TV drama clear outs

In this week's Radio Times columnist Alison Graham argues that it is time for Silent Witness to be axed, arguing that the some what atrocious scenes of pathologists taking part in police interrogations and other aspects of investigations. She says that it has had a good run for 20 years but it is now time for it to go.  Silent Witness started in 1996 as an Amanda Burton starring vehicle (she left in 2004) and has been going ever since, to put this in prospective BBC1 that launched 2 other succesful dramas in the form of Ballykissangel and Dalziel & Pascoe. Ballykissangel finished in 2001 and Dalziel and Pascoe came to an end in 2007. Graham points out that the BBC has enough shows to do with out Silent Witness and this brings us to an interesting point. In the early 1990's an number of long running BBC drama hits came to an end including Bergerac, Howard's Way, All Creatures Great and Small and the highly debatable axing of Doctor Who. On the DVD release of the last Doctor Who story broadcast Survival Peter Creegan the head Drama at the BBC at the time argues that these needed to go to freshen up the schedules though by the argument he gives Casualty should have ended in 1993. However the shows that were supposed to have replaced the hits turned to be complete flops, who can remember Moon & Son or Trainer to name just 2 examples. Graham does argue that the BBC does have enough shows to axe Silent Witness though given the example of the early 1990's full blown clear outs tend to have the opposite effect.