Barrowman: 'Torchwood cuts felt like punishment'

John Barrowman has said a decision to make just five episodes for the new series of Torchwood felt like a punishment.

The series - which stars John as Captain Jack Harkness - will see a new adventure, Children Of Earth, told over five episodes.

"The five episodes, the mini-series as I call it, are incredible - I have no doubt about that - but personally, I felt like we were being punished," the star told the Radio Times.

The programme's popularity has seen it jump from BBC3 to BBC2 and most recently to BBC1 for the new, third series.

John continued: "I'm going to get a little political and I'll probably get into trouble for it.

"We were the most successful show on BBC3, ever. We moved to BBC2 because the ratings were so good; the ratings were great again (averaging 3.1 million) and we were beating shows that had been on BBC2 for a long time.

"Other shows move from BBC3 and 2 to 1, and they don't get cut. So why are we? It felt like every time we moved we had to prove ourselves."

The show's writer and creator Russell T Davies defended the changes.

He told the magazine: "Part of us thought: 'We could do another 13 episodes, we've learnt how to do that, and the second series was better than the first'. But why not change it?"

A BBC spokesman said: "We wanted to create a powerful sense of event when the show came to BBC1 and so talked with the show makers about a story that could run over five consecutive days.

"This is something we have only ever done before with Criminal Justice and Occupation."