Sean O'Grady: I mourn the death of ITV's glory days

Before Michael Grade pleaded for their abolition, I had forgotten that ITV still has "public service obligations". Yet the ITV chief executive was perfectly clear.

These supposedly massive burdens are costing his station £300m per year. Hang on a minute. Did Mr Grade really say £300m? Press the rewind button. Yes he did, but the licence is in fact free; the £300m he keeps banging on about is the cost of making the "public service" programmes and, presumably, the lost advertising and other revenues from having to run that token output instead of more phone-in quizzes or repeats of Coronation Street. But where is all this ITV public service programming crowding out the schedules?

There is news, national and local, shunted around the schedules in the hope we'll forget they exist. ITV's 24-hour news service quietly slipped away some time ago. News At Ten is surprisingly good these days, though I fear few people will find that out, having lost the habit of tuning in when the schedule was mucked about.

But there isn't any current affairs. Most went years ago, and what little that remained on channel 3 has been chopped in the past year, indeed the past few weeks. GMTV's Sunday show breathed its last on 20 July, and when the presenter, our own Steve Richards, said goodbye for the last time, it marked the end of political programming on ITV, a sad little moment.

The Sunday Edition, presented by Andrew Rawnsley and Andrea Catherwood, was axed in November. These two were the last remnants of what had been a glorious tradition of ground-breaking, exciting, must-watch documentary making and current affairs TV. And before any ITV PR flannels remind me of the existence of Tonight With Trevor MacDonald, let me tell them that this pitiful show doesn't qualify as current affairs, not in the Ofcom definition, which is "explanation and analysis of current events and issues, including material dealing with political or industrial controversy or with public policy". Interviews with the McCanns don't count. Nor does Loose Women, the worst thing on British television.

Television is an ephemeral medium, but it is still possible to recall the superb programming that ITV used to offer in this field. World In Action, This Week, Weekend World, Walden – all tremendous, long-running series that broke news, investigated crooks, threatened governments. They even had brilliant theme tunes.

Millions watched and were moved by Jonathan Dimbleby's This Week 1973 documentary "the Unknown Famine" about starvation in Ethiopia, a decade before Michael Buerk did the same for the BBC. This Week's "Death on the Rock" documentary investigated the shooting by the SAS of three IRA terrorists in Gibraltar in 1989, the sort of trouble-making by broadcast journalists that is almost impossible to imagine now.

World In Action uncovered the corruption of John Poulson, the strange ways of the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad, the misdeeds of Jonathan Aitken and the treachery of the spy Peter Wright. Every Sunday Weekend World would launch itself on another brilliant "mission to explain" some complex issue, followed by a forensic interview of the figure at the centre of the storm by Brian Walden, the most famous being when he told Margaret Thatcher she was "off her trolley".

All these shows moved the political markets. All were popular. Michael Grade has four ITV digital channels, 24-hour broadcasting and plenty of resources. He cannot find room for an hour of current affairs a week. Someone should make a documentary about it. Working title: The Strange Death Of ITV.

s.ogrady@independent.co.uk