'Birds of a Feather' has been cancelled.

Pauline Quirke, Lesley Joseph and Linda Robson

Pauline Quirke, Lesley Joseph and Linda Robson

The British sitcom - which stars Linda Robson, Lesley Joseph and Pauline Quirke - has been axed by ITV after three series with the broadcaster.

Kevin Lygo, ITV's Director of Television, said: "We had success with Birds of a Feather, that was our most successful sitcom in years, but it's come to a sort of natural end."

And 'Bad Move', which features Jack Dee and Seann Walsh, has also got the chop and Lygo feels the future of scripted comedy is bleak.

He added to the Daily Mirror newspaper: "We had two series of the Jack Dee sitcom but I don't think we're continuing with it now. It's just very, very hard. Audiences can get their fix of character-based comedy from 'Coronation Street'."

It has previously been revealed that 'Birds of a Feather', which first aired on the BBC in 1989 and was revived 15 years later in 2014 by ITV, could have a crossover series with 'Benidorm'.

Speaking previously, Lesley said: "We're waiting to hear what we're going to do. We're not sure at the moment but ITV have loved it and we're all waiting to hear if we're doing another series or a special. I want to go abroad. Linda Robson is queen of the tweets and somebody tweeted her, 'Why don't we do 'Birds' meets 'Benidorm'?' Can you actually imagine 'Birds of a Feather' go to Benidorm? It would just be a match made in heaven."