BBC fans gutted over thriller’s axe despite it making them ‘want to vomit’

It’s not every day that you see viewers left devastated after a series that ‘made them want to vomit’ gets cancelled.

But for Virdee on the BBC, the show’s fiercely loyal fans have described the decision to axe it after just one decision as ‘madness’.

Adapted from A A Dhand’s best-selling crime novel series, the 2025 six-part thriller failed to attract sufficient viewing numbers to for a second series.

The Bradford-based show, which raked in an average of 743,000 viewers on its Monday slot on BBC One, saw DCI Harry Virdee (Game of Thrones star Staz Nair) hunt down a killer targeting the West Yorkshire city’s Asian community.

Throughout the rest of the series, it also explores the outrage of the detective’s Sikh family after Harry decides to marry Saima (Aysha Kala), who is Muslim.

According to an insider for The Sun newspaper’s TVBiz column: ‘There was a lot of hope that Virdee would work because it was a deviation for a crime series, and it did gain its own following.’

However, despite the second series getting cancelled, the BBC is said to be keen to cast Staz in future programmes.

A BBC spokesperson added: ‘We’d like to thank Amit Dhand and the Virdee team for a brilliant series, we are really proud of the show, and we are talking to Amit about future projects.’

Reacting to the news of the show’s cancellation, Steve on X complained that it ‘wasn’t promoted that much’ by the BBC.

Ian also wrote: ‘Madness, Virdee was brilliant and had so much potential the BBC should re show it prime time and see. Even only fools and horses didn’t hit the mark in its first series.’

Meanwhile, Lee added: ‘Really gutted by this. The first season wasn’t wrapped up too well, so I think everyone originally planned for S2. Was a real good drama.

‘Was a lot darker than most prime time shows, which made it stand out. Think the BBC have made a mistake with this decision.’

This comes after viewers previously claimed that the camerawork of Virdee ‘made them want to be sick’.

As fans tuned into the show, they struggled to adjust to the camera angles which many found to be ‘choppy’ and even ‘nauseating.’

X user @PeanutLC86 wrote: ‘I still feel sick from the camera work it was so jumpy I could actually be sick! #virdee’

On a more positive note, however, fans were ecstatic to see an ‘outstanding’ crime thriller return to the BBC earlier this month.

Silent Witness is back for a whopping 29th season on the BBC, as the forensic crime team star in two five-part stories.

Following Nikki (Emilia Fox) and Jack (David Caves) as newlyweds, the couple have moved to a new base in Birmingham.

There is also a hitman on the loose, leaving Nikki and Jack to hunt down the mysterious man.

Virdee is available to watch on BBC iPlayer.

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