Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable cancelled
- U&Dave has confirmed that it has ceased making Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable
- The panel show-chat show hybrid about celebrity confessions featured Lou Sanders as Giedroyc's assistant and ran for four series between 2021 and 2024
- UKTV said: "We loved working with Mel, Lou, and everyone at Expectation on four series of Unforgivable and while we have no current plans for another series, we remain open to future collaborations"
Mel Giedroyc: Unforgivable has been cancelled, British Comedy Guide can exclusively reveal.
Featuring Lou Sanders as Giedroyc's assistant, the panel show-chat show hybrid, which featured comedians and celebrities competing to be judged the most sinful, unforgivable person in the room, ran for four series on the Dave channel between 2021 and last year. Repeats continue to be shown on the rebranded U&Dave.
However, a spokesperson for UKTV told BCG: "We loved working with Mel, Lou, and everyone at Expectation on four series of Unforgivable and while we have no current plans for another series, we remain open to future collaborations."
The final series tweaked the format slightly, with Sanders venturing beyond the studio to seek confessions from across the UK.
Admissions aired on the show include Jo Brand revealing how she beat a drink-driving charge, Sara Pascoe on how she lied about having cancer to get out of work and Jimmy Carr admitting to burning the shape of a giant penis into his school playing field.
Other guests to appear included Sarah Millican, Graham Norton, Jennifer Saunders, Johnny Vegas, Daisy May Cooper, Jack Dee, Richard Ayoade, Tom Allen, Alan Davies, David Baddiel, Nish Kumar, Ardal O'Hanlon, Joel Dommett, Rosie Jones, Jason Manford, Sally Phillips, Josh Widdicombe, Desiree Burch, Lucy Beaumont, Omid Djalili, Jamali Maddix, Fern Brady, Sophie Duker, Ria Lina, Ed Gamble and Katherine Ryan with her baby son Fred, in what seems to have been a first for a UK panel show.
Made by Expectation Entertainment (The Change, Alma's Not Normal), the show attracted mixed reviews. But the Guardian hailed it for understanding that "the best way to make funny people be funny on TV is, simply, by letting them."
Currently touring her stand-up show No Kissing In The Bingo Hall, Sanders has described Unforgivable as "very therapeutic - it's cathartic. We're offering a service there!"
The guests are "lucky to have us" she told Portsmouth News in 2022. "But we're all just human, it's nice to celebrate that. We've all made mistakes, and we're all trying our best."
And she said that not much was edited out of the show at the guests' requests, only "some tiny, little things. Some people are more precious than others, or worried about being cancelled and stuff.
"But I think it's very human to share your foibles and the terrible things we've done. It's not like someone did a racist attack - that would be truly awful. It's more like pooping, dating, stealing things - we've all got a past, and the sooner we realise that the better."