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David Mitchell has confirmed his BAFTA-nominated comedy show Upstart Crow, based on the life of William Shakespeare, has been axed by the BBC.
Written by Ben Elton, the show premiered in 2016 on BBC Two as part of the commemorations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.
Two more series followed on and the last time it was on screens was a Christmas special back in 2020.
David played Shakespeare and the show followed the playwright as he commuted between Stratford-upon-Avon and London while working on plays such as Romeo and Juliet, Henry VI and Richard III.
Now, David has revealed the broadcaster 'was seriously considering' bringing the show back for a Christmas special, but the idea has now been shelved.
The comedian, 52, told The Sun: 'There was a time, quite recently, when the BBC was giving serious consideration to more Upstart Crow, possibly in the form of a Christmas special.
David Mitchell has confirmed his BAFTA-nominated comedy show, Upstart Crow, based on the life William Shakespeare, has been axed by the BBC
'But sadly nothing has come of it and now there are no plans for future episodes, which is a shame because it was a show of which I felt enormously proud and I know Ben - who I think is a genius - did too.'
David and Ben also created a West End spin-off of the sitcom and called it The Upstart Crow.
After a successful run in 2020, it returned again two years later at The Apollo Theatre for ten weeks.
While Upstart Crow has been shelved, David has been busy working on other projects.
The Peep Show star recently won the latest series of Amazon Prime's Last One Laughing.
The second series of his BBC show Ludwig, premiered this month and received rave reviews from viewers.
David reprised his role as the titular character, an introverted and reclusive puzzle setter in the murder mystery series.
Anna Maxwell Martin also returned to her role as the wife of John's missing brother James, Lucy Betts-Taylor.
David has revealed the broadcaster 'was seriously considering' bringing the show back for a Christmas special, but the idea has now been shelved
Written by Ben Elton, the show premiered in 2016 on BBC Two as part of the commemorations of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death
Meanwhile second series of his BBC show Ludwig, premiered this month and received rave reviews from viewers (pictured David with Anna Maxwell Martin)
David told The Radio Times at a recent Q&A that he's always enjoyed murder mysteries.
He said: 'Some of my happiest viewing memories are as a child watching Miss Marple with Joan Hickson - I mean, she was in it, she wasn't in the room – and Inspector Morse, and that sort of thing. I love that kind of program.'
He added that he put a comic spin on his tale to add some levity after revealing he didn't like watching things that were too gritty.
He said: 'I don't love watching things that are horrific and gritty and sort of remind you of the frailty of the human life.'
He explained that he achieved this by emulating Agatha Christie and that his latest show is littered with references to her stories.
David revealed that he used one of the writer's greatest tricks.
In Ludwig, the actor explained that the person that's murdered is never seen and as a result the audience isn't invested in them which allows the story to be more light-hearted.
He added that all Agatha Christie stories are puzzles and to honour the queen of the murder mystery David ensured that Ludwig used her winning formula.
David said: 'So you get the overarching narrative, but you also get the reward of a puzzle, a murder each week. So I thought it was a great idea.'
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