After seventeen years and more than 200 episodes, the cackling and sniggering is finally over for the panel show Mock the Week. As the BBC announced yesterday: ‘The next series of Mock the Week will be the last, we are really proud of the show but after 21 series we have taken the difficult decision in order to create room for new shows.’
What could be behind this decision? Its veteran presenter, Dara Ó Briain, sought to apportion some logic to the matter. ‘The storylines were getting crazier and crazier – global pandemics, divorce from Europe, novelty short-term prime ministers,’ he said. ‘It couldn’t go on. We just couldn’t be more silly than the news was already.’
Far more honestly, and revealingly – to judge by tweets from its makers – it seems that the BBC just wanted rid of it. ‘Desperately disappointing but hopefully we will resurface again soon,’ said its creator, Dan Patterson.
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