Clocking Off

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Clocking Off

BBC Store download cover art

GenreDrama
Created byPaul Abbott
Written byPaul Abbott
Danny Brocklehurst
Jan McVerry
John Fay
Starring
Theme music composerMurray Gold
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series4
No. of episodes27
Production
Executive producersNicola Shindler
Gareth Neame
ProducerJuliet Charlesworth
Production locationManchester
Running time60 minutes
Production companyRed Production Company
Original release
NetworkBBC One
Release23 January 2000 –
6 April 2003

Clocking Off is a British television drama series which was broadcast on BBC One for four series from 2000 to 2003. It was produced for the BBC by the independent Red Production Company, and created by Paul Abbott.[1]

Effectively an anthology programme that followed the lives of a group of workers at a Manchester textile factory, with each episode focusing on the private life of a different character. Well-known actors and actresses who appeared in the series included Christopher Eccleston, Sophie Okonedo, Philip Glenister, John Simm, Lesley Sharp, Siobhan Finneran, Emma Cunniffe, Diane Parish, David Morrissey, Ricky Tomlinson, Julian Rhind-Tutt, William Ash, Ben Crompton, Jack Deam, Jack P. Shepherd, Tina O'Brien, Jason Merrells, Pam Ferris, Wil Johnson, Ashley Jensen, Susan Cookson, Mark Benton, Lindsey Coulson, Paul Copley, Sarah Lancashire, Crissy Rock, Marshall Lancaster, Marc Warren, Claire Sweeney and Maxine Peake.

The series received high acclaim, winning the British Academy Television Award for Best Drama Series in 2001. However, over the following two years, Abbott's involvement decreased as he pursued other projects. Nonetheless, every series was nominated for a BAFTA and other writers including Danny Brocklehurst, John Fay and Jan McVerry wrote successful standalone episodes. The programme finally ended, after a series with no Abbott scripts at all, in 2003. The BBC said the programme was axed following declining ratings, but Abbott said the programme's demise was down to "a lack of writers able to come up with stories good enough to carry the stand alone episodes."[2]

Twenty-seven episodes were produced across four series, and, in 2004, the first series was released on DVD. In 2015, the first series was released on DVD in Australia[3] and was made available for purchase via the BBC Store.[4]

  1. ^ "BBC – Drama – Clocking off". Archived from the original on 30 July 2012.
  2. ^ "Clocking off axed from BBC". TheGuardian.com. 29 April 2003.
  3. ^ "Movies + TV Shows – Deals on DVD + Blu-Ray at JB Hi-Fi".
  4. ^ "Rakuten TV".
  5. ^ a b c d "Viewing Data — Top Tens". BARB. Retrieved 6 March 2014.