Primeval

People only grouse about ITV because its so downmarket and cheap. If it starts offering more quality then people should have no reason to dislike it. I'm very willing to give this programme a chance.

I say let be + about this New show,

it brand new, lets all have a clean mind at this show,

ITV are now going for so called, 'high concept' dramas, the likes of Spooks, Life On Mars etc that have upped the ante in the genre in recent times. In doing so, they're putting to bed the likes of Rosemary & Thyme, Where the Heart Is, Footballers Wives etc.

Primeval is the first such commission I believe, some other drama plans for 2007 are detailed below, including a commission from Kudos, creator of Spooks, Hustle etc.

Keith Allen, John Thomson and Liza Tarbuck are among the stars ITV has lined up for its new slate of drama projects for 2007.

Allen and Thomson will star in Mobile , billed as a multi-layered conspiracy thriller set in the telecoms industry against the backdrop of the Iraq war, while Tarbuck will feature in Sally Wainwright’s much-lauded sex and suburbia comedy drama Bonkers . One-off piece Time of Your Life will follow a thirtysomething woman that has woken up from a coma she has been in since her teens.

Kudos, the independent production house behind BBC1 hits Spooks, Hustle and Life on Mars, is developing an original drama for ITV1.

Entitled Ordinary Joe , the show is still in the early stages of development, but it is hoped the high concept series will have a similar appeal to Life on Mars.

“It is about life and the ramifications of decisions you make and what determines your destiny. It follows one man’s life in four different ways but each narrative takes place in the same timescale. It will use the same cast to tell the different stories. It explores to what extent you can shape your own future.”

Personally, it will make for a pleasant change from the usual detectives and smaltyz romantic comedies.

Something that wasn't based on a sucessful show or format on another channel would be good though.

New and Original - is this the NEW ITVplc????

Are ITV actually listening to its true customerbase - the viewers, rather than making cheap quick money for its greedy investors?????

I for one will give them a chance!!!

Just need to take the risk and actually reduce the number of soaps and make some new magazine style shows (e.g. Wish You Were Here? We Can Work It Out!, Where There's Life), more harder edgier current affairs (e.g. World In Action, First Tuesday) and more decent one-off documentaries and documentarys series. (for example how many more viewers would have watched the History about English with Melvyn Bragg if it had been shown in a 9pm slot on either a Tuesday or a Wednesday???)

It's nothing to do with ITV PLC, they are a business, It's the ITV Network and Simon Shaps's new commissioning team

You know the one which he set up earlier this year and then people quickly wrote them off because they didn't like the programmes shown two weeks later, as if the new team had anything to do with them

By the way, it isn't compulsory that every thread that mentions ITV has to be used to talk about *everything* to do with ITV rather than the subject of the thread

Whether it be the new or the old commissioning team it DOES have an impact upon the business side of things.

For instance since the merge ITV plc has been doing badly - so hopefully these new commission will change that which will create more money for its pitiful woeful shareholders and more money to be even more inventive and risky which, by the looks of things with these new commissions, they are now trying to be.

Remember it is ITVplc that hired Simon Shaps and indirectly his motley crew commissioning team - I'm saying motley for now due to some of their programmes which are already on air - Saturday Cooks, removal of children's programming etc... Hopefully they have learnedfrom their short-term mistake and hopefully these new commissions will pay dividends!!!

It's a start though.

Who knows, if the new approach works they might then start commissioning some genuinely original stuff.

Any step in the right direction is a good thing.

The new drama commissions detailed above do sound promising- frankly getting in bed with Kudos is a ticket to success (often critical rather than ratings though).

But for a complete turnaround at ITV and to attract viewers who literally watch none of their output (I'm in this group), there has to be a complete overhaul of the schedule.

And an acceptance from ITV Plc that it needs to plough every single penny of profit back into building a decent network, and then reap the much larger profits.

The business model is proven with CBS in the US which did exactly this- all profits were diverted into programming until the quality went up to the extent that the viewers and profits did too.

ITV have commissioned another drama, called Fallen Angel which sounds fantastic:

ITV has commissioned Scotland's largest independent producer, IWC, to make a pioneering three-part drama serial in which the plot works backwards.

IWC, which was recently sold to media giant RDF, is in the process of casting Fallen Angel, which explores a murder and works back in 10-year chunks each episode to examine the reasons for the crime.

Not sure bringing back We Can Work It Out is the way forward (although I did used to quite like that - even when Judy presented it!)

They are bringing back Britain's Most Wanted , with Mary Nightingale presenting it again - not sure what format it's going to be, probably going to be totally different, supposed to be 1 x 90"

It's been a whilw since Most Wanted has been on air. They could actually create a "Crime Night" one evening after the late news. They could show Most Wanted Monthly, Crime Monthly, Real Crime and other genre related shows. - somethling like they did during the early 1990's. I know, I know not quite imaginiative or new but it would be different to what they and other channels do at the moment. But it takes imgination to be different rather than just run of the mill!