No second series for Scanlan and Pepperdine comedy

The BBC has cancelled Puppy Love, the canine-based comedy from Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine, after just one season.

Based around a dog training class on The Wirral, the first six-part series launched on BBC Four in November with a reasonable 320,000 viewers.

But the BBC said the show – waggishly dubbed a sit!-com – would not be returning, since they would rather concentrate on finding new comedies.

A spokesman said: ‘Puppy Love was a great series but won’t be coming back to BBC Four as we look to bring new comedy shows through.

‘Huge thanks to the wonderfully talented Joanna Scanlan and Vicki Pepperdine and all involved in the making of the show.’

The show was broadly a hit with critics, with the Independent calling it ‘a very funny, slow-build show with slyly smart characters’ and The Telegraph, slightly more mutedly, calling it ‘ridiculous but sympathetic’.

Scanlan and Pepperdine, who also created NHS sitcom Getting On with Jo Brand, starred as trainer Nana V and strait-laced dog-owner Naomi respectively.

The comedy was produced in-house at the BBC, with David Baddiel one of the executive producers and former EastEnders star Susan Tully as director.

Published: 24 Apr 2015