix), it's high time for some new drama commissions in the near future.

For all the latest news, reviews and previews of the BBC's drama programming, stay tuned to On-Screen in the weeks ahead!

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