BBC3 axes Ideal sit-com in not very clean ‘clean sweep’
Chortle reports that Ideal has been axed. The comedy was brave (given its subject matter), edgy and endlessly inventive. Even when it dialled down the comedy (as in the previous series), it retained the interest, with surreal darkness that came from a very odd place indeed.
Series creator Graham Duff revealed, naturally, that Ideal was getting its highest audience to date when the BBC pulled the plug, and reading between the lines at The British Comedy Guide, the decision seems more down to new (as of late 2010) controller Zai Bennett wanting to stamp his mark on the channel, by cancelling almost everything that was commissioned before he arrived.
This all means that Ideal’s multiple cliffhangers will never be resolved, but comedy fans can rejoice, because while Bennett is arguing for a clean sweep, that of course doesn’t apply to things he commissioned. And so the innovative, daring White Van Man, about a guy who takes over his dad’s decorating business (produced by ITV!) gets a second series. PHEW!
But surely you aren’t arguing that the BBC should behave like a commercial broadcaster, only keeping shows that are popular with audiences, and employing controllers who stand to gain from commissioning popular shows? What’s the point of having a state broadcaster if the controller can’t make totally arbitrary decisions that fly in the face of what the public want?
Mm, quite. The thing that grates most with Ideal is that it’s precisely what BBC3 was designed for, to showcase edgier, original programming. White Van Man is produced by ITV and would sit happily within ITV’s schedule, so what the hell it’s doing sticking around while Ideal dies, I’ve no idea.
Because Will Mellor has incriminating photographs of BBC executives. How the hell else can you explain this *and* 273,000 episodes of “Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps”.
(Especially as it continues seven years after the creator admitted to bunch of comedians that she has run of out ideas. But that is another rant.)
Two Pints has been axed as well.
A real shame that Ideal is ending, it has been a fantastic series and exactly the sort of alternative that a digital channel should be offering to the mainstream.