Award-winning transgender comedy axed after two series
BBC Two comedy Boy Meets Girl will not be returning for a third series, the cast have revealed.
Citing declining ratings, star of the sitcom Rebecca Root, who played Judy, said in an interview with Chortle “Everyone’s really sorry that the show’s come to its end. We’re all very disappointed.” She also tweeted the news to her twitter followers, stating it was “fun while it lasted.”
Fun while it lasted thanks for watching @BoyMeetsGirlUK now on 2 the next adventure #thatsallfolks #endoftheroad #nomorebmg #hohum #onwards
— Rebecca Root (@rebeccaroot1969) September 26, 2016
Series One of Boy Meets Girl launched with 1.5million viewers last September, but failed to attract viewers for its second series this July, pulling in 630,000 for its opening episode, before declining to a series low of 328,000.
The news was broke to the cast – which also includes Harry Hepple, Denise Welch, Nigel Betts, Lizzie Roper, Jonny Dixon and Janine Duvitski – via email from executive producer and BBC’s commissioning editor for comedy, Kristian Smith.
A BBC spokesperson said: ‘We are tremendously proud of BBC Two’s Boy Meets Girl, but after two series feel the story has reached a natural end point.”
Adding “We would like to thank the creative team behind the show and of course the entire cast.”
Root, said: “I’m not a commissioner, but the way I see shows going is that you establish your territory with the first series, you consolidate with the second and then you develop things in the third series – you can then open it up and really get into the meat of the story.
“I felt that while series two didn’t have quite the same tone as series one it was establishing a level. We were all looking forward to series three to get going… I felt that they were selling us a bit short by pulling it after two.”
Creator Elliot Kerrigan said he was “so gutted” about the cancellation, but added: “I think it’s for the best. I want the audience wanting more rather than thinking ‘Is that show back again?’ The ending we had for the end of series two will be hard to top. We even had a round of applause in the final scene to thank the audience for watching.”
He also commented on how, although he felt it was ‘groundbreaking’ to feature a lead trans character, it “was really about two families and we did a good job of smuggling in a character that audiences hadn’t seen before.” Adding: “I’m happy with that romantic ending.”
