ITV gets a savaging from Lily

Paul O'Grady has launched a withering attack on his former employer ITV1 - insisting the channel "couldn't sink any lower".

The daytime host, who defected to rival Channel 4 in a shock move earlier this year, branded ITV the "Titanic" of British television as he won an award for his work.

He said: "People ask, 'Why did I leave ITV?' but I'm in showbusiness. You have to look after yourselves. It's a fickle game, you know what I mean?"

The 51-year-old, recovering from a recent heart attack, added: "Thank you for letting me get on that last lifeboat that left the Titanic. Well, it's true, it couldn't really sink any lower."

The outspoken attack at the TV Quick awards will come as a further blow to ITV.

Its bosses were hoping to put the past year's disasters behind them, after chief executive Charles Allen quit and a raft of summer shows failed to turn around a trend for plummeting ratings.

Reality show Love Island failed to dent the popularity of Big Brother on Channel 4 and an attempt at a Saturday night prime-time hit, It's Now Or Never with Philip Schofield, backfired when it was pulled off air after scoring pitiful ratings on its debut.

O'Grady had been a rare recent hit for ITV1 with his afternoon chat show but his defection in a £2 million deal to the ascendant Channel 4 came as he claimed ITV had taken him for granted.

He said the channel had - unlike Channel 4 - refused to allow him to make programmes with his own production company, Wildflower.

And he accused ITV of being "petty" after the broadcaster claimed the image rights to his pet dog Buster, a regular guest on his TV couch. O'Grady had wanted to continue making models of the shih-tzu to give away to viewers.

But he said: "I was lying ill in bed when I heard they'd said we couldn't make more models. ITV are being petty. He's my dog. He's not a prop and I'm taking him."

O'Grady made the fresh attack at London's Dorchester Hotel, where he picked up the "Ten Years at the Top" award at the 2006 TV Quick Awards.

It was a good night for BBC1, which scored eight awards compared to ITV's four. Doctor Who stole the show, winning best drama, while its star, David Tennant, 35, won best actor.

Billie Piper, 23, who has bowed out of the third series, took the best actress title for her role as the Doctor's assistant Rose.

Tennant said of his award: "It was very hard to step into something that had been such a success already. It was very daunting, and because of that this means a lot." EastEnders won best soap for the first time in three years.