Bonekickers Digs Up 6.8 Million Viewers

Written by Ian Cullen on July 10, 2008 – 4:04 pm -

bonekickersBy Ian M. Cullen

Digital Spy reports that new BBC SF Archaeology based drama series Bonekickers unearthed a ratings success on Tuesday evening when it premiered to an impressive audience of 6.8 Million viewers.

The series, which is created by the same team who did Life On Mars and Ashes to Ashes, follows the journey of a small group of archaeologists who believe they’ve found a section of the cross on which Jesus was crucified.

Each week features the team finding a different archaeological relic – and some of the political and conspiracy theories that surround them.

Episode one saw the team unearth a skeleton of a Knight Templar from the 14th Century – Turkish solders in the UK have supposedly attacked him – though at that time recorded history does not acknowledge that any Turks were in the UK at that time. Alongside the discovery of the skeleton they also find what they believe to be a section of the cross upon which Jesus was crucified on which kicks off somewhat of a small holy war between a right wing UK religious group believing themselves to be the modern equivalent of the Templar Knights and the team of archaeologists who only want to uncover the truth. The first episode featured a controversial scene in which an innocent Muslin Student is beheaded by one of the latter day Templar Knights – who strongly believes he is killing for God.

The series easily won its 9pm to 10pm Time-slot – and was the most watched television series on Tuesday pulling in an impressive 30.5% share of the UK Television audience.

The series stars Hugh Bonneville, Julie Graham and Adrian Lester.

The show is written and produced by Life On Mars creators Ashley Pharoah and Mathew Graham.

Bonekickers will air for the next five weeks on BBC 1 at 9pm and is well worth a look if you enjoy intellegent SF Drama.

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Posted in SF-TV & Movie News | 2 Comments »


2 Responses to “Bonekickers Digs Up 6.8 Million Viewers”

  1. By Kate on Jul 16, 2008 | Reply

    worth a look if you enjoy intellegent SF Drama.

    I’m sorry, did you not watch it? Intelligent? Drama? I think not. It might have worked as comedy, but mostly it was rubbish.

  2. By Ian on Jul 16, 2008 | Reply

    You’re entitled to think that – just as I’m entitled to express my enjoyment of the show. It’s a matter of taste at the end of the day – and my tastes obviously differ to yours.

    But I stand by my comments on the series – and still encourage folks to give it a try.

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