The producer of ITV's ￡12m Titanic mini-series has admitted the show's nonlinear storytelling, which sees the ship hit the iceberg in each episode, may have put viewers off the Julian Fellowes-scripted drama that has foundered in the ratings.

Nigel Stafford-Clark said it was his idea to have a narrative moving back and forth in time, as a fresh approach to a well-known story. The four-parter, which concludes on Sunday night, launched successfully with 7.4 million viewers, but had fallen to 3.5 million by the third instalment – fewer than saw a show marking comedian Des O'Connor's 80th birthday which preceded it on ITV1. Stafford-Clark, a 30-year TV industry veteran with producer credits including Peter Kosminsky's Northern Ireland docu-drama Shoot to Kill and the same director's Bosnian war drama Warriors, said he was proud of Titanic, which focuses on different classes aboard the doomed liner in each episode. He had previously enjoyed critical and ratings success for a similar fresh approach with BBC1's 2005 Bleak House adaptation, which broke up the Dickens story into TV soap-sized half hour episodes. But he admitted Titanic had failed to woo viewers in the same way. "I have to accept that people have found it hard to get around. In that sense I am responsible," he said.

He also defended Fellowes' work on the drama. "The scripts were very good. Julian is not in any way responsible for this. He wrote the scripts over 18 months to two years, it was not done in a hurry. The series was sold off the back of the script."

Simon Vaughan, the executive producer who first pitched the idea of a TV drama to mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking and raised co-production funding around the world, said when he began the project five years ago he had no idea there would be so much competition.

As well as the re-release of James Cameron's blockbuster movie in 3D, the ITV drama has had to compete with a glut of TV documentaries, including BBC1's Titanic with Len Goodman and Channel 5's Nazi Titanic: Revealed.

However, the ITV Studios-produced mini-series looks like being a commercial success, having sold to nearly 100 countries, with the DVD released in the UK on Monday. "As a piece of business it's been exceptional, financially extremely valuable to everyone involved," Vaughan said.

An ITV spokesman said: "The 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking was marked with programmes from all the channels, and we are proud to have offered our audience a new drama that had real scale and ambition."

詹姆斯·卡梅隆的經(jīng)典之作《泰坦尼克號》以3D重制后正在國內(nèi)掀起新一輪的“泰坦”票房風潮，也在全球各地收獲著不錯的票房成績，而備受外界期待的ITV迷你劇版《泰坦尼克號》（Titanic）卻不怎么受待見。這部1200萬英鎊打造的“大船”在英國的收視率遠遠低于預(yù)期，在首播收獲了700多萬觀眾之后，該劇目前的收視已經(jīng)跌落了一半還多。

該劇制作人Nigel Stafford-Clark近日“站出來”聲稱自己為“泰坦尼克號”低迷收視率承擔責任。Nigel Stafford-Clark承認，該劇非線性的故事敘事方式——讓大船每集都撞一次冰山，每集聚焦不同的階層——正是由他提出的點子，他認為正因如此才讓劇集處于現(xiàn)在收視窘境。

"劇本寫的非常棒，朱利安·費羅斯對收視率的下滑沒有任何關(guān)聯(lián)，（他）僅是劇本就寫了近兩年時間，但是（我們）拍攝和制作太顯匆忙，劇集（成品）有點辜負了這么好的劇本?！眻?zhí)行制片人Simon Vaughan也表示，五年前我們有制作迷你劇想法的時候沒有預(yù)料到競爭環(huán)境如此之大，正值泰坦尼克號沉船100周年之際，很多人都拿此做文章——卡梅隆的經(jīng)典《泰坦尼克號》3D重制版本“吞噬”了一部分觀眾，還有各種電視紀錄片的夾擊，例如，英國BBC One的節(jié)目《Titanic with Len Goodman》， Channel 5的《Nazi Titanic: Revealed》等等都讓觀眾分流。

盡管在英國的收視率不給力，但是ITV的劇版《泰坦尼克號》仍然取得了巨大的商業(yè)成功，全球暢銷100多個國家，DVD版本也將在英國當?shù)貢r間4月16日發(fā)行。

ITV迷你劇版《泰坦尼克號》（Titanic）將于英國當?shù)貢r間4月15號播出第四集，即該劇的完結(jié)集，敬請關(guān)注。

簡介：ITV電視版《泰坦尼克號》由英國金牌編劇朱利安·費羅斯（《唐頓莊園》、《高斯福德莊園》獲得奧斯卡原創(chuàng)劇本獎）傾力打造。共有4集，每集1小時時長。圍繞中心將與詹姆斯·卡梅隆的電影版非常不同。朱利安·費羅斯承諾將給全世界觀眾從一個在其它影視作品中不曾有過的視角去講述那次事故。電視版的主要演員數(shù)量有89人之多，是個不折不扣的“群戲”。劇集將聚焦于不同的階層的乘客、船員，通過多視角來展現(xiàn)泰坦尼克號當時的方方面面。觀眾們將和角色們一起經(jīng)歷泰坦尼克號沉船前的幾個小時，經(jīng)歷那從愉悅到悲痛的落差感以及生離死別。通過泰坦尼克號的上形形色色的人物，來展現(xiàn)當時英國資產(chǎn)階級的眾生相。