ITV's most successful sitcom of this period was probably The Army Game ( 1957 – 61 ), featuring some of the comedians who would soon appear in the Carry On film series.

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.

Simon Nye has stated that ITV picked up the series partly because Enfield had agreed to star in it, and his departure influenced ITV's decision to cancel the show after just two series, when audience figures were poor.

Poor ratings in comparison to BBC News 24 and Sky News, and ITV's desire to re-use the channel's allocation on Freeview, were cited as the reasons.

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.

ITV's plans for a new series were scrapped in 2006 after a dispute over Ant & Dec puppets.

The latter two shows were hosted for many years by ITV's main football commentator Brian Moore.

Many of ITV's Christmas programmes were eventually shown in the Yorkshire region in early 1979, after the dispute had ended.

Following his report, Pilkington prompted the government to impose a levy on ITV's revenue, the effects of which were heightened by a recession in 1970 when revenue had declined by 12 percent in real terms.

Together, the now-merged companies were committed to paying about £ 80 million a year to the government for the right to broadcast, a substantial amount compared to the £ 2, 000 bid by Central, ITV's largest station.

At the changeover, the IBA had decided to change the area covered from the south to include the south east and included the Bluebell Hill transmitter, associated relays and the main relay at Tunbridge Wells which previously were covered by ITV's London contractors.

The channel used to broadcast live UEFA Champions League football matches whenever two English teams were playing simultaneously, with the other game being shown on the ITV Network, if ITV2 ( ITV's former secondary channel to show Champions League games ) had a full schedule.

The two services were replaced with a single pan-regional service in February 2009 as part of major cutbacks to ITV's regional news output, although shorter opts for the two sub-regions continue to air each weeknight on Anglia Tonight and after News at Ten.

This later paved the way for the eventual downgrading of all of ITV's regional identities, though the names were never fully dropped as their news programmes Central News and Westcountry Live continued, and eventually returned to the air ( albeit as ITV1 Central and ITV1 Westcountry ) in 2004.

There were by now other, more hard-hitting consumer investigation programmes being broadcast ( such as ITV's The Cook Report and the BBC's own Watchdog, and several others ), and the always slightly uneasy mix of hard-hitting and comical articles of the show was by now seen by many as very awkward and somewhat dated.

In the first series, the episodes (" modules ") satirise and pay homage to late 1970s and early 1980s educational films and school programmes such as ITV's " Experiment " series and BBC's " For Schools and Colleges ", which were re-run for many years after they were made.

Many of his electronic compositions were used as soundtracks to ITV's 1970s and 1980s television broadcasts for schools and colleges.

In July 2007, the butchers and shoe shop located on Bradley Road were used in an episode of ITV's The Royal.

Both drivers were told of their replacement before Da Matta was announced, and ITV's Martin Brundle commented that " replacing Salo and McNish with Panis and A. N.

Episodes were shown on terrestrial TV as part of special occasions, such as a general overview of ITV's early years ; LWT, who produced the series, repeated a selection of episodes from the series in the early 1990s, although was the only region to do so.

The first four tournaments were shown live on ITV4, the 2007 Grand Slam of Darts was ITV's first darts tournament since pulling the plug on darts coverage in 1988.

At first they presented the BBC's " Kitchen Magic ", but were soon poached by ITV's first cooking programme, which they presented as " Fanny & Johnnie ".

In 1958, he appeared in the UK pop charts as a member of Lord Rockingham's XI, who were the house band on ITV's rock ' n ' roll show ' Oh Boy!

In addition, two five-minute Christmas specials were made by LWT as part of All Star Comedy Carnival in 1969 and 1972, ITV's answer to the BBC's Christmas Night with the Stars programme.