ITV's most successful sitcoms were generally produced in the 1970s, including Rising Damp, On the Buses, George and Mildred, Man About The House and the now unfashionable Love Thy Neighbour.

The most notable satirical comedies are the ground-breaking 1960s series That Was The Week That Was and ITV's controversial puppet show Spitting Image.

The North West region is regarded as ITV's most successful franchise, and The Financial Times and The Independent once described Granada Television, the former franchise holder, as ' the best commercial television company in the world '.

In other countries the format was copied – most notably in the United Kingdom with the BBC's Breakfast and ITV's Good Morning Britain, in Canada with Canada AM on CTV and in Australia with the Sunrise ( TV program ) on the Seven Network.

Neither did it neglect other responsibilities: it established the long-running Sunday lunchtime political series Weekend World and ITV's most famous arts programmes Aquarius, and its replacement The South Bank Show ( cancelled by ITV after 30 years ).

Major programmes on LWT included most of ITV's weekend line-up, which included gameshows like Friday night favourite Play Your Cards Right, Saturday night favourites Punchlines, Blind Date, and Gladiators, and long-running Sunday night drama series London's Burning.

The final of the first series of Pop Idol in February 2002 received the highest-ever one-night vote for a UK TV show, making the show one of ITV's most profitable.

At its peak, the show was one of ITV's most popular programmes, even repeats pulling in over 10 million viewers.

Derek Batey Border TV's Assistant Controller of Programmes became the frontman for one of ITV's most popular daytime quiz shows of the 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. and Mrs. ( A separate version of Mr. and Mrs. was also produced by HTV at the same time.

In 2005, as part of the ITV Network's 50th birthday celebrations, they were back on television fronting Ant & Dec's Gameshow Marathon, a celebration of some of ITV's most enduring gameshows from the past 50 years.

She has won a number of awards for acting throughout her career, which has encompassed theatre, motion picture and television ; most recently a BAFTA award for her role in ITV's Appropriate Adult.

In 2003 it was ITV's most popular factual programme.

McLean started in such roles as Eddie Davies in ITV's Customs drama The Knock, and moved to small roles such as that of a police chief in The Fifth Element, his most acclaimed role being in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, playing the part of ' Barry The Baptist '.

Former notable presenters on the station include Greg Scott ( most famous for his television appearances on ITV's Quizmania ), Joel Ross ( now one half of JK and Joel, who later spent three years at BBC Radio 1 ), Howard Nurse ( BBC Football Editor ), and Global Radio network presenter, Neil Grayson.

She has made several television appearances singing, most notably on ITV's Madonna Mania, Discomania, Abba Mania 2 and Celebrity Stars in Their Eyes, where her impression of LeAnn Rimes, singing the smash hit theme from the film Coyote Ugly, ' Can't Fight The Moonlight ' earned her the winner's spot.

She was educated at Woldingham School and is probably most well known for receiving a gold medal on the Channel 4 reality TV show The Games ( 2004 ), and for appearing as a contestant on ITV's Celebrity Love Island ( 2005 ).

She has since then appeared on various television shows both as a presenter and panellist ( most prominently on ITV's daytime show, Loose Women ) as well as appearing on reality television programmes.

The programme was one of ITV's most watched, reaching its biggest audience in January 1960 while Bruce Forsyth was the host, in an edition featuring Cliff Richard and The Shadows, watched by more than 20 million people.

Roberts has worked on some of the most popular British soap operas, including Channel 4's now-defunct Brookside as a scriptwriter ( 1999 – 2003 ), and as a story associate on ITV's Coronation Street in 1997.

The theatre was used to hold the first round of recalls for successful auditionees in ITV's Pop Idol.

Although much hyped by ITV, who were hoping to repeat the success of Gran and Marks ' previous project with Mayall, the successful The New Statesman, the series failed to catch on ( becoming one in a string of ITV's high-hoped sitcoms to have not met expectations ), and was dropped after one series.

Ferguson had previously been a producer on ITV's The Bill — a hard-hitting, gritty and successful police drama, which seemed to be challenging EastEnders in providing a realistic vision of modern life in London.

These include ITV's Cosmo And Thingy, set in prehistoric times featuring a cast of cavemen and cavewomen, and Football Crazy ( also for ITV ) which was a children's sitcom about the football team Wormwood Rovers.

He also starred in ITV's High Stakes sitcom with Richard Wilson, and Paradise Heights, the BBC drama starring Neil Morrissey.

On ITV, he was playing naive medical student Alan Moore in Rising Damp ( voted ITV's best-ever sitcom in the Britain's Best Sitcom survey of 2004 ) while also starring in BBC's Porridge as Lennie Godber alongside Ronnie Barker.

From April 1991 – December 1992, he spent a period as the presenter for ITV's children's strand.

With what can crudely be summed up as a clash of ideologies between an expansion of ITV's commercial ethos and a public service approach more akin to the BBC, it was ultimately something of a compromise that eventually led to the formation of Channel 4 as launched in 1982.

On ITV's regional news show London Tonight, Brooks was described as " a top-selling, rooting tooting, cotton picking, Country and Western star, yeeha!

( 1985 ), about the songs and poems of the UK miners ' strike, was commissioned by ITV's The South Bank Show, but also banned.

A later rival to Coronation Street was ITV's Emmerdale Farm ( later renamed Emmerdale ) which began in 1972 in a daytime slot and had a rural Yorkshire setting.

In September 2006, he was voted by the general public as number 1 in ITV's poll of TV's Greatest Stars.

From 1955 Taylor was a panellist on ITV's rival discussion programme Free Speech, where he remained until the series ended in 1961.

In 2001 the railway was featured in the finale of ITV's comedy series The Grimleys, named The Grimley Curse, and then in 2007 on the finale of BBC One's award-winning drama series Life on Mars.

He was placed at 49 on ITV's list of TV's 50 Greatest Stars, and in 2008 received the James Joyce Award of the Literary and Historical Society.

McGuigan appeared in the third series of ITV's Hell's Kitchen in September 2007, where he was eventually crowned the winner after winning the public vote.

The emergence of digital television cut ITV's viewing share, decreasing advertising revenue which was suffering from competition with the internet.

Tiswas returned to the screens in November 1979 for its sixth series, as part of ITV's comeback ; this was directly referenced in the first edition of the new series, when the " Welcome Home To ITV " jingle was played to usher the programme in and out of the advert breaks, albeit replacing the vocals by the Mike Sammes Singers with a group of deliberately out-of-tune children.

It was fronted by Isla St Clair, folksinger and former co-host of The Generation Game on BBC TV and Tommy Boyd, former co-presenter of ITV's Magpie.

Sullivan believed the key factor in it being accepted was the success of ITV's new drama, Minder, a series with a similar premise and also set in modern-day London.

After ITV's unification in 2002, the two London franchises, Carlton Television and London Weekend Television were merged into a single entity, ITV London, while the Wales and West franchise lost its official identity and instead was substituted with ITV Wales and ITV West on-air, with no reference linking the two together.

The 120-second final cut of " Cog " was broadcast on British television on 6 April 2003, during a commercial break in ITV's coverage of the 2003 Brazilian Grand Prix.

A new adaptation was transmitted on 5 February 2006 as part of ITV's Marple, starring Geraldine McEwan and Sophia Myles, as Miss Marple and Gwenda, respectively.

Until it was moved to London ( and merged with the London News Network's operations to form ITV Sport Productions ), Central's sport department, under the leadership of Gary Newbon ( who also occasionally appeared on-screen as a reporter and presenter ), produced nearly all of ITV's football coverage ( from FA Cup to UEFA Champions ' League ).

This classic ident was finally withdrawn in the summer of 1989, ahead of ITV's first attempt at generic presentation.

Coronation Street aired on the channel simultaneously with ITV's broadcasts of the programme ( this continued until 1992 when it was put on RTÉ 1 due to the Olympic Games coverage ).

In addition, the studios required far more upgrading for colour production as Teddington had been a test centre for ITV's colour research and was well advanced in the conversion to colour production.

LWT's response to this was to reinvent itself as possibly ITV's first ' brand ': the on-screen identity changed from the cumbersome ' London Weekend Television ' to ' LWT ', the ' river ident ' was modified to three letters, the strapline ' The weekend starts here ' was introduced, and greater use of the distinct black-and-white-layered tower block that was its studios, was used in continuity.