ITV axe sitcoms

Call The Midwife was a 1950s drama when it started though, but it's now the mid-60s

That's correct, they filmed twelve eps in the summer/autumn of 2001 and that was split between Apr-May 2002 and Feb-Apr 2003. They were released as a single series for DVD though.

I've still got all the tickets/booklets from the recordings of both Barbara and Kiss Me Kate - it did say in a newsletter we got sent that they were hoping to be asked to make more Barbara, and that they planned to record any in the Spring/Summer of 2003, but obviously it never came to fruition.

I was really annoyed when Nottingham closed, they made so much stuff there, it was so close to me, I wanted to see TV shows made, but you had to be 18 to get into the audience. And a matter of months before I hit 18... they closed!

The same thing happened in M*A*SH*! A show set during a war that lasted just 3 years, but ran for 11.

Hate to say it, but I think you might have been misinformed by someone...

Looking at the terms on the back of the tickets I've got handy, all the shows had their own age limits - Family Fortunes was as low as 10 years old, Barbara was 14, and Kiss Me Kate was 16.

(though technically I shouldn't have been seeing KMK as I was only 14 at the time... but then I looked much older and I don't recall them ever checking anyone - and being repeat visitors we got quite friendly with the audience admin).

Can't imagine anything there having an age limit of 18, other than Central Weekend I guess.

I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was 18... I'm sure I read that on the Central teletext pages, maybe you had to be 18 to apply for the tickets, not to actually attend or something and I misunderstood.

When I was 10-12 was like the peak of Lenton Lane too, with Family Fortunes, Catchphrase, Supermarket Sweep and the likes coming from there...

ITV has told viewers to get comedy from coronation street

With moments like this:

Yes, side-splittingly hilarious (said with discernible note of sarcasm).

Hi

I cannot see Mrs Browns Boys leaving the Beeb, as Brendon O Carrol only went with the Beeb in Scotland as they did not want to tone down the show as others had wanted to so, I don't think Brendon and the team would be happy with any other broadcaster.
But that said its sad that ITV seem to have ditched the sitcom completely at least for this year,

Brendan O'Carroll is loyal to the broadcasters he works for, he said when the BBC offered him the show he had one request to let RTE get in on it so it could be shown in Ireland and RTE were loyal to Mrs Brown in the past. Mrs Brown will never leave the BBC as long as they want to work with him.

Brendan is tied to the BBC until at least Christmas 2020 with further Christmas and New Year specials in 2019 and 2020 along with All Round to Mrs Brown's which is filming their new series as we speak, and will be filming a new episode tomorrow in fact.

So if ITV did want Brendan, it would be 2021 at the earliest, but as outlined here, I doubt he would ever leave now.

I heard he was very cross at the BBC due to the Panorama documentary on the Panama Papers.