[Neil Jones]

I suppose it's down to the demographics. After a hard week at work people just want to sit down and watch something light hearted and entertaining not be subjected to x hours of opera in a foreign language.

Well there is that, but I mean if you're into opera (which aren't all in foreign languages you understand, there are English ones too ) you'll already probably already in regular attendance at the Royal Albert Hall anyway, and of course watching on the telly isn't the same as watching it from the audience while wearing a penguin tuxedo (like most things really)

No its probably safe to say the ITA vision was one thing and the reality was different. Once you start adding the need to make money into the equation the direction of travel was obvious - lowest common denominator programming, not helped as such by the likes of the early ITV companies pretty much running out of money to feed this new machine.