...because the broadcaster couldn't commit

E4 comedy series Drifters will not be returning, its creator Jessica Knappett has revealed.

She said she wanted to make more, but Channel 4 couldn’t commit to recommissioning the show for at least two more years.

Speaking on the new edition of Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast, Knappett said: ‘There's no more Drifters. I would like to do some more but it's very turbulent at Channel 4 at the moment apparently.

‘The people at Channel 4... they said they couldn't make a decision about it until 2019, and I just think I haven't got that amount of time to wait around.’ 

And she said that by then: ‘I just can't see how I'm going to write about that period of my life any more, because I'll be beyond it.’

Drifters, about three recent graduates taking dead-end promotional jobs as they sought to find their place in the world,  launched in 2013

Also starring Lydia Rose Bewley and Lauren O'Rourke as Laura, the show started in 2013, with the  last episode airing in November last year.

Channel 4’s chief creative officer Jay Hunt announced her resignation earlier this month, while head of comedy Fiona McDermott has been in her post for less than five months, having replaced  Phil Clarke earlier this year. 

Knappett admitted she felt ‘very conflicted’ about Drifters, saying: ‘I am very proud of it on the one hand, on the other hand I'm very aware it's not a masterpiece.’

‘This was pure silliness. It was never going to change the world.’ But she lamented the way that comedy is ‘getting less silly’.

Here is the full podcast:

Published: 28 Jun 2017