Sad news for fans of Count Arthur Strong, we’re afraid: the BBC have decided not to pursue a fourth series of the cult show.
“There are no current plans for a further series of Count Arthur Strong on the BBC,” a BBC spokesman said, with a source adding, “It’s just sadly reached the end of the line for now. Count Arthur Strong is such a loved character amongst the fans, I’m sure he’ll live on beyond the series.”
The series does seem to have been given its best possible chances, having moved from BBC Radio 4 to the small screen with the help of The IT Crowd‘s Graham Linehan, but Steve Delaney’s creation, who appeared alongside actor Rory Kinnear as his former comedy partner’s son Michael in the TV version, didn’t seem to benefit from a move to BBC1 from BBC2, attracting just 1.18 million viewers in its prime-time slot.
To put that into perspective, Mrs Brown’s Boys gets around 3 million viewers. Yep. Indeed.
Though the shutters have had to be closed on the café for good, we’ll hopefully see Arthur back in some form or another in the future, as he’ll be dearly missed.
We’ll bring you any further developments, if there are any.