SIR Michael Parkinson has hit out at the television output of property programmes and police chases in the wake of the announcement that the South Bank Show is to be axed.
ITV announced earlier this month that the show will end after more than 30 years, with host Melvyn Bragg stepping down next year at the end of the current series and no plans for another.
Veteran chat show host Sir Michael, 74, also highlighted the prevalence of celebrities such as Cheryl Cole, Katie Price and Simon Cowell, as well as documentaries with outlandish titles.
He said Lord Bragg’s legacy would serve as a “reminder of a time when television made programmes for an audience reckoned to have an IQ larger than the numbers you would find in a bingo bag”.
Parky’s latest broadside follows his assertion in the Radio Times last month that the late Jade Goody was “the perfect victim of our times”.
