ITV renews its police-trainee comedy

ITV has confirmed  that its police training comedy Piglets is returning for a second series.

The broadcaster today announced that filming has begun on six new half-hour episodes.

It comes after star Ricky Champ let slip that the show was returning as long ago as November,

The first series is one of the biggest comedies on ITVX and has so far reached 5.6million viewers across its six episodes.

However it was controversial with the Police Federation of England and Wales saying it was a ‘disgusting choice of language to use for the title of a TV programme’ because of its derogatory connotations.

Broadcast regulator Ofcom received 269 complaints, but the watchdogs ruled there was no breach of rules.

Speaking on the Reading Between The Lines podcast last year, Champ said: ‘Piglets has been commissioned for series two. It’s crazy, because we got absolutely slammed. The first series came out and it was met with absolute venom – across the board, from all these critics.

'We live in a very critical, very negative world at the moment, especially for comedy. Everyone has got their weapons drawn against new comedy.

'Anyway that happened and [the reaction] came back very negative and immediately I thought "Well that's that's that done". You know, you stick your head out the sand and if it don't work then you know on to the next thing.'

The new series will see Sarah Parish and Mark Heap reprise their roles as no nonsense Superintendent Julie Spry and benign Superintendent Bob Weekes.  

Joining them will be Chief Superintendent Cunningham (Colin McFarlane), anal Head of Admin Melanie (Rebecca Humphries) ever-angry police trainer Daz (Champ) and the returning police trainees themselves, officious Afia (Halema Hussain), wannabe actor Dev (Abdul Sessay), 'prune in the nest' Paul (Jamie Bisping) and reluctant wise owl Geeta (Sukh Kaur Ojla).

The second series will also see the arrival of two new police trainees in the shape of motormouth Danni (Madelyn Smedley) and the enigmatic Connor (Kerr Logan). 

ITV's head of comedy, Nana Hughes said: ‘We are absolutely thrilled to bring back the attention-grabbing Piglets for a second series on ITV.’

The producer for Monicker Pictures, Victoria Pile - who previously created Green Wing - said: ‘We're delighted ITV have given us the chance to explore the latest antics of our talented would-be cops.’

Published: 22 May 2025