The State Within doubtful for second series

Published Thursday 7 December 2006 at 14:30 by Liz Thomas

Conspiracy thriller The State Within is unlikely to return for a second series following disappointing ratings.

The high-octane show, which follows 17 days in the life of the British Ambassador to the USA and stars Jason Isaacs and Cagney and Lacey actress Sharon Gless, started strongly with audiences in excess of 5 million but dropped down swiftly to 3 million and below.

Peter Fincham, controller of BBC1, stated that he was not disappointed with the ratings and that he felt the production had performed well for those who had liked it. He claimed it ranked highly on the Appreciation Index which the BBC uses as one of the measures to assess how well its programming is performing and added that it had been created as a self-contained serial.

However earlier this year a drama source at the Corporation told the stage that work had already begun on developing a second series, suggesting that if the show performed well it could be increased from six to 12 episodes.

The source had said: “Of course it will depend on ratings but work has started creating the second series and it will be longer. It does feature some of the characters from the first run but not all of them make it.”