‘Jekyll and Hyde’ has been axed.
The gory tea-time drama, which starred Tom Bateman, Richard E Grant and Natalie Gumede, has been dropped by ITV after just one series following more than 800 complaints about the show’s explicit violence and horrific bloody scenes.
Writer Charlie Higson took to his Twitter account to confirm the news, writing: "Sad day today as ITV announce they don’t want any more #JekyllandHyde Ah well, I tried. It was a grand adventure while it lasted. We had some great stories lined up for series 2 #JekyllandHyde. Thanks for all the messages of support #JekyllandHyde I’m moving on to other things (sic)."
The series proved to get off to a good start, pulling in 4.3 million viewers but the final episode, which aired on December 27, closed with a miserable 1.8 million.
Over the course of the first series, the broadcasters were bombarded with letters of complaints from viewers querying whether the programme was too scary for the watershed.
The show is reportedly under investigation by Ofcom and a ruling is expected to be given within the next few months.
If the gory programme, which saw a gunfight episode rescheduled following the Paris terror attacks last year, is found guilty of airing ‘unsuitable’ material, ITV could be fined.
Jekyll and Hyde gets the chop
