...days after its end was announced

E4 comedy Chewing Gum has scooped a major broadcasting award, just days after  it was revealed that creator Michaela Coel had pulled the plug on the show.

 The comedy,  about  24-year-old shop assistant and religious virgin Tracey Gordon, was named best scripted programme at the Broadcast Digital Awards last night.

Coel has told the broadcaster that she ‘reached a creative peak’ at the end of the second series, which aired in January and February this year, and did not want to continue.

But Channel 4 comedy head Fiona McDermott said she was keen to work with her again, saying: ‘She’s a very funny and clever writer so she’ll always have a home here if she wants to do a project with us.’

Chewing Gum triumphed over fellow nominees Alan Partridge: Scissored Isle, Fleabag, Murdered By My Father, The Tunnel: Sabotage and This Country.

The Improvised Murder in Successville took the award for best entertainment programme at the event, held at the Edinburgh International Television Festival.

Also shortlisted were Celebrity Juice, Love Island, Release The Hounds, Taskmaster and Matt Forde’s Unspun.

The accolades, handed out by trade magazine Broadcast, celebrate the best shows not made for terrestrial TV.

Published: 24 Aug 2017