ITV Wheels Out Big Guns For Autumn

ITV has unveiled its line-up for September/October, with a host of big hitters returning to our television screens in the hope of rescuing the channel from what investment bank Morgan Stanley has called a “spiral of despair”.

Caroline Quentin returns in the award-winning comedy/drama Life Begins alongside Alexander Armstrong, while the irrepressible David Jason dons his hat and ‘tache again in a brand new, feature length episode of A Touch of Frost.

Robbie Coltrane also returns to our screens in the BAFTA award-winning Cracker, which sees Fitz return to Manchester after 10 years in Australia.

ITV are wheeling out another big gun, Helen Mirren, for the final ever instalment of Prime Suspect, which sees the actress reprise the role of tough-talking cop DS Jane Tennison, while Ray Winstone also makes a return as private investigator Vincent Gallagher, in Vincent.

Away from the workaholic cops, ITV is also banking on its entertainment formats to do well for it this autumn, with Ant & Dec’s Saturday Night Takeaway joining The X Factor and Parkinson.

Ian McCulloch, commercial director at ITV, recently called ITV1’s business model “untenable”, owing to the supposed exploitation of CCR by unscrupulous advertisers, while Morgan Stanley have predicted a £124 million decline in advertising revenues this year, with a 20% year-on-year fall for July.

ITV: 020 7843 8000 www.itv.com