Time passed

So farewell, Years and Years. A timely reminder to BBC commissioners and schedulers that the simple instruction to "Get Obsessed" is not enough. The six-part drama taking a dim future of the future in the UK was co-funded with HBO, who started running it on Monday, and Canal+. It returned an average audience of 1.6m in the overnights, in the key 9pm slot which would be expecting at least 3m. There's no sign of a rush to catch-up.

Was it an indulgence to writer Russell T Davies, in return for revitalising Dr Who ? Are we just now over-supplied with Original British Drama, and becoming pickier ?  Is there a clear idea as to the sort of show that's clearly 'BBC1', when 'Summer of Rockets' is BBC2 ?

On the final night, it was clear the audience was active on the remote; the preceding programme, the deftly-produced "Our Next Prime Minister" ghoulishly sustained an average audience of 5.3m; Years and Years went down to 1.7m, and 3.8m came back to BBC1 for the Ten O'Clock News.