In the cold winter months at the beginning of this year, fans of 60’s Hospital drama The Royal were looking forward to the next batch of episodes being screened, a chance to relax with the family and follow the heroic actions of Dr Ormerod, Dr Weatherill, Mr Rose and their medical team and the gentle humour of porters Alun Morris and Jack Bell and receptionist Lizzie Hopkirk. Towards the end of January their cosy evenings were shattered by newspaper reports that a crash strapped ITV had axed both The Royal and it’s elder sister Heartbeat.

The uproar from fans across the world was so intense that ITV was forced to issue a statement later that afternoon: “Heartbeat and the Royal are an important part of the ITV schedule, and are both still in production.” The statement continued saying that production would be rested whilst the backlog of episodes was shown.
Despite this reassurance an unease spread amongst the fans and by the end of the week petitions had been organised and a letter writing campaign begun, lobbying support from newspapers and MP’s. Fear of the impact on the economy in Yorkshire where both series are filmed, prompted the Regional Agency “Welcome to Yorkshire” to sponsor the shows.
Fears that the two Yorkshire based family drama’s Heartbeat and The Royal were being quietly consigned to history seemed to be confirmed when filming of the final episode of Heartbeat was completed and the Farsley Mill studio was stripped of the familiar sets.
Heartbeat and The Royal are not the only popular dramas to suffer, long running police drama The Bill was transformed and reduced to one hour a week, moving to 9pm, unsuprisingly viewing figures plummeted. Another long running crime solving series Wire in the Blood, also filmed in the north was axed, adding to the devastating job losses already seen in Yorkshire. Scottish police drama Taggart faces an uncertain future after 25 years on our screens and Saturday evening family adventure drama Primeval was another popular show deemed too expensive to continue.
Executives quoted falling advertising revenue and viewer figures which have droped from 11million in the early years of Heartbeat to around 7 million with the introduction of multichannel viewing. The schedules were filled with cheaper “Reality TV” and the viewers voiced their complaints online and through the TV Magazines but to no avail.
Petitions to save the shows were launched and the number of signatures currently stand in the thousands. Paper petitions being available in Goathland, Whitby and Scarborough, places which attract a steady stream of visitors and benefit enormously from the influx. Over 15,000 signatures were collected from visitors in the first three months of the campaign. Fans from across the world have also signed petitions online.
long term viewers vowed to make their point by avoiding pressing the button marked 3 on their remote controls and the backlash was obvious in the viewing figures with shows brought in to replace those axed suffering in the ratings tables.
The recently proposed changes to advertising rules on British Television have brought a glimer of hope that all the efforts may not be in vain. This hope was given a further boost in the last few days with the surprise anouncement that the family drama Primeval, whose demise was anounced along with many other ITV favourates earlier this year. The producers having sucessfully negotiated an inovative deal to fund the continuation of the show.http://www.broadcastnow.co.uk/news/commi....5006271.article
If you are a fan or even an occassional viewer of these quality British family dramas, please take a moment to add your name to those who have already signed and support the campaign to bring the well loved characters back to our screens.http://www.gopetition.co.uk/petitions/itv-the-royal.html

By kate