Big Fat Gypsy Weddings to be axed by Channel 4

From the Guardian

Channel 4 is to axe Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, the series that provided an eye-opening and sometimes controversial insight into the Traveller and Gypsy communities, the network's biggest rating hit in many years.

Jay Hunt, chief creative officer at Channel 4, said the broadcaster was "close to drawing the line" on the show.

"I think we've quite naturally got to a point where we've started to look differently at that franchise," she said, speaking at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival on Thursday. "We have already evolved where we are [with it]. It is important to know when to draw the line, and we are close to drawing the line. I think it will come to a point where it is time to move on."

Hunt said Channel 4 had no plans to make another series of the programme. There will, however, be six Gypsy-themed one-off specials next year.

A spokesman confirmed that Channel 4 would not be making any more series, but would not be drawn on whether there might be further specials or spin-offs after next year.

Earlier this year the channel broadcast Thelma's Gypsy Girls, which attracted 2 million viewers.

Big Fat Gypsy Weddings has been a huge ratings winner for Channel 4, with 2011's first series attracting audiences of more than 7 million, and inadvertently making an unlikely star of Paddy Doherty.

Doherty went on to appear in Channel 5's Celebrity Big Brother, where he struck up an unlikely friendship with Sally Bercow. Never one to miss an opportunity, Richard Desmond's channel had the two live together in the spin-off When Paddy Met Sally.

However, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings also courted controversy with some in the Traveller and Gypsy communities unhappy with the portrayal of their lifestyle by Channel 4.

The London Gypsy and Traveller Unit lodged a complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority arguing that Channel 4's marketing of the show was offensive and racist.

The campaign earlier this year for the second series of the show – which used the line "Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier" printed over images of Gypsy women and children – was cleared of breaking the UK's advertising rules, although the watchdog admitted the ads "might not be to everyone's taste".

Gypsy Blood, a hard-hitting 90-minute documentary which provided an at times shocking insight into bare knuckle fighting, prompted more than 500 complaints to the television regulator Ofcom.

Hunt also defended the use of the title Undateables for its series on disabled people dating.

Mencap criticised the marketing tactic for reinforcing negative stereotypes.

"No I don't think it was disrespectful," she said. "We discussed it with the participants and they were perfectly happy with it. The titling is quite out there, it is part of getting people to view it. In some respects my point of view is that we got 3 million people to watch a programme on disability and come away with something from it. I think the positioning of that show was absolutely right.

see also The Telegraph - Channel 4 axes My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding

The Sun - Big Fat Gypsy Weddings set for axe

The Mirror - The wedding's off! Channel 4 to scrap hit reality show My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding