Survivors - BBC TV

Survivors is a two series (twelve episode) post-apocalyptic TV drama broadcast on BBC One and the BBC HD channel between November 2008 and February 2010, and broadcast on TV networks in the USA, Canada, Europe and beyond. This (entirely unofficial and independent) blog provides a guide to the production, promotion, transmission and reception of the BBC’s Survivors (2008-2010).

Brought to the screen by showrunner (and lead script writer) Adrian Hodges, the programme was a ‘re-imagining’ of the classic end-of-the-world drama Survivors, devised by Terry Nation shown on BBC1 between 1975 and 1977, and drew its initial inspiration from Nation’s 1976 Survivors novel.

The first series of the new Survivors was broadcast in the UK in November and December 2008. The second series began transmission in January 2010. At the conclusion of series two, the BBC declined to commission a third series.

In 2010 a Series 3 please BBC group was set-up on Facebook to rally support amongst fans to lobby the BBC to overturn the cancellation decision. The group has since been dissolved. At around the same time a Continue Survivors BBC petition was set up at PetitionOnline and attracted several thousand signatures. PetitionOnline has since wound up operations.

All three series of the original Survivors and both series of the new Survivors are available for purchase on Region 1 and Region 2 DVD.

Both series of the new Survivors are also available for purchase through iTunes. In 2011 both series of Survivors secured a French-language DVD release (with French and English audio-tracks and French subtitles) as Les Survivants de L’apocalypse.

The cancelled show attracted renewed audience interest in the US, when both series one and series two of Survivors were licenced by the Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and Hulu streaming services.

In the UK, in 2012, the BT Vision service began to offer both series for streaming download, as part of its range of TV channel packages and on a pay-per-episode basis.

An unofficial guidebook to the original Survivors was published in 2005. An unofficial guidebook to the new Survivors was published in 2010.

In July 2013, audio-drama publishers Big Finish announced that they would be producing collections of new audio dramas based on the original (1975-1977) Survivors. The first series of new Survivors audio adventures was released (on CD and as a digital download) in June 2014.

An audio-book of the 1976 Survivors novel (on which the 2008-2010 remake of Survivors is based), voiced by Carolyn Seymour (who played Abby Grant in the 1975 TV series) was released by Big Finish productions in December 2014. Between 2015 and 2019, a further seven series of original Survivors audio stories were released: making nine series and 36 episodes in total.