Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GUNS DIRECTION FEATHER BUSTER
ITV to axe revived Birds of a Feather as BGT is expanded
CLASSIC sitcom Birds of a Feather has been ditched five years after its revival on ITV, while Britain’s Got Talent will get a longer run.
The former BBC comedy, starring Linda Robson, Pauline Quirke and Lesley Joseph, proved an instant hit in 2014 after 15 years off air.
But after three series and two Christmas specials, there are no plans for more.
And the extra BGT shows will fill the gap left by Saturday Night Takeaway taking a break, along with Dermot O’leary’s Small Fortune.
ITV boss Kevin Lygo said yesterday: “We had success with Birds of a Feather, that was our most successful sitcom in years, but it’s come to a sort of natural end.”
Takeaway is not airing this year to give Ant Mcpartlin more time to recover after his arrest for drink-driving.
Saying resting the show was the “right idea”, Lygo added: “A year off will refresh it and help the show so when it comes back it will be a big moment.”
Giving an overview of 2018, Lygo said scripted comedy’s future remained “quite bleak”.
Jack Dee’s sitcom Bad Move – which co-stars disgraced Strictly contestant Seann Walsh – will also not return.
“We had two series but I don’t think we’re continuing. It’s very, very hard,” he said.
Viewers could instead get character-based laughs from soaps, he said, with Corrie’s Steve Mcdonald and on-off wife Tracy “like a sitcom”.
And despite falling ratings, Lygo said he had no plans to axe The X Factor, preferring to try and “make it leap again”.
He added: “That will be great if we could find that thing for X Factor.”
Birds of a Feather first aired on BBC1 from 1989 to 1998.
Linda, 60, and Pauline, 59, play sisters whose husbands were jailbirds and Lesley, 73, was their randy neighbour.