IT Crowd which I used as an example originally, could have done a stellar 12 episode series. I find that in each of the three series, I've felt the production was cut artificially short. There has always been a case of wanting to see a bit more about some tangent they touched.
As far as I know there are two reason for short seasons:
1) The writer having time to write the show. Typically for UK comedies (and possibly most other non-soaps) they are written by one writer, or a pair working togther, whereas US programmes are written either by committee or by different writers.
2) Getting the cast available for that amount of time (and crew, since some are considered essential to writers/producers).
3) UK seasons are booked and often completely made before broadcast, so possibly committing to a long run is not attractive.
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