BBC One 2016

The BBC have two problems - the first is having to try and cater for a broad audience, and comedy has far more sub-genres than it used to, it's far more difficult to get the same appeal that Only Fools etc. did. The second is they're too scared to take risks. I don't know if it's the BBC lacking gonads, or the Twitter generation are too quick to call out "offensiveness" just because they don't get it. Either way, it seems far more difficult for proper comedy to be nurtured on the BBC nowadays. The thought of them commissioning something like Bottom nowadays is something that just doesn't register.

Indeed, and they flung the Christmas show out that year in a really late slot, having originally been intended for Christmas 2008, when they couldn't show it because they decided to move the series back from the end of 2008 to the beginning of 2009. I recall it got a reprieve initially because they did a specific pitch for comedy shows at 10.35 and they managed to convince them it would be good in that slot - although by the time it got on air it went out at 9.30 anyway.

I'm pleased it's back anyway, and Not Going Out is always one of the sitcoms that is a million times more about the com than that sit, the plots usually don't matter as long as there are loads of jokes in it. Indeed most of the weaker episodes have been where the plots have got in the way (most obviously, last year's very odd Christmas show).

In Lee Mack's book he talks about hosting the pilot for a new panel show to replace They Think It's All Over called Sporting Chance. He said it was so similar to They Think It's All Over he didn't know why they didn't just carry on They Think It's All Over, and they gave him the job, but with one change - the show was going to be called They Think It's All Over, which they'd decided to un-axe. He did one series and then it was axed again, but he said he didn't care that much because he knew it was heading for the axe before he got there, and he was pleased to do it anyway because he got to meet Tony Woodcock.



Just to say, of course, they did commission something exactly like Bottom recently - they commissioned a new series of Bottom. But it was abandoned in pre-production.

If anyone can remember, that christmas special actually premiered on the Paramount Comedy Channel (as it was then- rather than the Friends and Two and a Half Men channel) several months before it was shown on BBC One1



Maybe it's just me, but I always saw House Of Fools as being a bit like a modern version of Bottom.

I assume it was a direct replacement in the schedule, perhaps I've got the timings wrong though.

A rare festive schedule change. George Michael at the Palais Garnier, Paris is on at 10pm on Tuesday.

Sound issues on Match of the Day? BBC One HD on Sky, SD fine.

Tuned in to BBC ONE HD - Freeview's affected as well with the sound problems.

Edit: Sound looked like it was working as of 11.37pm, one minute later, a hissing sound and it's gone off!

Edit 2: Sound continues to cut off and on.

The Nations are fine.

Sound is working now on BBC ONE HD.

Not on satellite it isn't

Back on satellite now

Did Tomasz Schafernacker just say a rude word (crap) on the Countryfile weather?