ITV3 celebrates its 10th birthday this weekend. The channel launched on 1 November 2004 and has since earned itself a reputation for screening top quality and much loved drama. It’s this formula that has seen it become one of the most popular digital TV stations.

To mark the occasion, they’re throwing what you might call a drama party over the weekend. They’ll be screening ten of their most popular ever dramas. These include a Touch of Frost, Miss Marple, Inspector Morse, Lewis, Foyle’s War, Doc Martin and, of course, our very own Midsomer Murders.

With a line up that good, it’s perhaps not surprising that the channel is going from strength to strength. Angela Jain, ITV’s Director of Digital Channels and Acquisitions said: ‘ITV3 is the home of terrific, well crafted and much loved British drama. We have picked ten of the most popular ones to celebrate our tenth anniversary so that our audience may enjoy them again.’

Adding: ‘In the last ten years viewers have flocked to the channel to enjoy and appreciate the thrilling pleasures of these wonderful dramas, stories beautifully told.’

In fact, Midsomer Murders is the channel’s third most popular programme ever, with an episode screened in July this year attracting a peak audience of 1.56 million. That’s a huge amount for a digital channel. ITV3 now battles it our with its big brother, ITV1, for the position as the country’s most popular digital channel. Of course, with shows like Midsomer filmed in the beautiful English countryside of Southern Oxfordshire it’s not really a big surprise.