Okay, let’s be honest. There is a big difference between public television, where the members pay to support the shows, and stations like ITV, where advertisements from paying vendors help pay the bills.

As the first episode of season two aired today, July 22, 2022, on ITV, small scenes were cut here and there to allow for advertisements. The PBS showing was uncut, with no ads and a full 54 minutes.

Hello Magazine reported that ITV cut 14 minutes from episode one! That’s right, 14 minutes! Fans were furious, and rightly so! If they continue to cut 14 minutes each episode, 84 minutes of season two will be left on the cutting room floor and denied the public’s viewing.

Twitter fans report more cuts on subsequent episodes involving the following:

  • Alexander apologizes to Charlotte in the study the day after the garden party.
  • Lennox getting ready for the ball, hoping Charlotte accepts his proposal.
  • Augusta’s lines at the ball.
  • Fraser and Alison’s lines while walking on the beach.
  • Fraser tells Carter he needs to apologize to Alison.
  • Conversation between Alison and Charlotte on the balcony.
  • Charlotte demands answers from Colbourne at the ball.
  • Mrs. Wheatley conforming Alexander after he dismisses Charlotte.
  • Colbourne’s horse ride on the beach shortened.
  • Tea room scene with Arthur and Georgiana
  • Lady Denham arrives at the fair and discusses with Georgiana the sugar boycott.
  • Charlotte arrives in E6 to find out that the family is having breakfast outdoors together.

Justin Young, the head writer on Sanditon season two, said this on Twitter, “And again, for clarity – Masterpiece and ITV have different slot lengths, so there were edits. Our team worked very hard to lose as little as possible while maintaining the integrity and clarity of the stories, but alas, the slot lengths are non-negotiable.”

Naturally, I encourage people to stream elsewhere, such as on BritBoxUK, for a mere £5.99 per month after a 7-day trial, where you can cancel anytime. At least you will see 14 minutes more of each episode and critical scenes that were cut!

It also appears that the UK DVD version advertised on Amazon UK is 30 minutes shorter than the US-released version by PBS. The run-time for the UK version shows 5 hours and 6 minutes, while the US version runs for 5 hours and 30 minutes.

Frankly, it’s heartbreaking that the general public, viewing Sanditon season two on ITV, is losing out on critical scenes woven throughout the story. Here are a few below; some may be out of order.

Other missing scenes.

via GIPHY

via GIPHY

3 Comments

  1. Which scenes have been cut & what can we viewers do about it??

    1. Author

      After Charlotte’s interview with Colbourne, they only showed when she left his office. They cut out the dog getting up and running after her, Charlotte hugging Luna, and Luna running back to the house barking. Episodes will stream on ITV Hub, a paying on-demand ad-free service. In the meantime, ITV will probably continue to cut small portions in order to place paid advertising.

  2. From my reading of the Hello magazine article, ITV has 14 minutes of adverts in each hour. This leaves 46 minutes for the episode, compared with a full episode of 54 minutes (quoted above), losing approximately 8* minutes per show on average, or 48 minutes in total (not 84 minutes as calculated above). Indeed, the difference between the UK and USA DVD quoted times is only 24 minutes in total, though that is still a disgrace. I originally watched the episodes on Britbox and if I’m shortchanged timewise on the Amazon UK DVD, then I’ll send it back. (*my previous calculation from reading the Hello article was 7 minutes). Thought : could it also be that the DVD time diffrences are due to different running speeds for different codes ? The UK system is PAL.

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