Here’s the full press release.

ITV STUDIOS today confirmed that Phil Collinson is to join the company as the new Producer of Coronation Street.  Manchester based Phil joins ITV STUDIOS from the BBC where his credits include Series Producer for the iconic Doctor Who.

Phil will take over from Kim Crowther who has decided to step down after two and a half hugely successful years as Producer of the UK’s favourite soap. Phil will join in March to allow for a suitable handover period.  Kim will continue to produce the show through to the early summer of 2010. Phil will report into Kieran Roberts, Executive Producer of Coronation Street.

John Whiston, Director of ITV STUDIOS said:

“We are delighted Phil has agreed to join ITV STUDIOS and carry on the fantastic, creative work that Kim has spearheaded.  Phil is a hands-on producer, with a fine track record in shaping much loved and treasured programming and I have no doubt he will bring all that talent to Coronation Street.

“I would like to thank Kim for her immense contribution to the show. Kim’s sheer hard work and her boundless imagination are the qualities that have continued to keep Coronation Street as fresh and exciting as ever as it enters its 50th year.

“Kim leaves Corrie in fantastically good health, having increased total audience share in the last quarter as recent storylines around Tony, Carla, Maria and Roy Cropper have been delivering spectacularly large audiences day in day out this autumn. This achievement is testament to the skill and talent of Kim and her team.

Kim Crowther said: “Coronation Street is very special to me. It’s been a huge privilege to work with such a wonderful cast, production and writing team. But after a couple of great years, I’m looking forward to reintroducing myself to my children. I’m delighted to be passing the baton to Phil, and wish him all the best for what should be a spectacular fiftieth year for the show.”

Phil Collinson said: “I am  absolutely thrilled to be joining Corrie, the nation’s favourite street and a show I’ve been a huge fan of all my life . It goes without saying that it’s a tremendous honour to be entrusted with building on Coronation Street’s success and creating the must-see storylines for 2010 and beyond. Kim will be a tough act to follow but I will be working with one of the best teams in the business and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”

Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel

ITV1 launched its remake of The Prisoner to British press last night at the Odeon West End in London’s Leicester Square, screening the first two episodes to journalists.

Written by Bill Gallagher (Lark Rise to Candleford, Out of the Blue) and co-produced with America’s AMC, it’s a worthwhile undertaking indeed, despite the huge expectation the project provokes. In an era when US TV is big on puzzles and ellipitical plotting, The Prisoner fits in very well indeed. And what it really has in its favour is this version is a series, with a finite run (six episodes) and a definite end. So there’s no fear of a plot in flux, as showrunners consider the possibility of further seasons. We will get answers.

Introducing the screening, Sir Ian McKellen said: “It was about 18 months ago when the scripts arrived. It was only for part one, I think. Bill Gallagher’s name on the outside, so I was already excited. And the title made me read it immediately, which I don’t always do. When I read episode one, I then needed to read episode two. Then I needed to get  three and four and five. But long before six was written I said, ‘yes’.

“It was just a job that I had to take. I didn’t even know who else was going to be in it at that point, nor the fact we were going to go to Southern Africa .

“There have been ups and there have been downs, but all along I knew this was going to work. Then, last week, I saw the whole thing in one stretch. By God, that was confirmed. I think the work on the screen is absolutely astonishing. And look beyond the main characters and see what’s going on in the background. You’ll see some of the finest performances from young actors gathered together. And the leading man, Jim Caviezel? Well, to die for.

“What can I tell you? You can’t talk about this, because you start unravelling the plot… But there are clues all the way through. This is a thriller and if you want to know what’s going to happen next, listen hard, put your popcorn down and just revel in it.”

I mentioned expectations, and of course you can’t avoid them watching this. They make you second-guess the show in a way you wouldn’t a new commission. So, whereas in any other instance, learning more about 6′s mysterious backstory would make perfect sense, here, as soon as his occupation is confirmed, it diminishes him a little. Mind you, Caviezel is great in the role of 6. More passive than Patrick McGoohan, but capable of raging against the machine when the story needs it. McKellan, as 2, is also impressive. He plays it passive-aggressive. Slow, deliberate movements. A quintessential gent. Menacing, but not surprising.

So far, the reviews in the US, where its currently airing, have been mixed. From what I’ve seen so far, I’ll definitely be seeing the final four episodes.

ITV's digital portfolio

So it’s happy fifth birthday, today, to ITV3. And a tip of the hat to ITV4 which is also celebrating – four years of service.

By way of a tribute, one-man OTT-updating machine Dominic Small returns with a history of ITV’s digital strategy. From ONDigital, to ITV2, there have certainly been ups and downs. As Dominic reminds us, the network’s nascent dabbles in the digital market weren’t very successful…

“ITV regional operators did dip their toes into the satellite pool quite early on, with mixed results. Many of the ITV franchisees of the time worked together to launch a new UK-based satellite channel with Europe-wide broadcast, though this pioneering venture – Superchannel – was not as successful as had been hoped and later ended up in the hands of an Italian firm, and subsequently the American broadcaster NBC, who dumped much of the UK content for US-produced output.”

For more, Read the feature »

“This is the latest ridiculous decision by the BBC – proof that something is going wrong at the broadcaster”. Is it someone swearing again, or BBC Worldwide getting too involved in commercial activities? Of course not – it’s about Strictly vs X Factor.

What a pointless dicussion this has become, but Hunt isn’t the only one who’s been lured in to commenting on it (although he’s definitely the one who should be most ashamed of himself, as you’d think he had more important things to discuss). Here comes national speaker of common sense and, it appears, Controller of ITV Simon Cowell, who under the not-at-all-melodramatic headline ‘The BBC has let Britain down’ writes in The Sun to say, “I’m happy to chair a meeting with someone from the BBC and someone from ITV and I genuinely think we can solve this within twenty minutes.” Thank God Simon’s here to sort things out. And for shame, here’s Declan Donnelly, who you’d hope would have the wit and perspective not to treat some scheduling issue as the end of the BBC, making an almighty leap of logic by suggesting, “This whole  business is sickening… the BBC are supposed to be a public service broadcaster and I don’t see much of the public service going on at the moment, which is a real shame.” That’s exactly what it is, Dec. Because Strictly has replaced Panorama and all news bulletins and… oh, hang on. No it hasn’t.

What a shame Dec has fallen for some shameless ITV spinning. It looks like the BBC is being blamed for all of this, when nobody’s pointed out that in previous weeks, The X Factor has begun at 7pm. This week, it was abruptly moved to 8pm, where the clash with Strictly has therefore become more pronounced. This is, of course, the same ITV that’s so concerned about what’s best for the viewer that it spent much of the last two years scheduling Emmerdale up against EastEnders every single week.

The Beeb have rightly pointed out that the two shows have actually gone up against each other on forty previous occasions. Sadly, because they didn’t do it last year, ITV have now been able to get away with muder because they don’t think anyone’s boring and pedantic enough to remember this, let alone go through old listings and point this out. But there’s nobody more boring and pedantic than me, so let’s take a look at some Saturday nights from 2005…

Saturday 22nd October – Strictly 6.15pm, The X Factor 6.15pm

Saturday 29th October – Strictly 6.35pm, The X Factor 6.15pm

Saturday 5th November – Strictly 6.35pm, The X Factor 6.15pm

Saturday 11th November – Strictly 6.20pm, The X Factor 6.50pm

Then we can also look at 2006…

Saturday 14th October – Strictly 5.50pm, The X Factor 5.50pm

Saturday 21st october – Strictly 5.45pm, The X Factor 5.45pm

Saturday 28th October – Strictly 5.40pm, The X Factor 5.45pm

Saturday 4th November – Strictly 5.45pm, The X Factor 5.45pm

And just to really hammer the point home, in 2007…

Saturday 6th October – Strictly 6.15pm, The X Factor 6.45pm

Saturday 20th October – Strictly 5.45pm, The X Factor 5.45pm

Saturday 27th October – Strictly 5.45pm, The X Factor 5.45pm

Now I don’t recall a grandstanding publicity-hungry MP feeling moved to comment on any of those occasions, possibly because ITV weren’t quite so desperate for ratings and publicity and feeding the papers a load of rubbish about the Beeb.

Regardless, the general point is that Strictly remains by far the better programme than The X Factor. For all the idea that Strictly‘s audience is elderly and boring compared to the hip young gunslingers watching ITV, Strictly is way more daring and innovative in terms of musical choices – they danced to the Kings of Leon on Friday night, after The Gossip and The Killers have been on the soundtrack in previous series, while The X Factor won’t feature anything that’s not on heavy rotation on Smooth FM. And in Brucie, we’ve got the most compelling and anarchic presenter on telly – whether it’s egging on the audience in an impromptu Vera Lynn singalong or repeating jokes (and letting the running order go to pot) until they get the laugh he feels they deserve, you can’t take your eyes off him. He really doesn’t give a toss. And, of course, he’s been in this business long enough to know that this type of scheduling war is not a new thing – what about when his Big Night went up against the Generation Game in 1978?

Funnily enough, The X Factor managed to beat Strictly in the ratings, after all ITV’s bleating, so what’s the betting we’ll see these arguments about “serving the public” quietly fade away over the next few weeks, and Cowell stop being quite so concerned about his mum, who apparently loves both?

Regardless of all the arguments, though, one thing is for certain – Jeremy Hunt is a complete idiot who has got far too much time on his hands and had been taken in by some complete guff from the ITV press office. Do some bloody work, man!

Phillip Schofield’s summation, there, of ITV1′s umpteenth Saturday night, tension-ratcheting game show, which debuted last week. It’s a trope returned to constantly throughout the 60-minute run-time, either by Phil, or over-wrought ‘Voice of the Cube’ Colin MacFarlane (“How many times have you thrown a ball, Nicky? But in the Cube, and for £20,000, have you got what it takes?”).

And, clearly this is an issue. The production team build a perspex cube, tell Schofield to demonise the thing, the camera pervs all over it like its high-tech porn… and then, once inside its environs, people play games with red ping pong balls.

Tonight, it’s geezer-ish personal trainer Nicky Sanford who’s first up for the challenge. He’s a game show producer’s dream: ebullient, chatty, happy to vocalise every passing thought. And he’s a proper bloke too. We know this, because, when he bounds on to set, Phillip greets him as “mate”. In fact, throughout, our host seems positively smitten with Nicky, as though he’s happy to be hanging with the tough kids. Even when the South London boy talks over his “This is one of the pivotal moments of your life” speech, Phil can’t help but roar with laughter.

Phil manages to catch the sweeping camera's eye

Nice graphics, Phil!

“Well it looks simple, dunnit?” opines Nicky, sizing up ‘Drift’. “Just blow the ball in the bucket. You’ve got to get the amount of blow right”. There’s certainly a lot of blow billowing around this show. The cameras crank into slo-mo at pivotal points – watch Nicky smash a pain of glass with a ball – while post-production graphics of great portent descend into the playing area to update everyone on cash won and challenges to meet. I’d love to know what Phillip and his contestants are really looking at during these points. In fact, this whole layer of movie-style pep distracts. Every time ‘The Body’ materialises inside the Cube, you’re left thinking, “I wonder what was really going on in the studio at that point”.

For the 10 years this website has been online (and, let’s face it, a long time before then), TV has always been looking for soap opera in other formats. Granted, not so much sport, anymore, but reality and game shows still try and seed this element into their narrative. “So, what would £10,000 do to your life, then?” asks Phillip, cuing in a spot of dull, dewy-eyed getting-to-know-you chat with Nicky.

Blow hard

The Body... matters

But, in The Cube‘s favour, it doesn’t dwell long here, and instead obsesses – quite pleasingly – over stats. “It takes,” counsels Phillip, “on average 3,8 lives to do this”. This is the sort of stuff we want. The game-playing elements. The big decisions: “You have £20,000. The minute you say you’re going for it, then that’s it. £50,000 or nothing”.

Plus, you can’t deny it – Phillip Schofield knows television. A throwaway remark from Nicky that it might be easier to tackle ‘Barrier’ sans his jeans prompts Phil to declare: “I’m going to say something Nicky that I cannot believe… it’s for £50,000, if you want, you may remove your trousers”. You can imagine how Justin Lee Collins (who hosted a pilot version of this, rejected by C4) would have crucified that moment.

Tonight’s episode, of course, is all about the, now debagged, fitness instructor. When he swaggers off with his winnings, support manager Fay enters at around two-thirds of the way through the show. “I’m going to take the ice out of the Cube and get the viewers watching the tube,” she raps hopelessly. Not for long, though, Fay. With the show all but over, it’s clear you’re never going to ascend far up the cash ladder. Like last week’s second contestant, she predictably leaves with comparatively little.

So what to make of The Cube? Things look different in there, certainly. But not different enough for some basic throwing, catching or balancing games to merit the weight of the full Who Wants to be a Millionaire? production values.

“Every time someone goes in it’s a different story!” squeaks Phillip. “What would your story be?”

Echoing Upstairs, Downstairs in concept, here’s the full info about the Gosford Park writer’s new series…

Set in an Edwardian country house in 1912, Downton Abbey will portray the lives of the Crawley family and the servants who work for them.

In the drawing rooms, library and beautiful bedrooms of Downton Abbey, lives the family.  Below stairs are the other residents, the servants, as fiercely jealous of their ranks as anyone above stairs. Some of them are loyal to the family and committed to Downton as a way of life, others are moving through, on the look out for betterment or love or just plain adventure. The difference being they know the family’s secrets, while the family know so few of theirs.

Downton Abbey will be produced for ITV by Carnival Films and pre-production begins in autumn 2009.

Director of Television Peter Fincham and Director of ITV Drama Laura Mackie have ordered seven episodes of the drama about life in the Downton community with Julian Fellowes penning the lion’s share of the scripts and overseeing the series.  The first episode will be 90 minutes duration, while the remaining six episodes of the series will be 60 minute editions of the drama. Julian is best known for Gosford Park, which won a plethora of awards, not least the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay in 2001.  His most recent film work, The Young Victoria, also received critical acclaim.  In addition to his work as a writer, Julian is an actor, director and producer.

Laura Mackie said: “We are delighted to be bringing the work of a high profile film writer like Julian Fellowes to ITV1.  This is a quality series of real scale and ambition that explores the fascinating and complicated relationships, between masters and servants during a brilliantly vivid period of British history.”

Downton Abbey’s writer and creator Julian Fellowes said: “It is no secret that I am fascinated by the extraordinary variety of people that occupied the great country houses.  Where men and women worked alongside each other and lived in close proximity, but were separated in their dreams and aspirations by a distance that makes the moon seem close. Television drama often relies on a structure that will involve characters of different backgrounds, any hospital soap opera or detective series can give you that, but there is no narrative base that can provide members of every level of society, sleeping under a single roof, more believably than a great house before the First War.”

Well, unfortunately for ITV, most people would suggest Everton’s winner against Liverpool being replaced by a Tic-Tacs advert, the coverage of Histon vs Leeds looking more like a ninety-minute documentary about raindrops and Portsmouth’s defeat by Swansea being filmed from a mole’s eye view. Of course, none of these are the fault of ITV Sport – they were caused by an automation cock-up, freak weather conditions and a condemned gantry at Fratton Park – but it’s not been a great way to launch into the new contract.

Their broadcast partners Setanta Sports haven’t really enjoyed huge success either, but you’d question the value of a deal like this for a pay channel. You’d get pay TV for the Premier League as it’s the only way you could see live Premier League football, but unless your team’s playing in one of Setanta’s live games, most fans would be happy enough with the ITV live matches and highlights shows.

However, Setanta are really pushing the boat out with their coverage of the final, with programming beginning at 9am! The idea is to bring back the fun and excitement of Cup Final Day, back when it was more or less the only live match on TV, and to this end they’ve even hired Saint and Greavsie to take part in the coverage. Exactly who’s so nostalgic they’ll sit through the whole six hours build-up, I’m not sure, but at least they’re making the effort.

So far ITV’s not promised much for their Cup Final coverage, with a more conventional 1pm start time and presumably, lots and lots of Andy Townsend. I can’t bear Townsend, who blatantly exhibits more naked ambition than an Apprentice contestant, and it doesn’t help that ITV use him on 99% of their live matches. The man’s clearly desperate to be promoted to the anchor’s chair, talking longer and louder than everyone else, and a worrying development in recent months has been that he no longer sits with the rest of the pundits in live games, but on the other side of the table alongside Steve Rider.

In Townsend’s mind, at least, this seems to suggest he’s now the co-host, giving him scope to talk even more, now taking it upon himself to interview the other pundits. Well, I say “interview”, instead he just talks and invites the others to agree with him. In the build-up to a recent game when Teddy Sheringham was a guest, he reviewed some footage of the players and said “D’you remember this, Ted?” so often he sounded like he was talking an elderly relative through some cine films.

When you watch Townsend in action you sometimes pine for the days when footballers knew their place and were incredibly ill-at-ease in front of the camera, never trying to upstage their hosts. So it was a treat to see the performance of the former Arsenal and Liverpool star Michael Thomas in his role of pundit on Setanta’s coverage of the FA Youth Cup Final on Friday night. Here was the old “I kicked the ball and there it was in the back of the net” approach to football punditry back in full effect.

Thomas got off to a flying start when he advised viewers that the FA Youth Cup Final “is a massive game, because it’s like the FA Cup Final for the youth team”. It’s exactly like that, Michael. That’s why it’s called the FA Youth Cup Final. When asked if the match would be a chance for the managers to see if the young players could cope with the pressure, he said, “Yes, because it’s a pressure situation and some players can’t cope”. Later, too, he talked about some of the Arsenal players who had gone out on loan this season, “like Gibbs who went to Norwich and, er, um, er, um, the other one at Burnley”.

Still, at least Thomas was enthusiastic, and it was something of a treat to see a fomer player who clearly hadn’t bothered with the media training, someone completely inarticulate. For my money this was just as nostalgic as the return of Saint and Greavsie. It’s often said that there’s too much football on television, and if Thomas can get punditry work, it’s probably right.

Thomas’ fellow pundit was Jason McAteer, a man who, when he arrived at Liverpool, announced his nickname at his old club was “Trigger”, as his team mates decided he was about as intelligent as the fanously slow-witted Only Fools and Horses character of the same name. However, Liverpool already had a “Trigger” in Rob Jones, so McAteer announced that he now wanted to be known as “Double Trigger”. Remarkably, on Friday night, he finally found a double act where he was the brains of the operation.

The series, which returns to ITV1 next month, will once more feature Marco Pierre White (whose debut US show, The Chopping Block, is currently airing in the States) putting a group of celebrities through their paces as he attempts to turn them into chefs in just two weeks.

Claudia says: “I’ve always been a huge fan of Hell’s Kitchen so I’m thrilled to be joining the team. I’m hoping for some tips from Marco as I get confused when making toast.”

Celebrating, uh, the 25th anniversary of 1983, the channel are bringing back a slew of old pop acts for a one-night-only-performance, fronted by Denise Van Outen.

Artistes lined up include Ali Campbell (performing Red, Red Wine), Heaven 17 (Temptation), Howard Jones (What is Love and New Song), Kajagoogoo (Too Shy), Nick Heyward (Whistle Down the Wind), Nick Kershaw (I Won’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me), Paul Young (Wherever I Lay my Hat) and Tony Hadley (True).

The latter says, quite accurately: “I am the white van man; because everyone I see around London always seems to be leaning out of a white van saying, ‘Alright Tone, how’s going?’ People are still very kind after 30 years of doing this. I’m a very lucky boy.”

Any series that can boast “now with no Sharon Osbourne” must be on to a winner.

Yes X-Factor series (what is it now- four? Five?) is definitely feeling the benefit of the lack of “Mrs O”.  I for one won’t miss her cutting some shapes and pouting on the live shows, not to mention playing to the gallery like some Anglo-Transatlantic Margi Clarke. With those live editions round the corner, now seems like a good time to comment on yet another one of those series that, through sheer repetition, has fallen off the broadsheet agenda, while remaining resolutely ever present in the tabloids. 

So is anybody who loves telly still watching ITV1′s talent show beast?  I am, but I am beginning to suspect I might be alone.  For those of you who’ve jumped ship, I can tell you that you’re not missing anything.  I mean literally, you’re not missing anything – it’s like an identikit version of itself. 

Scott's in tears, but the swelling music means...

..."You're through to the live show!"

So rigid now is the formula, that in this last whittling edition, you can actually tell who is going to be in and who is going out based on the incidental music (if a contestant walks in to face judgment to any track 30 seconds away from an ascendant key change then they’re through, otherwise they’re out).  Similarly, the knowledge they always leave the last two candidates vying for one place, allows you to pretty much work out the configuration of yes and no’s before they happen.

So if the format is turning against the programme through sheer repetition, how is the rest of it working?  Dannii Minogue is becoming increasingly superfluous, not helped by the obviously unfavourable editing, which excises her from many of the judges’ reaction shots.  Talking of editing, that much lampooned X-Factor style of sticking in any old reaction shot, regardless of continuity still prevails.  Indeed, this series has been so blatant, in one instance Dannii appeared to briefly change outfit mid-audition.  Such audacity is almost commendable.

New judge Cheryl Cole has actually worked very well, despite many people’s misgivings that she would be too street tough (in fact she is quite the opposite).  However, The X-Factor‘s main draw remains Simon Cowell.  Somehow there is just something wonderfully “in synch” about the man, even after all this time he has a great knack for verbalising what most viewers are thinking.

Less successful, and mysteriously so, is Dermot O’Leary.  As a slightly free-wheeling presenter he really is in his element, and brilliant at exuding empathy. But on this show, none of that is present and I’m not sure why.  Perhaps the production team just don’t have enough faith in him.  Whatever the reason, Dermot  is in danger of losing the last vestiges of what Simon likes to call the “likeability factor”.  Hopefully he will jump ship soon and find something that better suits his talents.

So all in all, The X-Factor  finds itself still outperforming (most) of the competition, but it is not the thing of pomp it used to be.  Perhaps it’s found its comfortable Saturday night groove now, and rather like – say – Stars in their Eyes – will continue to pump out watchable, but inessential telly for a few years to come.  Not a bad fate.