McGovern - ITV drama is "dross"

Top TV writer Jimmy McGovern has criticised prime-time ITV drama as "dross", reports Dave West for Digital Spy.

He said television drama in general was disappointing and singled out ITV and in particular Footballers' Wives, which he described as "dross". The writer was speaking at the launch of his new drama The Street on BBC One.

"A lot of my stuff has been crap but if I see anything on ITV at 9pm, I don't watch it," commented McGovern. "I tuned in to half an hour of Footballers' Wives and people tried to convince me it had a political angle. It didn't, it was dross."

McGovern himself is turning to musical theatre, according to Ben Dowell in Media Guardian (free registration required), working with composer Howard Goodall for a piece set in the 19th century cotton mills in the north of England and in the cotton fields of the American deep south.