ITV drops Ruby Speaking and Count Abdulla

No second series for sitcoms

ITV has dropped its sitcoms Ruby Speaking and Count Abdulla.

The broadcaster has confirmed that neither show will be returning for a second series, having been launched on their ITVX streaming service last year.

They were among a batch of comedies that marked the channel’s move back into the genre.

Last month it was revealed that Katherine Parkinson and Youssef Kerkour comedy Significant Other,which was also released at the same time, was not returning.

However, the fourth of the batch – Alan Carr’s autobiographical sitcom Changing Ends – will be retuning for a second series this summer, along with Piglets, a new comedy set in a police training college from the Green Wing team, and a batch of live specials from the Edinburgh Fringe.

Ruby Speaking, written by Abigail Wilson, starred Jayde Adams as an irreverent member of a call centre team in Bristol and co-starred Katherine Kelly, Sam Swainsbury, Joe Sims, Jamal Franklin, Nicky Goldie, Amy-Leigh Hickman, Dan Hiscox, Kiera Lester, Andrew Francis and Rebecca Lock.

Count Abdulla, written by Kaamil Shah, starred Arian Nik as Abdulla Khan, a British-Pakistani Muslim doctor stuck in an identity crisis, caught between his religious mother and his secular, hedonistic friend, when he is bitten by a vampire (Jaime Winstone)

A spokesperson for ITV told Chortle: ‘Count Abdulla & Ruby Speaking sadly won't be returning for a second series, we'd like to thank the cast and crew for all their hard work in bringing these shows to our screens.’

Generally, comedy is proving a success for the ITVX platform with the number of hours streamed increasing by 80 per cent year-on-year.

Both series are still available on ITVX.

Thanks for reading. If you find Chortle’s coverage of the comedy scene useful or interesting, please consider supporting us with a monthly or one-off ko-fi donation.

Any money you contribute will directly fund more reviews, interviews and features – the sort of in-depth coverage that is increasingly difficult to fund from ever-squeezed advertising income, but which we think the UK’s vibrant comedy scene deserves.

Subscribe or donate here

Published: 2 May 2024