Piglets: ITV cop comedy labelled 'worst sitcom ever' to return for second series despite controversy

Piglets, starring Mark Heap and Sarah parish, aired on ITV on July and cause waves when it first hit screens. The show follows a group of new recruits at a police training academy.

Actor Ricky Champ, who plays Sergeant Daz Black on the sitcom, has revealed that the show is set to return. He told the Reading Between The Lines podcast: “Piglets has been commissioned for series two. It’s crazy, because we got absolutely slammed.

“The first series came out and it was met with absolute venom – across the board. Immediately, I thought, “That’s that done”. But it got good figures and ITV obviously noticed that.”

The name of the series, a play on the “disgusting” nickname sometimes used refer to police officers, caused issue for the Police Federation of England and Wales, which called the name “highly offensive”. Tiffany Lynch, Acting National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, previously spoke out about the show, claiming it was “inflammatory against a landscape of rising threats and violence against officers”. Some viewers were also happy with the name, with 106 complaints made to Ofcom.

Critics and viewers were also not particularly impressed with the cop comedy, which is written by the team behind the Channel 4 cult classic Green Wing. The Independent’s Nick Hilton called the show a “rush job”, adding: “The comedy is puerile and intermittent; too many of the jokes are missing a proper punchline." One disgruntled viewer added that it was “the worst sitcom to ever appear on British TV screens”.

Another added: "I have just watched the first episode of Piglets. As a former Police Officer of 30 years I have to say that not only is the title offensive, the content is insulting."