Guillotined!
BBC axes its lavish £21m drama Versailles after viewers are turned off by endless sex scenes
IT is the romp through French history that has become known less for its plot and more for its graphic scenes of sex and violence.
But while Versailles may be the BBC’s raunchiest drama to date – averaging three X-rated scenes per 55-minute episode – viewers have found it a turn-off.
With ratings for the BBC2 show having fallen from 1.8million to just one million, it has been sent to the guillotine.
The period drama, made by French cable channel Canal Plus, will be scrapped after its third season, which will be shown in France from April 23. No date has yet been announced for when BBC2 will screen the final ten episodes.
With a budget of £21million, the show was the most expensive French TV series ever made. But it seems that viewers on both sides of the Channel were turned off by the drama’s steamy nature – which last season included a 24-person orgy featuring several bare bottoms.
In 2016 more than 1.8million tuned in to watch the first episode, which contained seven graphic sex scenes, but around a third of them switched off before it ended.
A source told The Sun: ‘The BBC made a big decision when it bought Versailles from Canal Plus, particularly with all the fullfrontal nudity. At first, viewers were open to all the pornographic scenes but slowly the BBC saw Versailles ratings drop to just one million viewers – and it seems to have had the same effect in France too.
‘They believe it will have run its course after the third series, which will see Louis XIV achieve absolute power, so they have decided there won’t be a series four.’
‘Pornography dressed up as period drama’
Some critics have complained that the show is too pornographic. Viewers of season two, which aired this time last year, criticised the steamy scenes. One wrote on Twitter: ‘ Good grief, I was watching #Springwatch a few minutes ago and glanced up to see a very different broody couple #Versailles.’
Another said: ‘Well, gonna put #Versailles on the list of shows never to watch with my grandparents ever again.’
Normal Wells, of the Family Education Trust, said Versailles was ‘quite simply pornography dressed up’ as period drama.
Set in the 17th century, the series follows the decision of the Sun King, played by English actor George Blagden, to relocate his court from Paris to Versailles.
Central to the plot are the rivalry of Louis’ various mistresses and the love life of his openly gay younger brother Philippe, Duke of Orleans, played by Welsh actor Alexander Vlahos. Philippe does have time for two wives, however – the first, Henrietta of England, daughter of Charles I, is portrayed as having an affair with Louis. The second is the plain Princess Palatine Elisabeth Charlotte, played by Jessica Clark.
Season three will see Louis begin a fiery romance with Madame de Maintenon, played by Catherine Walker, who shares his desire for power and domination.
As this happens, the French monarch encounters a particularly important prisoner, the Man in the Iron Mask.
Canal Plus programming boss Fabrice de la Patelliere confirmed the third series will be the last. He said making Versailles had been ‘a wildly ambitious journey’.
The BBC last night refused to comment.