Rumours persist of Taggart demise

By Jamie McIvor BBC Scotland

Uncertainty over the future of hit television detective series Taggart has sent shares in Scottish media group STV plunging.

STV said it had not yet received confirmation from broadcaster ITV of a commission for the long-running show this year.

The group said it was "confident about the future of the series" but the company's shares fell 14% on the news.

ITV said there was "no truth" in the suggestion Taggart has been axed.

Taggart is one of the world's longest running detective shows

An ITV spokesman said it was discussing future episodes of the show with the producers.

STV faces a £3m hit if Taggart is not recommissioned. It has rearranged its bank facilities to cope with the possible impact of the show being dropped.

Steve Liechti, an analyst with Investec, said the possible loss of Taggart was a "key risk" to STV.

The future of Taggart has been the subject of intense speculation within the Scottish television industry in recent weeks.

Although Taggart is STV's best known programme, it is commissioned and paid for by the ITV network - not STV itself.

A number of episodes are in the can ready for transmission but not currently scheduled. This has led to speculation about how many more episodes the ITV network may require and when it may want them made.

The economic crisis has led to ITV spending less on programmes. It has been reducing the amount of drama it screens and looking at ways of cutting the budgets for existing programmes without reducing their quality.

More lucrative

No new episodes of the police series Heartbeat and its sister programme The Royal have been commissioned for now, although there are still plenty on the shelf for fans to look forward to.

Meanwhile The Bill, one of ITV's most enduring series, will be cut back to just one episode a week later this year while other popular dramas, such as the expensive time travel series, Primeval, have been axed completely.

One industry observer said the problem was that TV dramas were being squeezed in the current economic environment - caught between phenomenally popular programmes such as The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, staples like Coronation Street and relatively cheap programmes like docusoaps.

He also said it was unfortunate that Taggart was STV's only major network programme at the moment which meant that the company risked being over-reliant on it.

The loss of Taggart would be a big blow to STV's business plan even though the company has been working hard to win new commissions.

Earlier this week, BBC Scotland commissioned the company to make an antiques series which will be shown on BBC2 during the daytime.

But programmes like Taggart are much more lucrative. They can also generate income from, for instance, DVD sales and foreign broadcasters.

Taggart is now the world's longest running detective series, even though the character of Taggart himself disappeared with the death of star Mark McManus in 1994. It is arguably the most successful TV programme to have ever been made in Scotland.

STV and fans all over the world will be hoping that the programme's days are not numbered, but until ITV confirms a new commission, the speculation and uncertainty will continue.

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