Merlin’s Episode Cutbacks due to Budget Issues

Merlin Julian Murphy, producer of Merlin, has confirmed the reason why the next series of BBC series will only feature 10 episodes is because of budget reasons.

MerlinJulian Murphy, producer of Merlin, has confirmed the reason why the next series of BBC series will only feature 10 episodes is because of budget reasons. The BBC announced that am fourth series of Merlin has been commissioned for next year but it will only feature 10 episodes instead of the usual 13. Almost immediately speculation began as to the reasons for the reduced episode order with two lines of theory forming; to avoid schedule conflicts with Doctor Who which will be spilt in half next year or because of budget issues. In an interview with SFX Julian Murphy confirmed that budget issues were the reason for fewer episodes.

 

“It was brutally about money. Merlin is an expensive show, no question of that. And what we are not prepared to do is cut its budget or production values. It’s not a programme you can do that with. For us, Merlin relies on those production values. So I think it was a combination of our desire not to change or reduce the budget, and the lack of money at the BBC and elsewhere. The BBC has had a really tough hit.” – Julian Murphy in SFX

Season Three of Merlin reaches its two-part finale on BBC One this evening while Syfy in America recently confirmed the third series will air on the broadcaster from January 2011. The two-part season finale are “real game changing stuff” Murphy said in the interview with SFX and will delve deeper into the Arthurian mythology.