The battle surrounding ownership of ITV Digital mascot 'Monkey' has finally been settled.

Following a lengthy legal row between advert agency Mother and ITV Digital administrators Deloitte and Touche, the agency has officially bought the rights to the character and hired him out for the BBC's Comic Relief appeal.

Broadcast reports that after a year of being out of the spotlight, Monkey will be relaunching his TV career with a variety of projects to become a celebrity in his own right.

As well as upcoming appearances on Graham Norton and Patrick Kielty's talk shows, the puppet and Mother are rumoured to be in discussions with the BBC about a chat show of his own.

"He was one exhausted monkey after all the ITV Digital business," said a spokeswoman for Mother. "But now he has a personal trainer, he’s been on the Atkins diet and he can’t wait to get back to work."