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Spin-offs we’d like to see

Spin-offs we’d like to see

 

 

bbcTelevision is littered with spin-offs at the moment examples being Torchwood, Holby City, Private Practice, Caprica and the various CSI/Law and Order shows. So we cast our eye over our favourite dramas and come up with a few spin-offs we’d like to see.

 

The spin-off is something we have been accustomed too with many of our favourite dramas and sci fi’s all having their own spin-offs. Heartbeat for instance spawned The Royal and flop daytime series The Royal Today while Casualty was spun-off into Holby City and later police drama Holby Blue. Sci Fi wise Doctor Who has Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures while Stargate has Atlantis and Universe. Launching shortly will be the Battlestar Galactica prequel spin-off, Caprica. So with so many spin-offs on television right now, and with more to follow, we’ve come up with a few spin-offs we wouldn’t mind seeing. Feel free to post your own suggestions!

 

 

The Tudors: Bloody Mary

  

bbcLater this year Showtime’s historical drama The Tudors will draw to a close after four seasons having chronicled the reign and marriages of Henry VIII. The final season will see the monarch marriages to Catherine Howard and Catherine Parr before he kicks the bucket and with his death will come the close of the series. Showtime already has a successor to the show lined up – The Borgias which will focus on the notorious Italian renaissance family.

 

 

However, as we’ve said before we think the producers are missing a trick here and should do a sequel spin-off series focusing on the reign of Mary Tudor – Henry’s oldest child. In The Tudors the character is sensitively portrayed by actress Sarah Bolger but a spin-off would give the producers and actress the chance to explore Mary’s darker side as she takes the throne of England and leads the country into a dark period.

 

 

The story of Mary is an interesting one but a little told one as her father and sister – Elizabeth – tend to be the focus of drama’s and movies rather than her. This is despite the fact that although her reign was a short one it certainly wasn’t an uneventful one from the way she seized from the crown from her cousin Lady Jane Grey to her persecution of protestants and the arrest of Elizabeth for conspiring against her. There is certainly plenty of material to lend itself to a spin-off and its one we’d love to see.

 


 

Torchwood: USA

 

bbcThere are a number of possible spin-offs from spin-off show Torchwood with perhaps ones set in Glasgow or London, ala CSI: Miami and CSI: New York. However, a far more likely spin-off from the Welsh sci fi series would be one set in America. After all Torchwood is very popular across the pond – more so than Doctor Who – and its only a matter of time before the Torchwood team hop across the pond away.

 

 

Seeing as the format of Torchwood is similar in ways to the X Files there’s a ready made audience out there just gagging for more alien investigative drama and governments with conspiracies to hide the truth at all costs – Torchwood: Children of Earth featured this kind of plot in abundance.  A city such as New York would also be an ideal setting for a Torchwood spin-off with lots of iconic buildings to use as a backdrop against alien invasions and time rifts. New York was also the setting of the two-part Dalek story in Season Three so it’s a setting already familiar to the Doctor Who audience.

 

 

The spin-off could be launched with John Barrowman and Eve Myles hoping across the pond to investigate alien technology where they encounter their American counter-parts and then the series could go off in its own direction. Crossovers between the two shows could occasionally happen and we’re sure James Marsters would mind cropping up as Captain John in Torchwood USA either. However, in all honesty a remake rather than spin-off is far more likely.

 


Poirot: Miss Lemon Investigates!

 

ITVIn the weekly series of LWT’s Poirot the famous Belgium detective was aided in his investigations by Captain Hastings [Hugh Fraser], Inspector Japp [Philip Jackson] and his secretary Miss Lemon [Pauline Moran] all of whom have now disappeared from the series. Poirot now usually investigates the various murders he encounters all on his own. But what became of Miss Lemon, Captain Hastings and Inspector Japp?

 

 

Well perhaps the only way to find out is a nice daytime spin-off series set in the 1940s set during the backdrop of the war. Inspired by the Belgium sleuth the threesome battle the criminals of blitzed London and investigate murders, robberies and frauds and Nazi spies. Perhaps it sounds familiar in concept to Foyle’s War but there’s nothing wrong in that – there’s a ready made audience in fact for Miss Lemon investigates.

 

 

However, given the fact that Agatha Christie wrote no such stories the episodes would have to be written from scratch. But then some would argue producers on Miss Marple have taken such liberties with their adaptations that producers are practically doing that already in the Christie world.

 


 

Will and Grace: Karen & Jack

 

nbcIt’s the spin-off series all fans of comedy series Will and Grace have been waiting for and expecting. It’s the spin-off series that very nearly happened but very nearly just isn’t good enough really – is it? Yes folks we all know that Karen and Jack were far more interesting than Will and Grace and as a double act they were far more entertaining.

 

 

Who actually watched Will & Grace for er Will and Grace? They were out shone by the wonderful bitchiness of the double act themselves – Karen & Jack. Their witty putdowns, camp one-liners and hilarious antics kept the show going for many and the fact that a spin-off series for them both hasn’t materialised yet is quite shocking.

 


 

Rome: Atia of the Julii

 

hboOne of the many highlights of HBO/BBC drama series Rome was Polly Walker as the scheming, devious, power-hungry super-bitch Atia of the Julii. Atia made sure that she and her family were near the centre of power in the Roman Empire and was quick to switch her allegiance if she thought the power was shifting another way. During the course of Rome Atia quickly entered into a long and bitter feud with Sevilla [Lindsey Duncan] with both women stooping to low levels to win. The feud eventually resulted in Servilla’s suicide at the doors of Atia’s villa.

 

 

Sadly Rome ended after just two seasons but we’re sure that Atia is still scheming and manipulating her way through the Roman Empire. In many ways Atia, and even Sevilla, demonstrated that while Rome was ruled by men in public it was the women who held the destiny of the empire in their hands and who crafted its destiny.

 

A spin-off focusing on Atia would bring back that Dallas feel that Rome had as her powerful family would doubtless be locked into a feud with another Dynasty of the Roman Empire. Personally to see Atia’s wonderful put downs and various schemes in a spin-off would be all I’d need. Everything else could be complete rubbish just as long as Atia was being her evil, cunning self.  

 

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