Why just point out ITV's bad points?

I do slag off ITV1, but nothing appeals to me on ITV, and ITV Play....

and thank goodness for that, it really was an awful programme.

Could you image if the first series of Minder was being shown now - how many people would be slagging it off. The first series was dire but potential was there - the Thames execs saw the potential homed in on it and made it what it was.

Today's ITV execs give any show only 2 to 3 weeks for it to be a hit - in fact it took Minder 3 series' before becoming the massive hit it did become - aliong with many of the sitcoms and other decent dramas. Today's ITV execs are frightened of taking the chance in commissioning second series of doubtful hits.

I didn't realise that The Outsiders was only a one-off - this for instance does have potential , a very much a kitsch of a drama based upon the old ITC adventure drama's of the 60's and 70's. It's a shame as I did quite enjoy it.

ITV complain that they don't have any long-term returning Drama's - oh if they had only tajen the chance - perfect example of returning drama series' could have been... The Golden Hour, Making Waves, Steel River Blues (or something like that - North East's version of London's Burning).

Another failure of ITV is securing stars etc for its returning drama series, for instance Martin Clunes series Doc Martin won't be shown during this year or next (except for a Christmas Special) becuase ITV didn't renew the contract in time before Martyin decided to do other projects - no forward thinking.

ITV do rely too much on soap - you name one other English speaking country where there is a soap on 6 days a week (i.e. Emmerdale) or where a sopa has 2 new episodes in one night (i.e. Coronation Street) - that not innovation its called milking the cash-cow. They even made The Bill very much a soap - I used to watch the Bill when it was basically 2 stories per episode and none continuing over few episodes/months.

I do like intellectual factual series/and lifestyke magazines, which they no longer show, i.e. First Tuesday, World In Action, WIsh You Were Here?, Where There's Life; and I do like fly-on-the-wall series, such as Jimmy's and Airline; and I do like a decent gameshow. But none of these actually appear regularly on ITV1 anymore and hence reason as to why I watch very little.

ITV used to be very innovative. No chance nowadays - when was the last time ITV came up with a very original idea which hadn't been done by any other TV station. e.g. Trinny and Suzannah - basically same style of show as they had on BBC, Make-over shows and directly copying BBC with saturday morning cookery magazines.

That's the reason ITV is slagged off more than any other channel. I do agree that there are some good shows on the station, but they are few are far between. More Cracker, more The Outsiders, more Bad Girls and more Doc Martin PLEASE!

ITV1 is actually the channel I watch the most and some of my favourite programmes such as Coronation Street and X Factor are on it. I also watch the news on ITV1 (both regional and national).

However I do think ITV rely too much on soaps - most nights there are at least 1 hour of soaps, sometimes more. I hear that ITV1 are showing 1 hour episodes of Emmerdale some Tuesday's? Why? Its boring enough as it is.

They also need to stop showing rubbish reality tv shows such as Love Island.

And we need more variety in the 7pm slot again instead of endless episodes of Emmerdale.

that's the point though - it didn;t really show any potential. It just looked like the producers had taken the elements of all the action adventure films you could think of (James Bond, The Avengers etc.) and put them into an overlong, clunky programme which took itself too seriously.

and you complain about ITV showing no 'innovation' and then berate them for not bringing back average drama series' like Steel River Blues and Making Waves - make your mind up.

Admittedly Steel River Blues was a copy of London's Burning but it had potential especially based in the North East where there are allsorts of oil pipes, gas pipes and other chemical places, unlike Central London. Thus the innovation would have been to use those places a bit more and the local people ARE different to Londoners.

Making Waves was innovative, can you name any other naval style drama in the last 20 years - Roughnecks doesn't count as it was based on an oil rigg.

The Outsiders was innovative as there hasn't really been an adventure series of that ilk for almost 20 years, last one being Dempsey and Makepeace (as the long running returning series). Ultimate Force is also classed as an adventure series but is based upon thar army, whereas The Outsiders is based upon secret services that ARE outside the governments remit (and they do exist). BTW Yellowthread Street (Central ITV plc) only last 1 series.

Plus it was nice to see Mersey TV (Media3 ltd) doing something different than just soap!

Minder was very dire but ended up being a success, so did Boon and I could actually name about 10 others as well, that started off VERY badly but ended up being classics.

IMHO The Outsiders does have potential, indeed it does need tweaking with but if they got the right people to tweak it then, yes, it could be the great return of the British adventure drams to television.

PS I would love to see a remake of Van Der Valk - especially if BBC were to make it (after watching the Dalziel and Pascoe story set in Amsterdam earlier this year) - another initally innovative idea that hasn't been used for 20 years so could be classed as innovative in todays TV world.

Its ridiculous. Corrie has 6 episodes as well the week after next (the extra one being on Friday ay 8.30pm) Im hoping this is just a one off as its Fred's funeral. Although as im a huge fan of Corrie id never stop watching no matter how many episodes they added. (unlike Emmerdale which im no longer a fan of)

Steel River Blues was crap compaired London's Burning so that not coming back was no great loss IMO. The Golden Hour was excellent and I throughly enjoyed watching it. It was so different to the usual medical drama's we get so im disappointed it's not coming back. However I suppose it got low viewing figures.

I watched the Outsiders but was bored im afraid. I watched until the end so it wasnt that bad that I switched off. I was interested to see that Mersey TV made this as well.

Admittedly I don't know how old you are but , if you are late20's to mid 30's, weren't you bored of the first series of Minder or Boon when they were first shown and I bet you thought that they would never return. I did as I thought they were both absolutely crud but both ended up being some of my favourite shows on ITV during the 80's.

What another Friday 830pm episode for Corrie - words are not enough for this, don't we have too much soap as it is already!!!!!

Im 25. Ive seen all the episodes of Corrie on Granada Plus (well from 5th April 1976 onwards) so thats why I sometimes in the Corrie thread talk about characters who had left before I was born!

Never watched the first series of Boon or Minder but I take your point. The problem is these days if a programme isnt an instant 'hit' they axe it because of the amount of competition these days. Thats why series are even pulled off air after 2 or 3 episodes.

Well im sure this extra Corrie is just a one off - from time to time they like to show 6, 7 or even 8 episodes in a week to boost the schedule. I expect we will get 7 or 8 when Im a Celebrity is shown in November (during the ever important advertising period before Christmas)

Hornblower!


As others have said, ITV's biggest problem at the moment is it's into "imitation" rather than "innovation".

It's only very recently actually it's drama has gone downhill - over the last few years they've been doing it better than BBC1 (and they've only raised their game as the licencee fee debate reopens!).


There is something seriously wrong with the ITV commissioning department. They commission obvious flops like Love Island and Celebrity Wrestling - shows that anyone here could tell weren't up to scratch just from their initial description.


And then the other problem is not showing confidence in it's drama. Using The Outsiders again as an example - what does it say to the viewers when ITV only commission one episode?


There is also trouble ratings wise at the moment in determining what is and isn't a hit. Trinny and Susanah got 4.2m last week and that was deemed pretty acceptable - while axed shows like Making Waves a couple of years back only got slightly less.


Saturday night shows like The X Factor show that programmes can still bring in audiences of 8-10m+ - but with many of ITV's drama series (and the BBC's) hovering around the 5m mark, I don't think ITV really know whether to stay committed to them or look for something new.


The main problem though with ITV1's schedule is it's become boring. Viewers pretty much know what type of programme is on when, so very rarely come across something they wouldn't probably make a point of watching.

ITV1 need to be using certain slots in the schedule better - for example the 9pm slot on Mondays after Corrie should be where brand new drama series are placed to give them a good chance of getting a stable audience!

Also, I was about to say how ironic how this thread is turning into one of the most negative about ITV - but also it's ITV themselves who have the same attitude.

They are too concerned about their perceived weaknesses and stripping out anything in the schedule which doesn't bring in the right audience - rather than looking at it's strengths and building the schedule around them.

Looks like itv1 are desperate to keep Caroline Quentin on our screens, Life begins hasnt even finished and they're advertising her new show.