ITV

ITV announces the return of Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway

Credit: ITV

Dynamic duo Ant and Dec will return with the promise of giving viewers the “happiest ninety minutes of the week”.

The trailer shows the pair whiz through a series of fun outfit changes, plus the return of host Stephen Mulhern. 

The new series will be filmed in the studio without a live audience in order to adhere to social distancing guidelines. 

Ant and Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway will air on ITV this February. 

In defence of PSB truth and impartiality

Royal Wedding (credit: BBC)

On the eve of the publication of Ofcom’s much-­anticipated review of public service broadcasting (PSB), big names from the BBC and Channel 4, past and present, discussed whether British broadcasting was in crisis. 

Ofcom warned that PSB is unlikely to survive in the online world without an overhaul of broadcasting regulation. It said that the public service broadcas­ters – the BBC, ITV, STV, Channel 4, S4C and Channel 5 – could also fulfil their obligations online, and that the public service remit could be extended to the big streamers. 

Ear Candy: My Life in TV

Credit: ITV

The weekly pod invites celebrity guests to discuss their own lives on television, from favourite TV moments to their childhood on-screen inspirations. 

The likes of Mo Gilligan, Emily Atack and AJ Odudu choose the shows they would “bin, binge or bring back” and share their personal career journeys in television. Hammond’s own path to success started with a much-loved stint in the Big Brother house, after which she established herself as a permanent fixture on daytime TV. 

Government review of public service broadcasting begins

Google the words “public service broadcasting” and you’ll see that the first few links relate to a well-known band that has played at Glastonbury, the Royal Albert Hall and Brixton. Its first album was called Inform – Educate – Entertain. 

Only after that will you find links to Ofcom’s page on public service broadcasting and the Government’s new Public Service Broadcasting Advisory Panel. 

Goodbye to all that: Peter Bazalgette looks back on 2020

JANUARY

“Great fears of the Sicknesse here in the City, it being said that two or three houses are already shut up. God preserve us all.” The very first mention of the plague in The Diary of Samuel Pepys, on 30 April 1665. Fast forward 355 years and there’s this on 11 January on the ITV News site: “Health authorities in the central Chinese city of Wuhan are reporting the first death from a new type of coronavirus.”

Sir Lenny Henry pens drama Three Little Birds for ITV

(credit: ITV)

Inspired by his mother’s stories of leaving Jamaica in the 1950s for Great Britain, Henry has created six fictional episodes charting the adventures of two outgoing sisters, Leah and Chantrelle, and their virtuous acquaintance Hosanna.

When the trio, from St Anne’s district in Jamaica, board a cruise ship heading for Great Britain, they leave their family, friends and old lives behind to forge new horizons on the other side of the Atlantic.