Broadcaster and writer Melvyn Bragg has announced that he will leave the South Bank Show on Sky Arts after 46 years.
He told the Sunday Times that “there are other things I want to do and I think it’s about time”.
The final series of the South Bank Show on Sky Arts will include Bragg interviewing the artist David Hockney (28 August, 9pm).
The South Bank Show, which Melvyn Bragg started and holds the rights to, was launched in 1978 on ITV and became Britain’s leading arts and culture TV programme.
It was decommissioned by ITV in 2010, and relaunched on Sky Arts in 2012.
The TV show also spawned the South Bank Sky Arts Awards, an annual awards that celebrates all aspects of the arts. This year’s winners included Prima Facie at the Harold Pinter Theatre in the Best Theatre category.
Sky Arts channel director Philip Edgar-Jones said that: “It is the end of the South Bank Show for Melvyn, but not the end of Melvyn on Sky Arts. As long as I’m clinging on to the channel, Melvyn will have a place on it.”
It is unclear if the South Bank Sky Arts Awards will also cease; Sky Arts have been contacted for comment.
