COULD IN THE FLESH REALLY RISE AGAIN?
Lots of people have messaged us recently on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr to ask what we think the chances are of In The Flesh coming back. Unfortunately, we don’t know any more than you right now and haven’t caught up with Dominic Mitchell in a while, and even if we had, any talks with a different television network or streaming service regarding picking the series up would be confidential until a deal was made so he wouldn’t be able to discuss it with us anyway.
The reality is, it really is such a hard and complicated question to answer and one we have debated amongst ourselves almost constantly since June 2014 when the last series concluded.
Back then we were feeling quite hopeful. The second series (not unlike Sherlock) really birthed the In The Flesh fandom as we know it today. Yes, there were plenty of people who were fans from the start when we all expected it to be a one-off mini-series and were still feeling a bit fragile over the cancellation of Being Human that had its last ever episode exactly one week before the very first episode of In The Flesh hit UK screens. Zai Bennett, BBC Three’s Controller, had made a familiar statement that “Being Human has been a fantastic and faithful friend to BBC Three. However, all good things come to an end and at BBC Three we’re committed to breaking new shows and new talent.” So we waved a sad farewell to our beloved Being Human and waited in anticipation to see what BBC Three had in store for us with their new show and new talent. Apparently, it was about zombies, so not too far from vampires, werewolves and ghosts, we supposed.
We had high hopes too, as BBC Three was building quite a portfolio of brave fresh programming and giving innovative drama a chance that otherwise might never have been made. Series creator Toby Whithouse called Being Human, “the little show that could,” and admitted after the sad news of its demise that, “Being Human really shouldn’t have happened. A preposterous idea, an epic and circuitous development process, a modest budget – no, we really shouldn’t have lasted.” But it did. It went on to have 37 episodes and 5 series and survived the replacement of all three of the main characters it had been built on. It also spawned a US version and three tie-in novels and audiobooks read by the cast. The series never achieved large viewing figures (a series ratings high of 1.6 million and a highest average audience of 1.2 million) but that was high for BBC Three and could be considered as having succeeded, even thrived, in an environment where big budget US cable series rule and UK reality TV shows dominate the UK airwaves.
So what’s this got to do with In The Flesh? Well, Whithouse could have easily been talking about it instead of Being Human as the two series share much of the same DNA, so it gives a good indication of the life In The Flesh might have had. Only by the close of the first episode on 17 March 2013, it was clear that this new series was even braver and went even deeper in utilizing the supernatural as a metaphor to the point that it was obviously not a fluff series for the teen to twenty-something audience of BBC Three, but a serious game-changing piece of television that was acknowledged by the British Academy and awarded a BAFTA for its trouble!
The audience numbers for the first series of In The Flesh peaked at 668,000 in the same time slot that Being Human previously occupied, but BBC Three commissioned a continuation and just over a year later a second series was broadcast, twice as long as the first. The highest the new series achieved was a viewing figure of 367,000, but this number did not include iPlayer and being broadcast at 10pm on a Sunday evening it was more than likely catch up was where many viewers were choosing to watch it. It did not appear to receive the same level of cross-channel support from the BBC as Being Human, but things were still looking good, especially as the last episode ended with a cliffhanger for one of the main characters, so there was no way the BBC hadn’t got future plans for it!
Trouble was brewing at the Beeb though and BBC Three was in dire straights. Earlier in the year, the BBC Director-General Tony Hall announced that cuts of £100 million would have to be made and it was proposed that BBC Three be discontinued as a television service and converted to an internet service with a smaller programming budget. Only one drama could be commissioned per year going forward, but In The Flesh had won the BAFTA, right? It had beaten 100 other television dramas including hugely successful BBC series such as Sherlock, Doctor Who and Peaky Blinders to the top spot of best series of 2014 in the prestigious Radio Times audience poll, so choosing In The Flesh as that drama commission seemed like a no brainer. Only it wasn’t, as it had to be ‘new’ drama not a recommissioning of an existing drama, so on 16 January 2015 it was announced, “BBC Three is very proud of the two award-winning series of In The Flesh. However, given there is only budget for one original drama series a year on the channel it won’t be returning. We loved the show but have to make hard choices to bring new shows through and create room for emerging talent.” Unlike other programmes that could be moved to BBC One or BBC Two, the audience demographic didn’t suit either channel, so In The Flesh found itself homeless through no fault of its own, it was merely collateral damage and fell victim to the current situation the BBC found themselves in.
We were all devastated. It wasn’t right and it certainly was fair on the license fee paying audience or the series cast and crew! But there was precedent of another series having been cancelled by the BBC. The fans of Ripper Street had petitioned and the series had been picked up by Amazon. So, if one series could do it, because Amazon were actively looking for British drama to commission, then In The Flesh was the obvious choice. Amazon even spoke to Radio Times in January 2015, explaining, “We’re always keen to hear about shows our customers would like to see more of. Ripper Street season three has been a great success for us with fans of the show enjoying the Amazon cut of each episode available on Prime Instant Video."
The fans petitioned and gained more signatures than Ripper Street had before it was taken on, but there was one big difference though, Ripper Street was made by an independent production company, where In The Flesh was produced by BBC North. This undoubtedly caused a stumbling block, as although both Amazon and Netflix both produce their own series, things would not be so simple with In The Flesh in terms of business as usual just with a new budget source.
In January 2016, both Netflix and Amazon were bombarded with fans begging them on social and live chat to take In The Flesh to a third series. We don’t know if contact was made by them to the copyright owners of the series or even who owns what. It’s obviously Dominic Mitchell’s intellectual property, but the BBC must own rights to it too. Perhaps discussions were had and they couldn’t come to an agreement? Perhaps without an independent production company, Netflix and Amazon never made an approach instead waiting for someone to come to them? Who knows, but clearly it never went anywhere.
Since that time there has been talk of a movie and even crowdfunding to raise the money to film a conclusion just so we have a proper finale as to how the story ends. Realistically, although online groups like The Hillywood Show are able to raise tens of thousands of dollars via crowdfunding to make their videos, a television series even on a tight budget is not made on thousands, but millions and with In The Flesh appealing the most strongly to 18 to 24 years olds, it seems like a figure the fans would never be able to raise on their own.
We genuinely don’t think all is lost just yet though. Dom is still very vocal on Twitter that he would still like to continue with In The Flesh and has even given us some teasers as to where the series would be going should it have a third series in the future. His career has gone from strength to strength since having his big break with In The Flesh and he is now writing for shows that have the likes of JJ Abrams as an executive producer. When you’re rubbing shoulders with the likes of someone like that, anything is possible should they take a shine to your previous work, as US cable shows cost tens of millions to make a season so a little production like In The Flesh would require a pocket change budget in comparison.
Fans are still trying though and always looking for alternative channels. A petition has just begun for Syfy to pick In The Flesh up and although many fans might not have access to this one network, it is still very important that the petition gains as much support as it can as we need to demonstrate that it is still a going concern and very much wanted so anyone commissioning it in the future, whether it be Syfy or anyone else, would have a guaranteed audience. So if you haven’t signed it yet, please sign, share and leave a comment if you can.
We haven’t given up on In The Flesh and still think it has the potential to have a successful second life somewhere new. If you haven’t seen it in a while, rewatch it and remind yourself why it was so important in the first place and proved itself to be a little show with a huge following that resonated with so many. It is available to stream on Hulu (US only) or buy on Amazon (US or UK), BBC Store (UK only) and iTunes (US or UK). If you don’t own a copy on DVD or Blu-ray, treat yourself to any of these options and help show that we still love it, still miss it, still support it and most importantly, we do still believe in it.
And if we have faith in it, then maybe one of the powers that be might show a little faith in it as well and offer it a chance at a Second Rising.
