The sad death of ITV

The slow death of ITV makes for painful viewing. In its glory days of the 1980s and 1990s, the channel had a salty naughtiness, a thrilling random quality. Its kids’ shows were raucous or even scary, its crime dramas were raunchy, its quizzes and games were sparkly and crass and its highbrow offerings were spicy. The channel had an edge to it; watching ITV was aspirational and fun. It was cool.

But ITV has swapped any distinctive offering for constant retreads of the same kind of generic gloomy thriller; at the moment it’s tempting us with Red Eye, Protection and Grace. Swipe through ITVX and you will see endless title cards – serious-looking constipated faces, frowning – for similar shows: Malpractice, Out There, Until I Kill You, Angela Black, After The Flood, The Suspect, No Return, Redemption…and a heck of a lot of ‘Live Laugh Love’ reality shows of the Real Housewives/Ferne McCann variety.