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ITV viewers have slammed a new comedy series, labelling it ‘simply offensive’. Premiering over the weekend, Piglets follows a newly recruited group of six very different would-be cops and the handful of key staff whose thankless task it is to knock them into some kind of shape. The six-part series stars Sarah Parish and Mark Heap as no-nonsense Superintendent Julie Spry and some-nonsense Superintendent Bob Weekes, whose job it is to oversee the training of the next batch of new recruits.

However, since tuning in, many viewers have made it clear they are not impressed, with some going so far as to say they want to complain to Ofcom . The controversy began a few weeks ago when the title came under fire by the Police Federation, who said it was ‘disgusting’ and ‘highly offensive’. Tiffany Lynch, Acting National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales said the name of the show was ‘inflammatory against a landscape of rising threats and violence against officers’ and was putting officers ‘at further risk for viewing numbers’.



The organisations chief executive, Mukund Krishna, also said it would be writing to Ofcom and demanding a change. Their sentiment was echoed by members of the public too. ‘I have just watched the first episode of Piglets.

As a former Police Officer of 30 years I have to say that not only is the title offensive, the content is insulting,’ Adrian posted on X. ‘ITV how disgusting that you can justify calling a new series about police recruits “Piglets”,’ user msucol158 shared. ‘I served for 27 years and was called a “Pig” on several occasions when trying to protect the public.

This is insulting to both serving and retired officers. Shame on you.’ ‘This is absolutely disgraceful, using the term “piglets” as the shows name is diabolical.

Officers on a day-to-day basis have to go through abuse from members of the public using terminology similar the title. For you to think this is acceptable is beyond me,’ Harley added. Another, Zach, said the title was ‘extremely offensive to all serving and retired police officers’ and called on Ofcom to ‘address the title with ITV’.

Many other viewers slammed the show itself, with one writing it was ‘the worst sitcom to ever appear on British TV screens’. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a webbrowser that supports HTML5video ‘It isn’t funny, has an appalling script and as for the title, it is simply offensive,’ David posted. ‘Who on earth at ITV commissioned Piglets, I mean I tried but it was truly awful, I won’t be watching Piglets again, how it ever got made is beyond me,’ Alice wrote.

Although one fan said it was ‘harmless fun with lots of adult jokes and laugh out loud moments’ the show was ‘nothing demanding on the brain’. More Trending TV actress looks completely unrecognisable after transformation for brand new ITV series 'Before I landed my job on This Morning I had to hide my blindness at work' Legendary TV star breaks silence after tweet leaves fans concerned Gareth Southgate set for immediate job offer after resigning as England manager Piglets also stars Mark Heap as Superintendent Bob Weekes, while Rebecca Humphries plays Head of Admin Melanie and Ukweli Roach and Ricky Champ are police trainers Mike and Daz. The recruits are while the recruits are Steph (played by Callie Cooke), Leggo (Sam Pote), Geeta (Sukh Kaur Ojla) Afia (Halema Hussain), Dev (Abdul Sessay) and Paul (Jamie Bisping).

ITV’s head of comedy Nana Hughes previously said there were no plans to change the name and it was not meant to cause offence. We bought our £298,000 Nottingham new-build using a little-known loophole The price of this 'dystopian' flat shows London's rental market is truly unhinged Half the homes in this commuter hotspot just 28 minutes from London have dropped in price What I Rent: At 23 years old, I live in a £2,450pcm London flat in Zone 1 Corrie star covers her house with sportswear brands she couldn't afford as a kid Piglets is streaming on ITVX. Got a story? If you’ve got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the Metro.

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