Christmas 2015

Ripping off parents

Catchy song, great visuals, memorable tagline.

I see the early draft of the Christmas schedules are on Digiguide. No surprises so far on Christmas Day, BBC One currently looking like :

17:30 Doctor Who
18:30 Strictly Come Dancing
19:45 Call the Midwife
21:00 Eastenders
22:00 Mrs Browns Boys
22:35 Michael McIntryre

Dr. Who was scheduled after Strictly last year.

No surprises there but the last 2 years Strictly was on before Doctor Who, in fact checking the listings in 2013 Doctor Who was a regeneration episode therefore Strictly was on at 5pm, CTM at 6.15pm and Doctor Who at 7.30pm.

Last year Strictly was on at 5pm, Doctor Who at 6.15pm, Miranda at 7.15pm and CTM at 7.50pm. I suppose the BBC are sticking with their tried and tested formula but at least it is more varied than 2 hours of soaps on ITV followed by 2 hours of Downton

I think it will change timings wise come next Tuesday. ITV seem determined to air Downton at 8.30pm so EastEnders would need to start at 8.30 too. Perhaps this might be the final line up:

3.10 Brave
4.35 BBC News
4.45 Stick Man
5.15 Doctor Who
6.15 Strictly Come Dancing
7.15 Call The Midwife
8.30 EastEnders
9.30 Mrs. Brown's Boys
10.05 Michael McIntyre

Brave can effectively be scheduled into an 85 minute slot.

It would, you'd just have to stand on an iPad. Or rather, a stack of iPads, given they're so thin nowadays.

Or Simon McCoy's ream of paper - after all, he couldn't tell the difference between the two...!

After Doctor Who's performance this year in the ratings I wouldn't put it in the heart of primetime. 5.30pm is the best place for it. In previous years that time felt like a demotion now it feels the best place for it.

And here is the Sony TV ident in all it's moving glory. Very nice and obviously inspired by Channel 4's The Snowman.

Two main factors caused that. Rugby, and the late non-family friendly timeslot (seriously, those complaints about the ending of Face the Raven were ridiculous, if the scene in question had aired a few minutes later it would've been post-watershed). It needed an earlier timeslot for the season itself, not just for Christmas.

I agree, I've never liked it as much as others do and would see other adverts as more a sign of Christmas being on the way.

Like Toys R us for example, who seem to be just using the opening line of the song and then going straight into advertising products.

That "I wanna be a Toys R us kid" never took off and was another example of people just wanting to see the original all the time.

It was also something to do with how annoying it was to hear "I don't wanna grow up, I wanna be a Toys 'R' Us kid, kid, kid, kid..." over and over again I presume.