David Walliams and Matt Lucas, who this week begin filming the third series in as many years, have decided not to make a fourth in the near future. The BBC accepts the programme will probably end.

Little Britain, the BBC’s greatest success since The Office, has established Dafydd, “the only gay in the village”, and the obnoxious teenager Vicky Pollard with her “yeah but no but yeah” catchphrase as some of the best-known characters on British television.

Walliams and Lucas will embark on a nationwide Little Britain stage tour in October, which a senior BBC comedy source said this weekend would mark a triumphant farewell to the series that has won four Baftas and 17 other awards.

While the corporation has not given up all hope of reviving the series, the source said: “There have been three series in three years so it is probably right to take a long break.”

He added: “The Office bowed out after two series and it is good to have something that will always be remembered as excellent rather than something that has gone off the boil.”

According to another source close to the production, the duo are unhappy about the size of the programme budget. One character, the Scottish hotelier Ray McCooney, had to be written out of the second series because the £6,000 cost of the set was judged excessive.

Audiences for Little Britain have reached about 6m for its menagerie of mainly vile characters, such as vomiting village women, obese spa junkies and a sullen man who pretends to be disabled.

The success of Little Britain is reported to have brought Lucas and Walliams a windfall of £3m each from DVD sales.

Lucas, 31, is to be executive producer and star of a film written by Ian Buchan, a childhood friend. Lucas, who is gay, will play the ex-boyfriend of a rent boy in the film One Night in Heaven.

Walliams is working on a new sitcom for the BBC and will appear in a film based on The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, the 18th-century novel.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Litvinenko murder suspect's peace offer
• Low rollers seize chance to scoop £5m on the nose
• I wish I were Chancellor now, says Ken Clarke