ITV's blog

ITV News has appointed award-winning journalist Rageh Omaar as a special correspondent, to further enhance its line up of dedicated on-screen journalists across its network news programmes.

Rageh, who joins the newsroom this week, will be responsible for covering a broad range of news stories and producing special in-depth reports from all around the UK and when required, on stories abroad.

Rageh is well-known for covering the Iraq invasion in Baghdad as Senior Foreign Correspondent at the BBC, with his reports from the war-torn capital featuring on news bulletins around the world. Most recently, Rageh was a journalist and presenter for Al Jazeera, working on investigative news and documentary programming, including Witness and The Rageh Omaar Report. Continue reading »

ITV has commissioned a third series of discussion show The Agenda for the New Year, following a series that saw all three main Party leaders on the show.

The new 8×30 ITV1 series is fronted by ITV News Political Editor Tom Bradby and produced by ITN Productions. The format will be unchanged, with Tom Bradby and four studio guests discuss the coming week’s agenda, from politics to popular culture.

Filmed in front of a studio audience at The Hospital Club, discussion is interspersed with mini video packages to add humour and illustrate the show’s talking points.

Guests in series two – which gained in ratings during the run and peaked at 1.3m viewers for the final episode – included David Cameron, Nick Clegg, Ed Miliband, Harriet Harman, Boris Johnson, William Hague, Hugh Grant, Patrick Stewart, Fiona Shaw and Mariella Frostrup. David Cameron’s appearance marked the first time that a serving British Prime Minister had appeared on a panel show. Continue reading »

Simon Cowell will return to the Judges Desk for the seventh series of Britain’s Got Talent on ITV1, it has been confirmed today.

After a hugely successful series in 2012, the same team reunite with multi-award winning Ant & Dec as hosts, while Simon is joined again by Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams for the show that puts a smile on the nation’s face.

In a thrilling finale to the 2012 series, Simon’s dream of a dancing dog emerging victorious came true when Ashleigh & Pudsey were crowned the winners. Continue reading »

ITV today shared the first details of its major, business-wide rebrand – which will see a new unifying brand identity for ITV plc, ITV Network, and ITV’s content and distribution businesses, domestic and international, from January 2013.

The brand development work is linked to ITV’s Transformation plan, and has been led by Group Director of Marketing and Research Rufus Radcliffe, Director of Network Marketing, Reemah Sakaan, and Creative Director of ITV Creative, Phil Lind.

The cornerstone of the rebrand is a new unifying brand identity for ITV – which will stretch across the branding for ITV plc, as well as ITV channels and online, and all ITV Studios content and distribution businesses, both in the UK, and overseas. The rebrand will also extend to ITV’s buildings, internal branding and services. Continue reading »

A unique new ITV2 documentary series following goings-on at the infamous holiday resort of Magaluf has been commissioned for transmission in the New Year.

In each of the 6×60-minute self-contained episodes The Magaluf Weekender follows a different group of 18-24 year-olds as they head out to the resort to party away a long weekend of their lives.

For some, it is their first holiday without their parents and captures the reality of their new-found independence and all the layers of bravado, insecurity and raging hormones that go with it.

In addition to the holidaymakers, we follow four characterful resort reps throughout the series as their lives intertwine. Continue reading »

Sarah Hadland (Miranda) and Russell Tovey (Him & Her) are to head the cast of a new sitcom commissioned by ITV called The Job Lot.

The comedy is set in a busy West Midlands Job Centre and will focus on the relationships between the people that work there and the people that don’t work there, or anywhere else for that matter.

It’s work, or the lack of it, that brings the characters together, and their relationships, or lack of them, around which the series revolves. Continue reading »

ITV is delighted to announce the commission of Vicious, a brand new studio sitcom for 2013.

Respected luminaries of British stage and screen Ian McKellen and Derek Jacobi head the cast and will be joined by Frances De La Tour in this unashamedly wicked new comedy.

The show will be written by Gary Janetti, the Emmy nominated writer/producer behind hit shows Family Guy and Will & Grace. And has been co-created by Gary and the Olivier award winning playwrite Mark Ravenhill.

Vicious tells the story of ageing partners, Freddie (played by Ian McKellen) and Stuart (played by Derek Jacobi), two men who have lived together in a small Covent Garden flat for nearly 50 years. Freddie was a budding actor and Stuart a barman when they first met but their careers are now pretty much over and their lives now consist of reading books, walking their dog and bickering. Continue reading »

ITV has commissioned Splash! (WT) a brand new entertainment series that pitches celebrities against each other as they prove what goes up must come down and learn to dive.

Featuring Olympic Bronze medal and British and European Championship winner Tom Daley, Splash! challenges some of the nation’s favourite faces to learn one of sport’s most difficult disciplines on primetime ITV1.

Splash! (WT) will see the celebrity names mix determination, drive and daredevil stunts as they don their swimwear and take to the water. They’ll be flipping, flopping and jaw dropping as they star in this spectacular and hilarious prime time fun. Continue reading »

ITV yesterday unveiled its new ITV Player for the first time offering viewers the chance to rent content from ITV’s vast archive of quality programming, free from advertisements. Traditional catch-up content remains available at no charge, and will sit alongside the archive content. Continue reading »

Following the overwhelming response to the recent one-off Inspector Morse prequel Endeavour, a full series has now gone into production.

Shaun Evans (The Take, The Last Weekend, Silk), who won over critics and viewers alike with his portrayal of young Morse, has returned to film the four new films written by Lewis creator and Morse writer Russell Lewis.

Acclaimed stage and screen actor Roger Allam (The Jury, Parade’s End, The Thick of It) returns as Endeavour’s senior partner, Detective Inspector Fred Thursday. Stage actor Sean Rigby takes on the role of a young PC Strange – the character who appeared in the original Morse series, played by James Grout. Continue reading »