A BBC Wales sitcom filmed and set in South Wales is to be axed, network bosses have revealed.

High Hopes will not be re-commissioned beyond 2009, a BBC spokesman confirmed.

He said: “The next series of High Hopes is due to go out this autumn. The series has not been re-commissioned for next year.”

He added that High Hopes – currently in its fifth series – could return at a future date.

The BBC Wales production was first aired in 1999 and is set in fictional Valleys town Cwm-Pen-Ôl.

The Troubleshooters star Margaret John plays Elsie Hepplewhite in the series and the plot centres around the antics of the widower and her wheeler-dealer son, Richard.