As a big fan of Waking The Dead (and Tara Fitzgerald) I was looking forward to this, but it proved to be a huge disappointment. The script was cliched and lethargic and the performances were very flat and lifeless. Tara looked like she was bored out of her skull while Keith Allen (not a performer I particularly like anyway) looked as if he had undergone a lobotomy. The rest of the characters were straight out of the BBC handbook of drama cliches and the whole production crawled along at a pace that would make even a snail seem embarrassed. The 'mystery' itself was a pale imitation of an old CSI episode but was directed and produced without the necessary style or imagination. I will be giving this a miss in future.
Like you Bats I thought it rather poor. I have a theory that the more they try to shock you visually (dead bodies and maggots etc) the worse everything else becomes and the script takes second place. It also fell into the trap of making it seem like a Science lesson rather than a drama, and as for
Spoiler:
I'll watch it next week but I'm not holding my breath
Awful.Gave it up after 20 minutes.
This could have been so good, instead the characters were dull and the storyline boring.
I didn't expect it to be a laugh a minute but there was no let up in the dreariness. In my experience people who do jobs like this often have a great sense of humour but these characters were soulless.
I'd rather sit through endless repeats of CSI Miami (which I loathe with a vengeance) than sit through another episode of this.
Second episode was a slight improvement, very little character development, still cliched and does Keith Allen have a sergeant. Seems to work on his own, perhaps due to budget cuts.
Nothing to hold the viewer though.
Definitely lacking a certain something - plot, charisma, Trevor Eve
Much better than last week, thank goodness!
From Radio Times
Forensic crime drama The Body Farm "will not return for a second series", the BBC today confirmed to RadioTimes.com.
The Waking the Dead spin-off, starring Tara FitzGerald and Keith Allen, debuted in September 2011 on BBC1 and attracted an audience of 6.3m viewers. However, this figure had dropped to 4.3m by the end of its six-part run.
The series continued the story of Dr Eve Lockhart, who was now heading up a private pathology facility that conducted scientific research to help solve crimes. Lockhart had previously been a main character on Waking the Dead, the long-running police procedural starring Trevor Eve, which ran for nine series.
The Body Farm was made by BBC Drama Production in association with Eve's company, Projector Productions.
Well!!! i logged on mainly to see if a second series was planned haveing just bought series one (and not watched it yet as it only turned up today) i am a real big fan of waking the dead and silent witness and thought "if this is half as good i'll enjoy it) but after reading these reviews i'm wonderign if i should have saved my hard earned, still only one way to find out!! nowatch it
Im a huge fan of Waking The Dead, and desperate for more to be commissioned, but even i have to say The Body Farm was a little disappointing, no fault of Tara Fitzgerald, she's excellent, it was just missing something. Maybe the beeb will think twice and Bring Boyd and co back. Thank god for Silent Witness.
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