Christmas TV 2018

Christmas TV has been terrible for years. Doctor Who was the only thing I looked forward to.

The idea that they've run out of ideas for the Doctor at Christmas is absurd. You may as well say you've run out of ideas for Doctor Who altogether.

It must be a deliberate attempt at making us speak to our family

I think its a positive. The BBC One Christmas Day line-up had become really predictable. It gives them more scheduling options and they have plenty of other choices. BBC One don't have to continually play it safe.

Doctor Who will do fine on New Years Day.

Watership Down pt1 is a dead cert for Christmas day early evening imo.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2018/watership-down

NYD has had more viewers than Christmas day for years btw.

Yet they do.




Has Christmas TV ever been that great? There are usually quite a few good specials but has there ever been a day of pure entertainment?

Let's cheer ourselves up on Christmas day with dead rabbits.

I think they'll put Watership Down across Christmas Day and Boxing Day. It's a two parter and cost too much to throw out on the 27th.

Heck they've spent so much on it maybe they'll pop up in the idents too.

Wonder if it will get as many complaints as when Channel 5 wheel out the animated version!

Incidentally, this year is 25 years since ITV infamously offered virtually nothing festive on Christmas Day - not even Corrie...

https://www.tvcream.co.uk/telly/christmas-logs/the-1990s-christmas-logs/christmas1993/

Not only did the press laugh at this schedule, but the ITC felt compelled to rap ITV on the knuckles and tell them to try harder the following year - which they certainly did, with Blind Date and Heartbeat as well as the goings-on in Weatherfield, even if they still lost out to Victor Meldrew and Robin Hood.

No dead rabbits in part 1

Oh wow, I never knew about that.
That’s article and the one about 1992 says about the BBC One schedule being great, but items such as extended Eastenders and a 90 minute Only Fools and Horses doesn’t seem greatly entertaining and varied.

Yes they billed it as 'ITV's Christmas Weekend' as show in this promo. The promo makes a point of it being 'Christmas Eve in the Street'.



Arguably the better line-up was on Boxing Day :

6.05pm The Battle of the Gladiators
7.05pm A Tribute to Les Dawson
8.00pm Agatha Christie's Poirot
9.00pm Dame Edna in Hollywood
10.00pm Spitting Image Pantomine

For 2018 with can predict the Christmas Night line up on ITV will be Paul O'Grady For The Love of Dogs, Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Victoria.