Melvyn Bragg is to join BBC Two when ITV pulls The South Bank Show from its schedules next year, it has been announced.

Lord Bragg, who will celebrate his 70th birthday next week, has signed a deal to present two new arts projects on BBC Two, including a series on class, and the channel hopes to lure him into a long-running relationship.

The peer announced this year that he was walking away from ITV, after the broadcaster said it would slash the budget of The South Bank Show, a staple of the schedules for more than 30 years, as part of channel-wide cost-cutting measures.

He is contracted to continue working on the ITV show until early next year. Then he will begin production of the BBC shows, which will air in 2011.

Times Archive, 1978: The South Bank Show

There are obviously delights to come but there should be less Braggness

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Janice Hadlow, controller of BBC Two, said that one programme would examine the history of the King James Bible, while Lord Bragg would also front a series on social structure.

Speaking at the launch of BBC Two's winter schedule, she said: “We are still working through the detail of this, but Melvyn intends to examine class — upper class, middle class and working class — through all forms of culture, with a final programme on what has happened to our ideas of class in the last 50 years or so.

“I'm so pleased that Melvyn will be making such interesting work for BBC Two. We very much hope this will be just the beginning of an ongoing and fruitful relationship.”

Lord Bragg said: “I’m delighted to be going back to BBC television, it’s difficult to think of two richer projects and I greatly look forward to working on BBC Two.”

Lord Bragg has been a Sunday night fixture on ITV since 1978 presenting shows focusing on an eclectic guest list that ranged from Alfred Brendel, the Austrian pianist, to Will Young, winner of the Pop Idol singing contest.

He was said to be devastated when he felt he had to leave the show after 31 years.

The largest commercial broadcaster in Britain responded to his departure by withdrawing from its commitments to the arts when it announced plans to end the programme.

ITV said that it was Lord Bragg’s decision to step down from the show but it is understood that the broadcaster had offered him such a low budget that he felt that he could not continue. He also retired as controller of arts for ITV Studios, the production arm of the broadcaster.

The show’s death brings an end to a rich history of in-depth interviews, among the best of which was a telling portrait of Francis Bacon which revealed the passion and problems of an artist.

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