Neighbours replacement Out of the Blue is being switched from BBC1 to BBC2 less than a month after it premiered because of disappointing ratings. BBC1 commissioned the 130-episode series, set in the resort of Manly, Sydney, from local Australian producer Southern Star Entertainment after it lost Neighbours to Channel Five. However, the expensive Australian soap, which launched last Monday, April 28, and airs at 2.10pm on BBC1 on weekdays, is being moved to BBC2 from May 19.
Out of the Blue launched with 1.2 million viewers. By yesterday its audience had dropped to 700,000. Despite inheriting 1.4 million from BBC1's long-running daytime drama Doctors, Out of the Blue was beaten by ITV1's 60 Minute Makeover, which drew 900,000 viewers.
Although ratings are lower than the 2.4 million viewers who used to tune into Neighbours at lunchtimes, the BBC is not under the same commercial pressures as ITV to axe or shift underperforming shows.
Out of the Blue centres on a group of thirtysomething friends who return to their home town for a high school reunion only for the celebrations to be curtailed when one of the group is murdered. The show is produced by an experienced team, including John Edwards, whose credits include The Secret Life of Us, and stars Home and Away's Charlotte Gregg and Heartbreak High's Katherine Hicks.
Such has been the anticipation surrounding the series that Australian broadcaster Network Ten, the home of Neighbours, has snapped up the rights to air it locally. When the commission was announced in November, Jane Tranter, the BBC fiction controller, called it "an ambitious project that we think will break new ground, at the same time as providing daytime audiences with a compelling and intriguing watch".
Out of the Blue does not air in Neighbours' previous slot of 1.40pm - Doctors now occupies that - but it was widely seen as BBC1's answer to the departure of Neighbours, which switched to Channel Five in February after more than 20 years on the corporation's flagship network.
ITV1 stuck with The Royal Today - a daytime spin-off from The Royal - which debuted with 2 million viewers and grew audiences after it launched in January.
The BBC admitted it is switching Out of the Blue to BBC2 for ratings reasons. Initially the Australian slot will be replaced in the 2.10pm slot by long-running US detective drama Diagnosis Murder before the BBC tests out some other new shows and genres.
A spokesman said: "The BBC often looks at scheduling across its portfolio of channels to ensure that we have the best mix of programming to suit the needs of the audience. Out of the Blue is a bold and original commission for BBC daytime with its compelling mix of human drama and its intriguing murder mystery set in a stunning location. The afternoon slot on BBC1 which the series had been in is very competitive and by moving the show to BBC2 we hope it will find a stronger home."
Showing posts with label Soaps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soaps. Show all posts
Wednesday, 7 May 2008
Monday, 28 April 2008
Sun, sea and sadness on BBC
There's sun, sea and sadness in BBC One's new daytime soap opera filmed Down Under but Out of the Blue has a very British feel, says Tim Teeman...
Battered by more than 20 years of 16-year-olds pashing and squabbling, and tear-aways becoming responsible citizens of Ramsay Street and Summer Bay, it is very strange to watch the first five episodes of a new Australian soap opera that doesn't - at this early stage anyway - have a teenage focus. Odder still is that the BBC has commissioned Out of the Blue to be made in Australia. The logic, and financial sense, of this escapes me - couldn't they just make a new British soap? - but, hey, everyone runs around on the beach in skimpy clothing and it looks pretty.
A BBC spokesman says: “The majority of drama shown across the BBC is UK produced. The BBC commissioned this new production to offer audiences a different flavour and perspective which complements existing UK series such as Doctors.”
The daily drama follows a group of former school-friends, now in their early thirties, reunited in the Sydney beach suburb of Manly after nine years and immediately enmeshed in a web of secrets, lies and murder. The characters remind one of The Secret Life of Us, the Australian This Life that was bounced mercilessly round the schedules of Channel 4 a few years ago, with dashes of Friends and Friends Reunited. You can tell its genesis is British because very soon all the bright, shiny characters are weeping, regretting and grieving. It's EastEnders-on-Sea, with a catchy theme tune and colourful credits. It's compulsive in a watch-the-pretty-people-suffer kind of a way - classy, fast and slick.
Gabby, the Little Ms Perky who gets all the friends back together, is having a covert affair with Paul, the teenage son of her friend Jared. Jared is married to Tracy, who has terrible split ends. They have a lovely young daughter, Zoe, and are trying, unsuccessfully, to have another child. Gabby's voiceover hooks us with the dark promise: “In less than 48 hours, one of us would be dead and someone close to us, maybe even one of us, would be the killer.” And yes, by episode three, one of the group is dead. A whodunnit takes shape.
The reunion brings back Beck, Jared's true love, who broke his heart when she went to Melbourne to be a doctor. We know Beck is something of a siren because she has dusky hair and wears a ridiculous designer tulip dress to the reunion beach barbecue. Oh, and she has an older, married lover (with a beard, always a bad sign in a soap - bearded men are NEVER TO BE TRUSTED) who has followed her from Melbourne. Tracy is threatened by Beck. Beck and Jared still have the old electricity. Poppy is the Phoebe-from-Friends character - dotty and armed with a guitar, which she uses as an accompaniment to her absurd songs.
Another of the group, Philby, has been living in London and brings his heavily pregnant wife Tess over for the reunion. Philby has a fantastic- ally dreadful mother, who is clearly a hardened Mafioso. As soon as he and Tess knock on her door, you're shouting “Get out of there”. She clasps her son far too hard and thanks Tess menacingly for bringing Philby, “and my first grandson”, home. She is by far the best character. Philby has an evil, utterly sexalicious brother, crimes yet unknown. “Stava” (Ian) is the handsome stud whom everyone likes, but his brother Addy (an honorary member of the reunion group) is a sweet guy mixed up with gangsters.
This is all very grown-up, but Aussie soap connoisseurs will remember that, pre-Neighbours, daytime dramas were adult-led. My personal favourite, the unbeatable Sons and Daughters, was a complicated, melodramatic 972-episode colossus, each episode ending with that sepia frozen screen and plaintive theme (“Tears and sadness and happiness...”).
There are many portents of doom in Out of the Blue: Jared's first line to wife Tracy is a wistful desire “to live happily ever after”, which is obviously not going to happen. Philby, noting that his mother is a “monster”, says to Tess that “everything is going to work out perfectly”. Nahhh. Gabby's voiceover bangs on about things falling apart for the first time when they were 21. Was that when Beck left Jared, or the other biggie: the mysterious, presumed death, of Jason, who fell overboard from a ferry, never to be seen again?
Now, seeing as Jason features on all the ridiculous retrospective footage of the group from their schooldays (the adult actors dressed in school uniform), I would wager that he might not be as dead as everyone thinks. Recall dear Harold in Neighbours, swept out to sea and then returned from the dead, shrugging off the barnacles to run the coffee shop?
The BBC wants Out of the Blue to become a long-stay resident of the daytime schedule. Doctors gets 1.7 million viewers and to survive Out of the Blue will need to hover respectably above a million. The action will include high-speed boat chases and the murder mystery will be solved within three months and won't subsume everything: love triangles, business intrigue and the dark deeds of that marvellously evil Mafioso mum will bubble alongside it. It will be intriguing to see if it retains its focus on these smart, urbane thirtysomethings, or whether, in a year's time, it is transformed into just another suburban Aussie soap with stroppy teens. But first, let's prepare for Jason's miraculous return from his watery grave.
Out of the Blue starts on Monday, BBC One, 2.15pm
Battered by more than 20 years of 16-year-olds pashing and squabbling, and tear-aways becoming responsible citizens of Ramsay Street and Summer Bay, it is very strange to watch the first five episodes of a new Australian soap opera that doesn't - at this early stage anyway - have a teenage focus. Odder still is that the BBC has commissioned Out of the Blue to be made in Australia. The logic, and financial sense, of this escapes me - couldn't they just make a new British soap? - but, hey, everyone runs around on the beach in skimpy clothing and it looks pretty.
A BBC spokesman says: “The majority of drama shown across the BBC is UK produced. The BBC commissioned this new production to offer audiences a different flavour and perspective which complements existing UK series such as Doctors.”
The daily drama follows a group of former school-friends, now in their early thirties, reunited in the Sydney beach suburb of Manly after nine years and immediately enmeshed in a web of secrets, lies and murder. The characters remind one of The Secret Life of Us, the Australian This Life that was bounced mercilessly round the schedules of Channel 4 a few years ago, with dashes of Friends and Friends Reunited. You can tell its genesis is British because very soon all the bright, shiny characters are weeping, regretting and grieving. It's EastEnders-on-Sea, with a catchy theme tune and colourful credits. It's compulsive in a watch-the-pretty-people-suffer kind of a way - classy, fast and slick.
Gabby, the Little Ms Perky who gets all the friends back together, is having a covert affair with Paul, the teenage son of her friend Jared. Jared is married to Tracy, who has terrible split ends. They have a lovely young daughter, Zoe, and are trying, unsuccessfully, to have another child. Gabby's voiceover hooks us with the dark promise: “In less than 48 hours, one of us would be dead and someone close to us, maybe even one of us, would be the killer.” And yes, by episode three, one of the group is dead. A whodunnit takes shape.
The reunion brings back Beck, Jared's true love, who broke his heart when she went to Melbourne to be a doctor. We know Beck is something of a siren because she has dusky hair and wears a ridiculous designer tulip dress to the reunion beach barbecue. Oh, and she has an older, married lover (with a beard, always a bad sign in a soap - bearded men are NEVER TO BE TRUSTED) who has followed her from Melbourne. Tracy is threatened by Beck. Beck and Jared still have the old electricity. Poppy is the Phoebe-from-Friends character - dotty and armed with a guitar, which she uses as an accompaniment to her absurd songs.
Another of the group, Philby, has been living in London and brings his heavily pregnant wife Tess over for the reunion. Philby has a fantastic- ally dreadful mother, who is clearly a hardened Mafioso. As soon as he and Tess knock on her door, you're shouting “Get out of there”. She clasps her son far too hard and thanks Tess menacingly for bringing Philby, “and my first grandson”, home. She is by far the best character. Philby has an evil, utterly sexalicious brother, crimes yet unknown. “Stava” (Ian) is the handsome stud whom everyone likes, but his brother Addy (an honorary member of the reunion group) is a sweet guy mixed up with gangsters.
This is all very grown-up, but Aussie soap connoisseurs will remember that, pre-Neighbours, daytime dramas were adult-led. My personal favourite, the unbeatable Sons and Daughters, was a complicated, melodramatic 972-episode colossus, each episode ending with that sepia frozen screen and plaintive theme (“Tears and sadness and happiness...”).
There are many portents of doom in Out of the Blue: Jared's first line to wife Tracy is a wistful desire “to live happily ever after”, which is obviously not going to happen. Philby, noting that his mother is a “monster”, says to Tess that “everything is going to work out perfectly”. Nahhh. Gabby's voiceover bangs on about things falling apart for the first time when they were 21. Was that when Beck left Jared, or the other biggie: the mysterious, presumed death, of Jason, who fell overboard from a ferry, never to be seen again?
Now, seeing as Jason features on all the ridiculous retrospective footage of the group from their schooldays (the adult actors dressed in school uniform), I would wager that he might not be as dead as everyone thinks. Recall dear Harold in Neighbours, swept out to sea and then returned from the dead, shrugging off the barnacles to run the coffee shop?
The BBC wants Out of the Blue to become a long-stay resident of the daytime schedule. Doctors gets 1.7 million viewers and to survive Out of the Blue will need to hover respectably above a million. The action will include high-speed boat chases and the murder mystery will be solved within three months and won't subsume everything: love triangles, business intrigue and the dark deeds of that marvellously evil Mafioso mum will bubble alongside it. It will be intriguing to see if it retains its focus on these smart, urbane thirtysomethings, or whether, in a year's time, it is transformed into just another suburban Aussie soap with stroppy teens. But first, let's prepare for Jason's miraculous return from his watery grave.
Out of the Blue starts on Monday, BBC One, 2.15pm
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