Is Benidorm really cancelled? "The honest truth is I don't know" says creator

https://twitter.com/DerrenLitten/status/990583140405121024

Fans reacted to the news in their masses, mourning the loss of their favourite TV series with more than 1,000 tweeters commenting on the 'cancellation'.

https://twitter.com/PaulBazely/status/991076766923001856

https://twitter.com/rosiefranklin67/status/991239344324251648

https://twitter.com/tammytastic69/status/991207857461882880

The language in Litten's message was cryptic – he never stated that it was the final ever episode – but his decision not to correct fans who jumped to that conclusion all but confirmed it, especially when he sent more tweets stoking his suggestion that ITV would air no more episodes.

https://twitter.com/DerrenLitten/status/991789851853950978

Meanwhile, Benidorm fans were left confused on the day of the series finale (Wednesday 2nd May) when star Jake Canuso sent a message of his own, suggesting the series may not be ending after all...

https://twitter.com/JakeCanuso/status/991614758976741377

Ten hours later, he bewildered viewers further by tweeting "see you next series":

https://twitter.com/JakeCanuso/status/991771524687433728

Litten had refused all media requests in the build-up to the series finale, but granted an interview to West Midlands radio host Alex Lester the morning after.

When questioned about his original post, Litten explained it was "the kind of tweet I've done every year" to mark the series finale. "And then somebody said the last episode ever and I didn't put that".

He added: "Obviously it's not a case of mistaken identity but when people said, 'This is the last episode ever', I've got to admit I didn't correct them."

• Benidorm creator says ITV series will end for good this Wednesday

So, will it return? "The honest truth is I don't know," said Litten. "Every year ITV tells us if they want another series. We're doing a live stage tour and this has been booked in for well over six months so ITV knew they didn't have to make a decision quickly. They knew we can't film as we usually would in March of this year because I've got them on the road."

The stage tour is due to take place from September 2018 until April 2019, so it remains to be seen if Benidorm will return to screens. An ITV statement says "no decision has been made about a further series", and thanks to the live production, there is no need for them to make a call for the foreseeable future.

"The live show is taking up a lot of my time and I'm really enjoying that," said Litten. "We're just had auditions."

He added that he's also doing a pilot for the BBC: "I'm doing one of those for a show I can't talk about a lot because we film it at the end of this month."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fm09R55afk&list=PLbs-Pk9dtKb8YP3Qd5UDiUQqkuzd776iF