BBC Two has decided against renewing newsroom drama The Hour for a third series, the corporation has confirmed. The show, starring Dominic West and Ben Whishaw, followed the lives of fictional BBC journalists at the Old Lime Grove studios in London, and despite showing early promise in its first run, failed to pull in the viewers for its sophomore season. Whishaw's performance as idealistic reporter Freddie Lyons was no doubt instrumental in his casting of Q in Sam Mendes' James Bond movie Skyfall.

The show, penned by Shame and The Iron Lady writer Abi Morgan, received multiple award nominations and drew around 2.2 million viewers for its first season. However, its second run pulled in just 1.47 millions on average, despite getting nods at the BAFTAs, Emmys and the Golden Globes. Broadcast magazine reported that Jane Fatherstone - chief executive of Kudos which produced the show - was "sad and disappointed," by the decision, as the original aim had been to produce three series. A BBC spokeswoman said, "We loved the show but have to make hard choices to bring new shows through."

Though it's bad news for The Hour cast and crew, it's hard to conceive its lead stars will be short of work in the near future. In fact, it was recently announced that Dominic West would play Welsh acting legend Richard Burton in a BBC Four drama charting his relationship with Elizabeth Taylor. Whishaw recently completed filming Terry Gilliam's computer hacker drama The Zero Theorem with Christoph Waltz and Matt Damon.

Watch The Trailer For Season Two of 'The Hour':