SW
But what better way is there of presenting music on television than Top of the Pops? It's hardly much of a format these days, now it's no longer a weekly show - it's just a load of music performances back to back. If you're going to have pop music on television, what more effective format is there? You may as well carry on doing Top of the Pops, which has enough name recognition to be of wider interest.
But they do move them in and out of the day, hence the non-appearance of Doctor Who for the past two years, and the arrival of things like Michael McIntyre's Big Show. And there's always a new animation, always new film premieres and always new shows, but with enough familiarity for the audience. As I said earlier in the thread too, there is I think a limited number of shows that can successfully play on Christmas Day because for many people it's incredibly inconvenient to sit down and concentrate on a TV show, and you need something that is brash, spectacular or familiar, more than any other day. I never understood the clamour for Sherlock to be on Christmas Day when that was a going concern, the chance of me being able to sit through ninety minutes of that on the 25th were minute.
I didn't say the previous Christmas, I said the previous generation, and I stand by that. If you look at the schedules for 1999 and 2000 you see things like Auntie's Bloomers, Before They Were Famous and They Think It's All Over on Christmas Day - the latter was on Christmas Day three years running. They were all very popular but they were also incredibly cheap to made and meant a lot of Christmas Day was devoted to men behind desks. And around that period you had Changing Rooms (in 1998) and Ground Force (in 2002) on Christmas Day, which you would never get these days.
Back in 2000 everyone was grumbling about Christmas Day telly and saying you were getting shows like Changing Rooms instead of the big comedy shows of the eighties, and in the eighties everyone was grumbling that things like The Two Ronnies were still on after a million years.
No harm but also no point - it's being made for the sake of being made (though isn't all television). Just as they don't revive the Grandstand brand every 4 years for the Olympics there isn't much logic here either with TOTP only having two episodes over Christmas. Now axing them is one option, but perhaps there could be an opportunity to actually rebuild the brand with new content and have the more familar occassional music specials presented under a "TOTP Presents" brand.
But what better way is there of presenting music on television than Top of the Pops? It's hardly much of a format these days, now it's no longer a weekly show - it's just a load of music performances back to back. If you're going to have pop music on television, what more effective format is there? You may as well carry on doing Top of the Pops, which has enough name recognition to be of wider interest.
I don't think anyone argues against the BBC's regular big hitters getting Christmas specials - it's whether having them all in virtually the same Christmas Day slots year after year serves the audience the best. Just cycling them in and out of the day slightly not only keeps it fresher but also helps prop up other days too, and with both Mrs Browns Boys and Call the Midwife there are surely only so many versions of the same thing you can do.
But they do move them in and out of the day, hence the non-appearance of Doctor Who for the past two years, and the arrival of things like Michael McIntyre's Big Show. And there's always a new animation, always new film premieres and always new shows, but with enough familiarity for the audience. As I said earlier in the thread too, there is I think a limited number of shows that can successfully play on Christmas Day because for many people it's incredibly inconvenient to sit down and concentrate on a TV show, and you need something that is brash, spectacular or familiar, more than any other day. I never understood the clamour for Sherlock to be on Christmas Day when that was a going concern, the chance of me being able to sit through ninety minutes of that on the 25th were minute.
And I certainly don't look back the previous Christmas being the best one. That was probably around 1999/2000 for me.
I didn't say the previous Christmas, I said the previous generation, and I stand by that. If you look at the schedules for 1999 and 2000 you see things like Auntie's Bloomers, Before They Were Famous and They Think It's All Over on Christmas Day - the latter was on Christmas Day three years running. They were all very popular but they were also incredibly cheap to made and meant a lot of Christmas Day was devoted to men behind desks. And around that period you had Changing Rooms (in 1998) and Ground Force (in 2002) on Christmas Day, which you would never get these days.
Back in 2000 everyone was grumbling about Christmas Day telly and saying you were getting shows like Changing Rooms instead of the big comedy shows of the eighties, and in the eighties everyone was grumbling that things like The Two Ronnies were still on after a million years.