NOSTALGIA is not what it used to be. Heartbeat and The Royal, two of Sunday night’s most popular dramas, have now stopped being made by ITV.

It’s all because of huge losses the company has made. ITV has announced the closure of its Leeds studio, the loss of 600 jobs and the end of programmes such as the two Yorkshire stalwarts that are based in the 1960s.

Oh calamity, as Robertson Hare might have said in All Gas and Gaiters (and there’s another nod to nostalgia). What will I do on a Sunday night now?

What’s more, what will Oscar Blaketon, Alf Ventress and Vernon Scripps do? Retire on their pensions? After all, I can’t see them turning up in Dancing On Ice, which is the sort of programme ITV will now focus on, along with The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent.

This is because these shows are cheaper to make. Of course they are: everybody who appears on them are desperate for exposure.

Heartbeat, by comparison, is proper drama. It started in April 1992 and there have been well over 350 episodes. I thought it a wonderful bonus when The Royal was introduced as a spin-off in 2003. I mean, both programmes had it all: wonderful Yorkshire coast and country scenery, marvellous 60s music, a cast of people you had known for ever and comfortable plots made for a Sunday night armchair.

Now both are to go as the company cuts back and all those loveable characters will simply fade away. I mean, it’s all right for the young bright ones like PC Joe Mason and DS Rachel Dawson; they can move on to other things. Mind you, I’ll always wonder whether the romance that threatened to spark between them actually became a full blown conflagration. And who is going to look out for David?

It’s a shame that the powers that be at ITV believe there is no longer any future in nostalgia. Everybody loves a good wallow in the past and Heartbeat will be sadly missed.