It’s a sad day at TVO, as we join those mourning the loss of BBC Three’s Mongrels – which it was confirmed would not be returning today.

It’s creator, Adam Miller, took to the show’s official Twitter page to reveal the news to fans, stating that: “a decision that has been made based on the fact that apparently you need more than two people watching a programme to make it successful. Crazy talk.”

Speculation about the show’s future began due to a string of re-commissions made by controller Zai Bennett for the channel late last year, when Mongrels was not amongst them.  At the time, Bennett took to Points Of View, to suggest that the reason the show’s future had not yet been decided was because it was still airing, even though other programming then airing had been granted additional runs at the time.

Sadly, Mongrels has joined How Not To Live Your Life in the scrap-heap of a once great comedic stockpile from the channel which gave birth to The Mighty Boosh tv series, but has been faced with slashed budgets and an increasing reliance on imports, repeats and reality television.  We at TVO cannot say we’re surprised, but we’d be lying if we said we were understanding of the decision – especially now the show is reaching international audiences as well as gaining a healthy cult following in the UK.

The Mongrels team, many of whom we interviewed back in November, were a fine band of extremely talented men and women, including actors, puppeteers, writers, directors, producers and a strong technical crew who brought so many memorable characters to life over the course of sixteen episodes.  Going forward, TVO shall continue to try and cover the work of these talents in their new adventures in front of, and behind the cameras – and we would like to thank them all for their support of TVO as well as the fantastic comedy they created.  After all, breaking up is such a faff… and we’re sure whatever is on the horizon for the Mongrels team will be worth the wait.

Mongrels is dead.  Long live Mongrels.