Serious television in Britain is all but dead – and that is a disaster

The news that Melvyn Bragg is stepping down from The South Bank Show marks a watershed in British television – and not in a good way. The 83-year-old evidently had to give up the reins of Britain’s most famous arts show at some point; but while Sky Arts, the programme’s home for the past 11 years, has not confirmed whether it will continue without him, such an outcome feels unlikely.