10 Cult TV Shows Taken Too Soon

2. The Fades

Another show based on a supernatural theme, the show was created and written by Jack Thorne, responsible most recently for His Dark Materials along with the This Is England series. It also featured a cast of British talent that has gone on to thrive in the US; Iain De Caestecker from Agents of SHIELD, Daniel Kaluuya from Get Out, Game of Thrones’ Natalie Dormer and Joe Dempsie plus Tom Ellis, star of Lucifer.

De Caestecker played Paul, a character able to see spirits of the dead, the Fades of the title. Unable to ascend, these Fades try to become human again and regain their bodies and destroy humanity, Paul and a few others are the only ones able to see these Fades and must try to stop their plan.

Airing on BBC3, the show drew critical praise and indeed won the BAFTA for best drama series in 2012. That wasn’t enough to earn a second series though, the suggestion being that the show didn’t draw enough of the young audience that was BBC3’s remit. While the cast may have gone on to bigger things, you have to wonder where else the show may have led given the paucity of original genre shows on UK TV.