The Innocence Project

The Innocence Project
GenreLegal drama
Created byOliver Brown[1]
Written byStephen Brady
Ed McCardie
Paul Logue
Abigail Harvey
Directed byBill Anderson
Peter Hoar
Morag Mackinnon
StarringLloyd Owen
Christine Bottomley
Ruth Bradley
Stephen Graham
Oliver James
Luke Treadaway
Shelley Conn
ComposerTim Phillips
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series1
No. of episodes8[2] (list of episodes)
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Production
Executive producersPaul Abbott
Hilary Bevan-Jones
ProducerKirstie MacDonald
CinematographyIan Adrian
EditorsCharles Alexander
Fiona Colbeck
Running time60 minutes
Production companiesTightrope Pictures
BBC Northern Ireland
Original release
NetworkBBC One
Release9 November 2006 (2006-11-09) –
7 February 2007 (2007-02-07)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Innocence Project is a television drama series created by BBC Northern Ireland and first broadcast on BBC One on 9 November 2006. The series follows the work of Professor Jon Ford (Lloyd Owen), who sets up The Innocence Project, peopled entirely by a hand-picked group of law students. They take on cases pro bono that no one else will handle, or those that have been forgotten or given up on, working for clients that would otherwise have no hope, and who have possibly been wrongly convicted. The series is based on a British version of the Innocence Project, a non-profit legal clinic in the United States.[3]

The Innocence Project fared particularly poorly for a BBC primetime drama, and received a number of negative reviews. In an unusual move for the BBC, the series was pulled from the schedules mid-run, and the final three episodes were not broadcast until over a month later.[4] The BBC subsequently confirmed that the series would not be renewed. Notably, the series has also never been issued on DVD.

  1. ^ "The Innocence Project Starts Thursday 9 November at 8.00pm on BBC ONE" BBC.co.uk (Press Office), 5 October 2006 (Retrieved: 18 July 2009)
  2. ^ "The Innocence Project — new drama for BBC ONE follows a group of ambitious law students" BBC.co.uk (Press Office), 16 May 2006 (Retrieved: 18 July 2009)
  3. ^ Smallman, Etan (23 April 2007). "The Innocence Squad". The Times. Archived from the original on 7 October 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2009.
  4. ^ Dowell, Ben (3 December 2006). "Innocence lost on BBC1 viewers". The Observer. Retrieved 18 July 2009.