'And that's to say nothing of the fact that they're no longer making kids' programmes in-house (and there have been plenty of CiTV shows over the years that gave CBBC a run for their money) '

Four words: Central Junior Television Workshop. Damn ITV. I never realised how lucky I was to be an '80's child...

The Street was a great series. Jimmy McGovern proved he can still do it, which is why I'm now looking forward to the new Cracker. I reckon there have been too many shit one-off ITV dramas over the last few years, so I don't care if they make less. Not that I've watched them all, but every one I HAVE sat down to has done nothing for me, including that one with Tennant in it a few month ago (was it called 'Secret Smile' or something). They're always same old same old, and I KNOW a lot of BBC dramas are also like that, but stuff like Life On Mars reaffirms your faith in good television, not to mention Funland which is my favourite thing ever ever ever (and it's out on DVD this week!).

ITV are well past the days of Hillsborough. And they're not gonna get anything like The Second Coming again unless Russell T Davies does another miniseries/one-off for them, which is unlikely for a few years.

I hope it's not just me who finds the continuing decline of ITV just a little bit heartbreaking. Recently it seems to get worse and worse - the closing down of CITV, the predominance of rubbish cable tv quizzes(which is little more than televised begging, let's face it), and now this.

It just seems bizarre that a channel that used to have such high standards of programming is now in the hands of people who don't consider drama or documentaries worthy of spending money on. ITV could once have been justifiably proud of it's drama and childrens output, and now they effectively seem to be saying they don't care about either of those things. It's just a bit sad, really.

"I hope it's not just me who finds the continuing decline of ITV just a little bit heartbreaking. Recently it seems to get worse and worse - the closing down of CITV, the predominance of rubbish cable tv quizzes(which is little more than televised begging, let's face it), and now this."

I'm not actually that upset - but only because I gave up on ITV as a channel long, long ago - when they got rid of regional continuity. Back then it was pretty obvious where they were heading. I used to adore Central in my youth - it was my favourite station. But as soon as it became obvious that ITV wasn't interested in their Unique Selling Point - regionality - I lost interest.

Individual programmes (of which there are very few) like TV Burp - fine. But loyalty to the channel, which is essential in a multi-channel environment? They fucked it up for me ages ago.

I tend to agree with this:

In the past, ITV1's programming may have been crass and irritating, but at least there was a swagger about it, and you knew bucketloads of cash had been spent on it. These days the schedules are a joke and ratings are plummeting, and only on ITV would the answer to this be to spend next to no money on programming.

And what will they do to fill the void? Why, they'll rip off popular BBC shows!

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds34435.html

That's fucking abominable.

I look forward to their time-travelling cop drama with baited breath.

They're ripping off Crime Traveller now?

Just spit it out.

They got rid of CITV ?!? Does anyone have a link to a story about this?

ITV long ago gave up trying to appeal to anything but the lowest common denominator, and I'm talking 10-15 years ago. Nearly everything they've made worth watching in that time has been mentioned in this short thread.

Is this really the channel that gave us The Prisoner and The Avengers ? To all intents and purposes, no it isn't.

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,1801858,00.html

... and now they're doing Walking with Dinosaurs. Sigh.

> ... and now they're doing Walking with Dinosaurs.

And a show where the title is the surname of the lead character. Man, I love all shows that do that.

"Ian Chalk and John Cheese are two very different cops who join forces when...."

Writes itself.

"Thanks, Brent. My new show is called Handle with Care! I play Jack Handle, a retired cop who shares an apartment with a retired convict. We're the original odd couple!"

ITV's new sitcom is called Bent Coppers, which features Ian and Iain Bent as two policemen, one of whom is corrupt and the other is gay. Both suffer from curviture of the spine, and they are both robots, made of copper.

So, no more Sharpe, then?

From my vague reading of various pieces in the recent papers, too, it seems ITV are in trouble with not being able to seel advertising space. I'd laugh if it wasn't so pathetic and sad.

Tessa Jowell is banging on about banning all junk food ads before 9pm. They're already banned during kids' programmes, and according to Paul Rose, it'll cost the industry £300 million in revenue if the ban's extended til the watershed. Not just ITV of course, but they'll take a hit. TV advertising has recovered from similar things before (such as tobacco advertising being banned), but the result is that is the fewer permittable adverts available to fill spaces, the less money the spaces are worth. Bad thing for ITV.

What's happening to ITV is utterly depressing. It's been on the slide for years but the news that they're going to effectively stop commisioning new drama and concentrate on safe, generic rubbish like X Factor is very bad news indeed for anyone who cares about British television.

Yes, BBC drama has improved immensely in the last decade or so but I don't want to see the Beeb monopolise drama. ITV must be present as a credible rival or they'll get lazy.