{"id":787996,"date":"2026-10-01T00:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T00:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787996\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T00:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T00:50:11","slug":"sheridan-smith-thriller-dubbed-british-drama-at-its-best-has-been-axed-by-bbc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787996\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheridan Smith thriller dubbed “British drama at its best” has been ‘axed by BBC’"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC has axed The Cage, the crime drama that starred Sheridan Smith and Michael Socha as a duo who attempt to steal from a Liverpool casino, and get thrown into a world of dangerous gangsters.<\/p>\n

Created by Tony Schumacher, the man behind Martin Freeman’s The Responder, the show premiered in April and ran for five episodes.<\/p>\n

Despite impressing critics and fans alike, as well as leaving some loose ends open<\/a>, the decision has been made not to do another season.<\/p>\n

\"sheridan<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: Best streaming services UK 2026 \u2013 including Disney+, Netflix, iPlayer and Apple TV<\/a><\/p>\n

A BBC spokesperson told Digital Spy: “We loved bringing Leanne and Matty’s story to BBC viewers and send our heartfelt thanks to Tony Schumacher, Element Pictures and all the cast and crew who worked on this powerful and poignant series.”<\/p>\n

On Rotten Tomatoes<\/a>, the show has a perfect 100% rating from 11 critic reviews, meaning that all of them were positive about The Cage.<\/p>\n

“The writing by former cop and taxi driver Tony Schumacher is as sharp and true to life as the two lead performances,” wrote The Observer<\/a>. “It’s rare today to see a portrayal of working people that isn’t patronising or freighted with tick-box political fashions, from beneath which the characters struggle to emerge. But this is British drama at its best.”<\/p>\n

Digital Spy<\/a>‘s own review<\/a> called it “an evolving, consuming drama that stokes your empathy, moving the audience deeply and making it a worthy watch”.<\/p>\n

\"sheridan<\/p>\n

BBC<\/p>\n

Related: Ludwig drops first-look pics of David Mitchell filming series 3 of \u201ccaptivating\u201d BBC detective series<\/a> <\/p>\n

While the show isn’t coming back. the Beeb still has not one, but two big shows on the way with production company Element Pictures.<\/p>\n

There’s rom-com drama<\/a> You Are Here, starring Claire Foy and Matthew Macfadyen as two characters who a thrown together by a mutual friend and thrown into “an epic adventure”.<\/p>\n

The second season of thriller<\/a> Nightsleeper is also on the way, with Colin Morgan, Ian McElhinney, and Sally Lindsay among the cast.<\/p>\n

The Cage is available to stream on BBC iPlayer.<\/p>\n

Visit our Streaming Guide<\/a> now to see at a glance where you can view ALL your favourite shows and movies.<\/p>\n

The new edition of Legends, a 100-page celebration of Dolly Parton’s life, is here. Buy Dolly in newsagents or online<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he’s covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV<\/a> and movies<\/a> both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I’m a Fish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC has axed The Cage, the crime drama that starred Sheridan Smith and Michael Socha as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[147950,379,259495,381,96,190731,1156,259494,223205,391,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-787996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-collection-latest-news","tag-content-type-news","tag-contentid-bca14ee6-b21f-4020-af5d-42952978761e","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-entertainment","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-gb","tag-shorttitle-sheridan-smith-thriller-dubbed-british-drama-at-its-best-has-been-axed-by-bbc","tag-sponsored-false","tag-tv","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}