Heartbeat and Wire in the blood will vanish from our screens

Wire In The Blood starring Robson Green is a high-profile casualty.

Heartbeat and The Royal will also disappear from our screens.

The South Bank Show and Sharpe, the Napoleonic war drama, are under serious threat and face significant cutbacks. ITV has already scrapped a multi-million-pound adaptation of EM Forster's A Passage to India and announced that A Touch of Frost will end later this year when David Jason retires from the lead role.

It is thought Emmerdale will still be filmed at its purpose-built set on the Harewood estate near Leeds, although some staff based there may be lost. ITV is expected to focus funding on its Manchester Quay Street site, home to Coronation Street, although insiders say it is not immune from cuts.

Some fear that an adaptation of Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë completed last year could be the last period drama ITV ever produces. It has not yet been given a transmission date.

Wire In The Blood was billed as a star vehicle for one of the channel's top stars, Robson Green. But each episode cost £750,000 to make and was deemed too expensive.

The broadcaster recently streamlined its regional news operation, with bulletins now made for larger areas.