I've just voted for Our Zoo for TV Choice Awards' Best New Drama. It was a series the whole family was able to watch together and loved. We got quite attached to the Mottershead family and their growing extended family of animals. The odds of it winning sadly are extremely remote.

I've voted for Our Zoo in the TV choice awards as Best New Drama despite I agree the chances of it winning being remote. This is why:

I felt Our Zoo was unique, heartwarming and a true gem. I loved how George kept pursuing his dream and didn't give up. It made a refreshing change to all the drama based around violence and murder being shown.

I'd have loved to have discovered how the Mottershead family managed to keep the zoo open during the war. The BBC only just scratched the surface of the incredible story of how Chester Zoo began with the first series of Our Zoo and we didn't even get to see it open.

This is the reason the BBC gave for axing the series: "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." This drama was original and quite different to anything else so I still don't understand why this should have been given as the reason for it not returning for a second series.

Like BBC one's Our Zoo, ITV's Home Fires was also set in Cheshire, pre WW2. This has just been recommissioned for a second series to show what life was like for the women of the WI during the War. It was shown on a Sunday evening.

I just think 'Our Zoo' had so much more potential as a drama series.

Was it due to the animal activists? If it was... this is SO sad as the animals involved in the filming were well cared for (both the BBC and Chester Zoo made sure of this with a vet on set at all times) and the zoo today is doing an incredible job as far as trying to protect critically endangered species:

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats...hester-9398131

Even fans of #OurZoo in New Zealand are hoping for a second series of the show!

http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/ne...tition-9417080 …

HAPPY 84th BIRTHDAY for tomorrow Chester Zoo! The Mottershead family first opened on June 10th 1931. Only a small number of visitors came, although two were local reporters who gave glowing reviews.

(After learning their appeal had been granted on the 13th March 1931, the family had had to wait for the conditions set by Chester Planning Committee, which were not given until 13th May. One of the conditions was no advertisement, sign or noticeboard which could be seen from the road. Only a small sign at the entrance to the estate was permitted.)

I too am really sad this is is not getting a second series. I looked forward to every episode and it was just so magical and heartwarming.
The ratings were pretty good, considering it was up against Scott and Bailey, and its AI ratings were excellent even hitting 90 at one point.
That BBC statement is a standard one which gets trotted out for every cancelled show. Our Zoo was different, fresh and had bags of stories left in it. I hope that the animal activists didn't play a part in its cancellation, and I think it's more likely that it was because this wasn't a co-production (like The Musketeers which has been renewed with fair fewer viewers) and the production company which made it is now owned by ITV (I think).

They haven't officially it, but if you search "Our Zoo Axed"or wikipedia it unfortunately the news is there. Even though the series had 5 mil and more the BBC chose not to renew. It had so much potential!!

I too, am sorry the series has not been renewed but maybe it was deemed to be too expensive to try to recreate a growing zoo. They could not leave as it was and could not use a modern zoo to film, so it may just have cost too much and then there would be all the extra animals involved...

In the first series of Our Zoo, I had really had began to like the Mottershead family and was really rooting for them. In the next series, I was looking forward to seeing the zoo open and what ingenious plans George comes up with to encourage visitors and raise funds. I'd have loved to have seen how Billy and Frankie's relationship developed. Perhaps she could have come and worked at the zoo? I also think there was potential for Lizzie and Billy's parent's hill farm in the Lake District, which June wrote about so fondly in her book, to be brought into the series. Also she mentioned there were many eccentric aristocratic personalities ,such as the Russell Allen Sisters,who helped the zoo, plus the orphans and refugees who came to work there and Lizzie took under her wing, who could have been featured, In the book, I think the human personalities sound just as interesting as the animal ones and the growing zoo could have been inferred rather than explicitly shown.

Lovely to know that 'Our Zoo' was a success in New Zealand and people there are signing the petition to bring it back:

http://www.chesterchronicle.co.uk/ne...tition-9417080

Lovely to read that Chester Zoo has recently been given awards for the conservation work it does. Also to see the photos of the baby Rothschild giraffe recently born there:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...ester-Zoo.html

The numbers of this species of giraffe left in the wild is only 1100, due to the loss of its natural habitat to agriculture and due to hunting.


People are still signing this petition to bring back Our Zoo and there are nearly three times as many signatures as giraffes:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/b...ies-of-our-zoo

Our Zoo is being enjoyed by friends in Canada: http://www.visiontv.ca/shows/our-zoo/
I do miss this series.

I cannot believe this has not been repeated.

This must be a first for the BBC!

Sadly, this is good old fashioned family entertainment. Something the BBC used to stand for.

The demise of Our Zoo says an awful lot about why the BBC is doomed as the treasured institution that it used to be. It is just another tacky ratings chasing monolith and as such deserves no special status alongside other channels.

If it did then it would nurture exactly this kind of series.

Seeing the thread I thought the BBC might have had a change of heart and brought back this wonderful family drama but sadly not. It's a great story about an ordinary family who didn't give up on their dream of a zoo without bars and went on to leave a wonderful legacy behind in Chester Zoo. Today this zoo, which is a charity, mission is to focus on trying to save endangered species around the world. (Go to it's website Act for Wildlife to see just some of the projects it is involved in.)

Totally agree with the above. This was such an inspiring story and one the whole family could enjoy. It was refreshing as there was no violence, murder or foul language.

Chester Zoo has always been innovative. Great to read today about its conservation efforts regarding the Bald ibis which is facing extinction in Europe and how the zoo is successfully breeding these birds and reintroducing them back into the wild.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34289174

I would have loved to have learned more about how this zoo began and the Mottershead family.

Reluctantly, I have to agree with this. There are still some wonderful programmes on the BBC but they are getting fewer and fewer. I watch very little on BBC1 these days and BBC2 is following suit. BBC4 is a gem but will possibly be sacrificed on the altar of downmarket-trash-for-the-dull-witted on BBC1.

Our Zoo was a lovely drama which should have been broadcast at 6pm or 7pm on a Sunday (remember those Sunday teatime dramas? They were given due respect). No-one can tell me Partners In Crime, Doctor Foster or series 199 of Silent Witness is what the BBC should be making ahead of Our Zoo.

The reason the BBC gave for not renewing Our Zoo "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."

The BBC doesn't seem to be increasing the range at all. It's yet more dramas involving the same themes - violent murders and affairs....

As discussed earlier in the thread when the series was airing Our Zoo got some of the best Audience Appreciation figures on record. This rates how viewers who watched the series felt they enjoyed it.

So it got a reasonable audience and that audience loved it far more than, for example, EastEnders or Doctor Who, based on those appreciation index figures.

Everyone knew and some said even before its first episode aired this was not remotely a 9 pm midweek show and it would have got a better audience on a Sunday evening around 8 pm. In fact putting it on post watershed was idiotic as was preventing the family watching together by starting it at that hour mid week when schools had just reopened that week! Parents are not going to keep their children up that week of all weeks so whoever was paid to schedule this show messed up here in my opinion.

You can only presume that for some reason the BBC wanted rid of this series. Maybe it was too expensive to make. Maybe there were political forces at work we don't know about. Either way the way it was treated makes no sense in terms of either scheduling or reaction to the very clear love of the audience for what was broadcast.

It can't have helped that shortly after BIg Talk was commissioned by the BBC to produce the drama series 'Our Zoo', it was taken over by ITV!

Many people do miss 'Our Zoo' and are still puzzled by why it was scheduled so late in the evening despite being such great family viewing:

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/b...ies-of-our-zoo

Tinfoil hat.

This was a brilliant drama and great viewing for all the familyThere is more to the story that can be told and we've only just scratched the surface . It is a shame for whatever reason it wasn't renewed.

Lots of interesting stuff about OurZoo on twitter #OurZoo....it obviously does have its fans.

On World Rhino Day it is great to read out the incredible work the charity Chester Zoo, BBC Our Zoo, is doing to help save these animals:

http://www.actforwildlife.org.uk/blo...orld-rhino-day

I've just watched the Our Zoo series again. It truly is an inspiring story. People today do indeed need to be inspired and to feel they can be proactive and change things to 'bring a bit of beauty back into the world'. There's so much suffering taking place at the moment and the forest fires in Indonesia continue to burn despite many animals there being on the brink of extinction. (There are only one hundred Sumatran Rhinos left.)

George Mottershead managed to make a difference. In 1930 he wasn't happy with the way animals were being kept in captivity and wanted to improve the way they were treated. He managed to do this despite facing huge opposition and with very little money. Today the charity Chester Zoo's main aim is to help with the conservation of species and it is involved in helping conserve animals all over the world and to raise awareness of issues like the link to the palm oil we consume and the destruction of the rainforest.

Surely the BBC should be making more dramas like these which inspire people to make a difference and do something good.

Indeed,and when the remains of the BBC become a subscription only channel owned by Sky with a zillion adverts and they bemoan this fate to the country - perhaps they should really look back upon decisions such as this. Because they are why the BBC is heading for oblivion as the proud, globally respected broadcasting force that it once was and morphed into a ratings chasing clone of every other channel.

Once it started down that road voluntarily it lost any credible basis for deserving the special status that in the past it has rightly held.

Interestingly the first two episodes of the new series of Doctor Who got very good audience appreciation (though less than Our Zoo). The ratings were worse than Our Zoo last night! There were special circumstances (the rugby) but the first was not much better without that excuse and they have got two of the - if not THE two - worst ratings in the 52 year history of the show. What's the betting - though - that the BBC will be renewing it nonetheless citing popularity abroad etc.

So they can put ratings to one side when it suits them to do so. Though the merchandising of Doctor Who brings in a fortune and will not exactly be irrelevant to that decision.