2005 regional programmes in Scotland.

The regional programming from Scottish TV in the weekday 7.30 p.m. slots during 2004 was limited and dreadful. Trout n’ About, 7.30 for 8, and Natural Born Winners were very poor. Let us hope that in 2005 the output is better. In contrast, Grampian produced quality programming throughout the year.
Regional slots for the early part of the year will be at 7.30 p.m. on a Tuesday and Thursday, with a late one midweek, and the usual on a Sunday.
New shows for 2005 include Home for the Holidays, Cracked, and Burn Your Bills. The first series shows expatriates visiting places in Scotland of special interest to them. That sounds similar to Grampian’s Walking Back to Happiness. Cracked is a drama about individuals in a rehabilitation clinic featuring actor Seamus Gubbins (Louise’s stalker Ray Mullins from Emmerdale). Quiz show Burn Your Bills presented by Ross Kelly, has couples competing to have their mortgage and utility bills paid. It couldn’t be any worse than Boiling Point - could it?
In addition, Dundee born actor Brian Cox presents Without Explanation, a six part series about Scottish mysteries. I wonder if in one of the episodes they will investigate the pay structure of senior SMG management. There will also be a second series of the award winning drama High Times.
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Note for our River City fan: BBC Scotland is moving River City from a Thursday to a Friday at 8.30.p.m.

*Looks around* Oh, that's me, isn't it?

Anyway, NOT happy. I go out on Fridays and will now have to ensure I catch the omnibus. Tuesday/Thursday was an ideal time, and didn't clash with anything else.

I work on Thursday nights so it suits me well. I did like Tuesdays and Thursdays though, it was nice to be able to bugger things up for Holby City fans this side of the wall.

I suppose the real question regarding the SMG regional programmes is how many of them will actually be regional. (ie - how many will be specifically produced for Scottish or Grampian, and how many will be shown throughout the country). I'll lay odds on most are pan-Scottish, as SMG once again ignores the fact we have two (two and a half, including Border Scotland) regional channels in this country.

I think the best STV regional programme is Weirs Way i realy love it .

However the current regional SMG programming is just dreadful.I liked Medics Of The Glen and Spend Spend Spend both from Grampian.Agnes Wilkie needs a hard boot up the **** her recent Hogmanay Show says it all about SMG very unprofessional.

What i don't understand about the current state of affairs at STV is that their management don't give a **** about the programming the on air look and general presentation style.

In pres they seem to make so many mistakes last night for example going into the ITV News Special with those festive idents jingles and all that was so inappropriate.SMG are airing celebrity idents and the celebrities are no longer on the channel (IE) the Brian Burnett ident didn't they axe Scottish Passport.Also they keep on airing the katie and Andy ident from Emmerdale they split up ages ago .

Surely someone somewhere has to be accountable for all of this .
Scotland Today is need of a revamp as are the team NOT Shereen .

Me too - he's just this minute finished on Scottish.

I know just been watching it . Happy New Year by the way Gavin.

And to you mate

Comon - Weirs Way - how old is this!!!!

You are spot on about the state of SMG - DIRE!!

When I think of how Grampian Television used to be and wonder what would have happened if STV did not buy them out (part of itv1 I suppose).

I thought the idents in and out of the itv news special was a disgrace - does no one make them accountable??

I agree that SMG is a disgrace. You only have to look at the continuing downgrading of Scottish TV over the past 5 years. I remember years ago that if you wanted to watch a Scottish based program, STV was the channel to watch. Nowadays I hardly watch STV. BBC Scotland have increased substantially the amount of Scottish programs they show and a number of them have proved to be hits, i.e. Still Game, Only an Excuse, River City.

Reading other posts, I cannot believe the amount of people who state that it will be terrible if STV and Grampian are taking over by ITV.plc. My question is, will it really? What do STV and Grampian gives us at the moment that is really different from the ITV1 network? When they do gives us our own shows they are very badly made and in fact are an embarrassment, i.e. Scotsport SPL and the Hogmanay live programme to name but a few. I agree that Weirs Way is a good program, but why oh why is this scheduled in the middle of the night? Why can Scottish TV not give us an up to date version at prime time. I really thought that Bobby Hain would turn the channel around, but so far I cannot see any evidence of this.

Re the Tsunami program, did anyone notice that BBC Scotland and in fact the rest of the BBC network had their Christmas logo as an introduction to their special program on the disaster? How tasteless.

*spits out coffee*

ok, right. itv plc have downgraded ALL english station within their very short existence. so do you think it is logical to think that itv plc will restore STV to its glory days ... or do you think its morelikely that they will move EVERYTHING they can to london except a tin shed news operation?

would you rather:

- SOME form of scottish television
- or a temporary outpost of itv plc which will be further downgraded until it no longer exists at all.

As bad as things are right now, they would be worse under ITV PLC. Ask anyone watching Border right now. Regional programmes would not be advertised (as they are relentlessly on SMG right now), continuity would come from London, and there would be even fewer regional programmes than there are now (ITV PLC seem to be a lot better at lobbying the government, and being more distant, they'll care less about Scotland being a separate country). It's quite bad now - ITV1 Scotland would be a disaster.

Weir's Way is scheduled in the middle of the night, btw, because it's a joke in this day and age to repeat a programme that old. Can you image that in prime time? It appears only to exist to a) meet the regional quota and b) attract a cult audience of students etc.