For those who missed it, this morning, at about 7.40am, ITV executive chairman Michael Grade ate humble pie. During an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today programme, in which Grade claimed that the viewing public were "watching ITV and BBC1 in unprecedented numbers", part of his praise was reserved for Doctor Who for helping reinvent Saturday night television. But the real revelation occurred half way through the interview when Today presenter Sarah Montague gently chided Grade, who enforced an 18-month hiatus on the programme in the 1980s when he was a BBC TV executive. Previously Grade had called the programme "rubbish", with "no redeeming features" and a "waste of licence fee payer's money". But today, what a U-turn. "The Doctor's back, he has beaten me," Grade proclaimed. "It was a very clunky studio show, it was as if the producers had not been to see any Spielberg films, or Star Wars. It got left behind. Now of course the filmic quality, the production values that BBC Wales has put into the show has transformed it and I have to admit that I am now a keen viewer. I am recording it of course, because I am watching ITV." Nice one, Michael. Next you will be bringing back The Tomorrow People for ITV.
