Customise email type "mailing_list"

Hi,

I’ve found it is possible to edit the subject line for generic emails such as this one like so:

I’ve changed the email subject to:
%{optional_cat}%{topic_title}

This results in a peculiar subject title:
[[Category] ] Topic

I think the extra square brackets are for the subcategory but we don’t use them. Does anyone know how to set up a subject title without these extra square brackets?