BBC One has reportedly axed The Matt Lucas Awards.

The panel show, which was based on a format devised by Little Britain star Matt Lucas initially for Radio 2, ran for two series on TV between 2012 and 2013.

The Sun newspaper reports that BBC executives "pulled the plug after ratings slipped from a launch figure of 2.4million in April 2012 to 1.6million for the last series outing in April last year."

The format saw the comedian "giving out the awards that other shows don't, whether it's Smuggest Nation of People or Most More-ish Food". Guests included Jason Manford, Susan Calman and Dave Gorman.

In total, two six-part series were made. Each series also had a highlights special, and a stand-alone Christmas special was broadcast in December. The show was filmed by Lucas's own company, John Stanley Productions, in conjunction with the BBC's in-house production team.

BCG understands that, additionally, there is an un-aired episode on the shelf that is unlikely to ever be seen. It was filmed in November 2012 at the same time as other episodes for Series 2, however the BBC later filmed an extra episode as a replacement when one of the guests appearing on the show became implicated in the police's Operation Yewtree investigation.

Speaking about the reported cancellation of the format, a source told The Sun: "Matt's a superb talent but The Matt Lucas Awards were just a bit odd. It started out doing quite well in the post-ten o'clock news slot but over time, the audience just drifted away. A Christmas special was made but that's it, time to move on."

Matt Lucas rose to fame with David Walliams in their smash-hit sketch show Little Britain. The pair went on to make airport-based sitcom-cum-sketch show Come Fly With Me, but haven't worked together since.

Speaking about a potential Little Britain reunion in a newspaper interview today, David Walliams said: "If we were still doing that people would be bored of us. Sometimes things work better in the memory. And it is a bit different now because nostalgia is not the same."

David Walliams is currently working on a second series of his BBC One sitcom Big School, whilst Matt Lucas is working on a new show for BBC One.

Pompidou, which is expected to be broadcast late this year or early in 2015, will be Lucas's first solo authored narrative series. The visual, dialogue-free free show, it will see the comedian introducing a range of new characters.

Speaking at the time of the show's commission, he said: "I'm delighted to be back at the BBC with another show full of new characters - however, unlike Little Britain and Come Fly With Me, this one has no dialogue at all. I've always been a huge fan of the visual comedy of Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy and of course, Mr Bean."

The comedy star added: "I've been working for a while with two great writers - Julian Dutton and Ashley Blaker - to create a bunch of new faces which we hope will appeal to audiences in Britain and beyond. At the centre of it is Pompidou himself, an elderly aristocratic English oddball who has fallen on hard times but who remains upbeat and resourceful."

Below is a video in which Lucas reveals the theme tune to Pompidou.