Joanna Scanlan thinks \'No Offence\' was axed because most fans of the show are based "outside the M25".
The 58-year-old actress - who played no-nonsense detective Viv Deering for three series between 2015 and 2018 - insisted viewers are always asking her to bring back the Manchester-based police drama, and she suggested the issue was most of the "decision-makers" are based in London.
She\'s quoted by The Sun newspaper\'s Bizarre TV column as saying: "\'No Offence\' is a show that plays better outside the M25 than inside.
"Most of the decision-makers are inside, though I know they\'re supposed to be moving to Leeds, or whatever."
Joanna - who has previously enjoyed roles in the likes of \'The Thick of It\', \'Getting On\', \'Big School\' and \'Dracula\' - will soon be seen in ITV\'s new crime series \'McDonald & Dodds\', which starts on March 1.
In the past, she revealed \'No Offence\' was her most lucrative acting job to date and helped her reach a goal she\'d set herself a decade earlier.
She previously said: "It was better paid than anything I\'d been in before. I don\'t remember exactly what I got paid.
"I do remember, ten years before, saying to myself that one day I would earn more than £100,000 a year. I even wrote it down. In 2015, I fulfilled that goal."
\'No Offence\' creator Paul Abbott previously admitted towards the end of series three that the decision to axe the show was down to TV bosses, but he laid down some groundwork for a potential fourth run just in case.
Back in 2018, he added: "We\'re already planning another one, just being preemptive, because by the time they deign to give you the go-ahead there\'s very little time left to start putting the show together."
