When it was announced that ITV had ordered a new comedy from the creators of Green Wing about new recruits at a fictional police training academy, I was ecstatic. Victoria Pile’s wonderfully wacky hospital sitcom (which turns 20 this year) followed up her era-defining sketch show Smack the Pony and turned out to be one of the funniest and most inventive series of a golden period of British TV comedy. With surreal interludes, an epic love triangle and a brilliant young cast including Stephen Mangan , Tamsin Greig , Michelle Gomez and Olivia Colman , it became a worthy cult classic.
So I am heartbroken to report that Piglets is a bitter disappointment. Part of ITV’s admirable attempt to carve out prime time space for new comedy on Saturday nights (following on from Alan Carr’s Changing Ends ), Piglets had already prompted outrage over its title, which the Police Federation of England and Wales called “highly offensive”. ITV defended the decision as a “comedic and endearing play on words”.
Turns out the comedy itself is so completely unremarkable that its name may be the only thing anyone remembers about it. The first episode takes a tell-don’t-show approach to introducing us to the core gang on their first day at college – icebreakers so we could learn their names and one character literally asking another “so what brings you here then?”. We met Dev, Geeta and Afia, none of whom got much screen time, and Steph, Leggo and Paul who did.
Steph (Callie Cooke) .