The BBC saves Christmas!

Yep, the BBC definitely stole the show yesterday! There was a great mix of really good programming from afternoon onwards, and IMHO, the ITV schedule was rubbish in comparison. But maybe that's just because I don't like Emmerdale, Corrie, and You've Been Framed, and am getting a bit bored of Who Wants To Be A Millionnaire...

And those Christmas BBC1 idents are lovely - I really like them. Except for the fact that, in NICAM, the last bit of the music comes out really loud, and keeps waking my Grandma up! http://web.ukonline.co.uk/tv.home/forum/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Anyway, I'm off back to France on Sunday, so I won't be around to see what British telly has to offer for New Year. But, on the basis of the past few days, I have to say that the BBC seems to have been streets ahead of ITV!

Sliding Doors is a great film, I've seen it at least 8 times now. Paltrow is a bit **** , sadly, her accent was tamed for 'Emma' and isn't exactly suited to 20th Century London.

Hilarious how ITV were showing While You Were Sleeping at the same time, hilarious for me, anyway.

The Lost World was excellent, and not at all surprising to see RTL having some input as well as the BBC.

The only thing I took a tiny bit of notice of on ITV was The Nightmare Before Christmas, and when was that on? At something past 1 in the morning, at which time I wasn't in any fit state to turn on a television let alone watch one.

Mission Impossible 2 is on Sky at the moment, another reason to add to my list of 'Why we should not subscribe to movie channels', admittedly that's only the second reason, coming behind 'They show Men in Black too often' and they've stopped showing that now. As attractive as Tom Cruise may be, clearly the concept of acting has totally bypassed the man.

Anyway, ITV's Christmas schedules are always full of **** .

Hour long Coronation Streets that could be finished in 25 minutes, films we've all seen before and painfully constructed dramas. Did anyone watch Othello...? Although this David Jason thing, Micawber, may be rather good. It's up against Creek, which, at the best of times, is a load of ******** and totally unbelievable.

The figures certainly look good for the BBC yesterday. This from Waveguide:-

'The BBC has triumphed in the Christmas viewing stakes with more than 20.3 million viewers watching Only Fools And Horses on Christmas Day.
It compares with around 12 million who tuned in for the hour-long edition of Coronation Street on ITV1, according to unofficial overnight figures.
The BBC comedy attracted a 73 per cent share of the available television audience.'

More detailed Christmas Day figures at:-
http://www.waveguide.co.uk/latest/news011226.htm

20.3 million viewers is an excellent result of the BBC. It's a shame we have to wait another year for decent day's broadcasting. Boxing Day was quite poor!

What I want to see now is Little Mo belt seven tons of s***e out of her husband with the iron, you go girl LOL!

ITV gave up with Christmas a few years ago. No matter how much money they invested, the BBC always managed to beat them.
So ITV gave up their battle for Christmas, and triumphantly declared that they give Christmas to the BBC, but they out perform for the rest of the year. Which was true. However (correct me if I am wrong) from what I have read recently, 2001 has been the first year that the BBC has over taken ITV for audience share.

And as financial crisis hit's ITV and the other commercial broadcasters I guess the BBC's lead will increase further. I know there are many knockers of the licence fee, but for the small amount it costs it does and will continue to provide good value for money when the other broadcasters heavily cut investment into new programming.

Well done Del Boy and Rodney on your getting over 20 million viewers!

Luvvy Jubbly!

I think I saw a figure a while ago of how much commercial tv costs the average person in higher prices on products, I think it was very high but I can't remember, anyone know?

The first episode of EastEnders on Christmas Day (at 5:55pm) turned out to be rather funny, with Billy chasing the turkey round the Square. And the second episode at 8:35 was a kind of 'come 'ere!' episode where everyone came together to sort out their problems; Zoe and Kat, I thought I'd never see the day when they get on again(!), Mark proposing to Lisa, Pauline Fowler actually moving on to today's technology with Martin, and Trevor and Little Mo kissing and making up...before finally being beaten up.

As for Only Fools And Horses; well in a nutshell it was a great episode, but some of the classics still remain my favourite...for now. As I watched it, I couldn't help but think many times 'We all know Uncle Albert and Mike the barman will not be in the forthcoming episodes, so there's bound to be something in OFAH which will make it different this time round.'

John Challis (Boycie) has certainly aged, as has Sue Holderness who plays his wife, Marlene. As for my 2 favourite sayings of Del's...

1. 'That is one moody mere.'
2. 'Well I'm sure he must've been in a terrible state.'

Tnis year's ident for BBC One was good, as well as different.

Mine were:

DEL 'This time next year we will be millionaires'

RODNEY 'This time last week we were millionaires'

ITV gave up providing decent entertainment ages ago, just after Carlton took over but we won't go there!!! I notice their New Year's Eve Line up is just as bad as Christmas Day, no celebrations just Big Ben and a film, thanks lads!

Funny how BBC2 is showing I love the 80's twice in the same evening though!!!

TV was awful at Christmas. So we hardly had it on.  There is more to life than TV at Christmas and New Year.  So what, if it's just Big Ben chiming on ITV on New Years Eve, you should all be out partying or with families and friends, not sat in front of the box, you can do that 364 other days of the year.

As for the programme I really did want to see, Only Fools & Horses, it was really really poor.  It raised about 2 laughs in the whole time it was on in our house.  My Dad, who is the biggest Del Boy fan, was even tempted to switch over to Stars in Their Eyes half way through.  There is no doubting the talent on show, but the script was dreadful.  It was still being filmed a week or so up to transmission and it really showed.  Weak gags, plots, and a dreadful attempt at a spoof gameshow which was so obviously meant to be WWTBAM, the whole thing just felt hurried.

And ok it got 20m viewers, but I reckon by the end half of those must have switched off.  Now Micawber on Boxing Day, that was very good.

(Edited by square eyes at 10:22 pm on Dec. 27, 2001)

Get her!