ITV have announced that The South Bank Show will end in 2010 when presenter Melvin Bragg leaves.

The 69-year-old will step down next summer and will also leave his post as series editor and controller of arts for ITV Studios.

“I have had the luck and privilege to work with fine programme makers and with hundreds of the best artists of the last half century,” he said.

Michael Grade, ITV’s chief executive, originally commissioned The South Bank Show more than three decades ago.

He said he was “immensely proud” that it had become “the benchmark for popular arts programming and has consistently won the admiration of audiences and critics”.

“None of this would have happened without Melvyn, who has remained the driving force behind the show and has been a great champion of the programme and of ITV.”