Yahoo News Cornwall cops brand ITV Piglets comedy show 'offensive and distasteful' to police
A new ITV comedy series called 'Piglets' about trainee police officers has sparked outrage from officers. Nick Jones, the chair of Devon and Cornwall Police Federation, has seen a trailer for the show and branded it "offensive and distasteful", fearing that it will cause new recruits to get more abuse from the public.
The comedy series is set in a fictional police training college is based on the antics of six newly recruited cops as they undergo training. Sarah Parish and Mark Heap head the cast as Superintendents who are faced with the task of preparing the bungling trainees to fight crime.
Mr Jones was shocked when he saw a trailer for the new series: “I was gobsmacked when I heard the name of the show. To then find out that it’s meant to be a comedy and that it’s poking fun at the police uplift, I was in disbelief. It’s nothing short of offensive and distasteful."
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“This disrespect is so degrading to our men and women out there every day risking their lives. We would expect better from ITV.
"This TV show could legitimise people using that term against officers and lead to even more abuse than we currently get. The producers might not recognise how much this undermines officers.
“Our colleagues out there working hard and keeping people safe are under relentless pressure at the moment. Officers are working incredibly hard, day in and day out, serving the public and doing the very best they can for our communities. This show pokes fun at our probationary constables when we already get relentless negativity from the press.
“We have a finite amount of resources dealing with exponential demand. We’ve had new recruits who have come in and said they had no idea officers were treated so badly on the streets, and how volatile it is, when they experience that exposure for the first time.
“The name of this show is a very unhelpful term and threatens to undermine a public sector that’s already under so much pressure.”
Piglets will air in July on ITV1 primetime and ITVX.
