Thousands of TV fans have signed The Chronicle’s petition to appeal for a second series of a much-loved BBC drama about the history of Chester Zoo.
Viewers of Our Zoo were urged by June Williams , the daughter of the zoo’s founder George Mottershead, to support the campaign we started after the BBC announced they wouldn’t be renewing the drama for a second series.
June, 88, who was involved in the show’s production and even made a brief cameo in one episode, told The Chronicle she was backing the petition which we yesterday sent to BBC’s head of drama, admitting she was eager to see her family’s story continue.
“I think it should come back, because the zoo hadn’t even opened by the time the first series ended – it left a lot of the story untold, such as how the zoo coped through the war years,” she said.
“Lots of local people are upset and I know Honor, who played me, was upset too. I’m getting a bit long in the tooth for it all now but I had a wonderful time on the show, I got to meet so many new people and I got to relive the past. I had to dig deep into my memories but it was worth it, even if they did show it in a time slot that was too late.”
Such was the outcry over the axing of Our Zoo that The Chronicle decided to launch the online petition in the hope that the story of how George followed his dream of creating the world’s first zoo without bars at Oakfield Manor in Upton, could continue.
We launched the campaign last Wednesday evening , and by the following lunchtime, more than 1,000 had signed up. Since then, many more have added their signatures, taking the total number of supporters to 2,634 at time of going to press.
Supportive comments have been left by fans of the show, including one from John Gerrard who wrote: “This is as much a piece of history to Cheshire as the Romans were. This warrants another series.”
Despite pulling in more than five million viewers per episode during its six-part run earlier this autumn, and being nominated for two National TV Awards, a BBC spokesperson confirmed last week that Our Zoo wouldn’t be returning to our screens.
The news was a huge blow to fans of the show, many of whom described it as ‘incredible’ and ‘the best thing on TV in ages’.
But the spokesperson told The Chronicle that although it was ‘very proud’ of the show, which starred Lee Ingleby and Ralf Little as the Mottershead family, a ‘hard choice’ had to be made.
“We’re very proud of Our Zoo and wish to thank all those involved,” the spokesperson said. “However, in order to create room for new shows and to keep increasing the range of BBC One drama we sometimes have to make hard choices and it will not be returning for a second series.”
June’s son George echoed his mother’s sentiments and said: “For us it was just a wonderful family drama so we did wonder why they put it on so late, which meant that a few kids missed out because of the watershed.
“But it would be great if this petition worked and we could have another series.”
