Birds of a Feather will 'never return'

'Birds of a Feather' will never return to TV.

The hit comedy series - which ran for nine years on BBC One from 1989 to 1998 and was brought back by ITV in 2014 - was last on screen for a special one-off episode in December 2020 and now creator Laurence Marks has confirmed he has "moved on" from the show and "can't imagine" there being anything else to say about the characters now they are so much older.

Speaking of the programme - which starred Linda Robson and Pauline Quirke as sisters Tracey Stubbs and Sharon Theodopolopodous and Lesley Joseph as their neighbour Dorien Green - Laurence told the Daily Star Sunday newspaper: "You move on. I can’t imagine what more we could say. Also, the girls are very much older.

“When we created Sharon and Tracey, they were kids in their 20s. They had a whole sexual life in front of them and the show was all about sex. Now they’re women in their 60s, so it’s a different sort of series.

“We couldn’t have imagined we were writing something that would last for 30 years.

“I have a great deal of affection for Sharon, Tracey and Dorien. They are like friends in my life. We shared a lot of happy memories together.”

Lesley admitted last year she wasn't expecting any more episodes of the show to be made.

She said: “I don’t think it’s going to happen again to be absolutely honest. I think after 32 years, I need to do other things. Keeping your weight down to play Dorien is not easy.

"She has to be an absolutely skinny bean and it's not easy to lose the weight, especially when you’ve had Victoria sponge the whole of lockdown. As Dorien you could never eat that. But it's coming off now. I’ve just lost 10lbs.

“I have lived with her for 32 but she's now rested ... rested with her heels.”