An open letter to Universal UK

Let me start by saying, I think you are brilliant. Since the announcement was made back in February that you were getting the rights to Flashpoint (All episodes, including the ones which, at that time, hadn't been made yet), I supported you.

I was happy you were treating this show with respect. That you were airing it at a decent time. Even happier once we (we being the fans) realised you were giving us plenty of opportunity to see each episode (3 airings of each episode within 24 hours can't be bad!), and to repeat the run a total of, what is it now, 3 times?

I've had the pleasure and – dare I say it without sounding egotistical – privilege of watching the fan numbers rise on the Producers own Facebook group. Sure not all of those are UK based, but believe me when I say there are a LOT more now than there were before you started showing it.

Alright, I may have been slightly vocal about your episode numbering system and the airing order, but we managed to work around that.

Ultimately though, I was happy. I can appreciate that you didn't want to rush onwards and overdose us with new episodes. You left us on a great cliffhanger with Ed Lane being shot.

But come on now, it's been several months since the last new episode aired and people are getting tetchy over the missing episodes.

Given that some of the episodes we've yet to see have been aired in Canada and the US for over a year now, there are plenty of spoilers out there. You can't blame those who have seen the episodes. They've kept quiet this long, how much longer can they go on being quiet?

I was still loyal though, encouraging people to stay cool. “They'll show them soon..” I would say. Hell, I started a blog entry and updated it twice a week with your schedule. I noticed a gap in the schedules coming up. Could this be it?

Sadly, no. No offence to the Sea Patrol fans, but it seems you're dropping Flashpoint altogether at the end of September.

Which brings me to the point of this. We've been patient, but patience always has to run thin.

On the 16^th of October, the missing episodes will be released on DVD in Canada. Now I'm not suggesting that everyone rushes out to buy this, but what I'm warning is that people will. I know of at least 5 UK viewers who have already pro-ordered. Alright that's just 5 people out of the thousands who watch it. But it could be more.

What I'm worried about is your advertisers. The more people who have to buy it on DVD, the less people who will be targets for your advertisers. And let's face it, you may not care about the viewers – we're not your customers. The advertisers WILL know.

Is it too late for you to show the missing 18 episodes? I don't know. But please bear this in mind when you come to think about what to do with Season 5 (which starts in 2 weeks time in Canada...)