Laurel and Hardy on BBC2

I remember a fantastic season of L+H shorts and feature films over Christmas 2000 on bbc2. On Christmas Day they showed The Music Box and Way Out West, what a superb choice for the big day.

Until the 1990s, over xmas bbc1 showed kids programmes in the early mornings and bbc2 showed old films like Laurel and Hardy or Charlie Chaplin. Nowadays during the christmas hols, bbc2 show the kids stuff and bbc1 still shows Breakfast.

Don't know about anyone else but who the hell wants to see a 3 hour news programme on bbc1 on Christmas morning?? Surely if you really want to do so, you can just watch the BBC news channel.

Cbeebies and CBBC back to bbc1 for christmas please, then BBC2 can re-run the classic movies again.

I remember the colour Munsters (today?) being on LWT (if it wasn't the Munsters it was that Dinosaurs if anyone remembers that )

Laurel & Hardy are great The Music Box is a brilliant film & The Phil Silvers show was excellent also.

Damn it why didn't I tape some of TPSS when they were on late nights on BBC 2, at least Seinfeld got released.

Yep The Munsters were on within the last two years I am sure of that, around 11am

I can remember when they used to show repeats of Thunderbirds, Love Boat and The New Adventures of Superman every weekday morning throughout the summer.

Yes this has been among one of the BBC's biggest downfalls in recent years. All of a sudden all CBBC programming was shoved onto BBC2, first of all it started on the Bank Holidays and soon after on a permanent basis. I remember when I was growing up we always had a double dose of old films on BBC2 every bank Holiday Monday morning, but when CBBC was put on BBC2, this suddenly stopped happening. It was around 2001 or 2002 this happened. We even got early morning films on BBC2 in the Autumn and winter every Saturday morning while Open University took it's 6 months break on Sat mornings. But again, since CBBC was put on BBC2 on Saturday's, this stopped as well.

Yet, as you say BBC1 are showing Breakfast until 10am on Saturday mornings and until 9am during the Christmas and Easter holidays. Why is this? What a complete waste of air time. The BBC shoving CBBC onto BBC2 was a huge mistake I feel. Maybe after the digital switchover CBBC will be removed from BBC1 and BBC2 altogether, leaving the way forward to show old films again on BBC2. But knowing today's TV schedulers and their complete lack of imagination these days, I wouldn't hold my breath.

That Christmas 2000 season of L&H films was superb. In fact after looking at those listings again recently (I've still got the Christmas TV Times from that year!) I'd say it was the best L&H season BBC2 has ever shown.

It wasn't just L&H though that was great about that Christmas, they also shown other classic gems in an early morning slot with films staring as early as 7am or 6.30am some mornings with an average of around 7 or 8 films per day. Nowadays we're lucky if we see just 2 or 3 films per day! Christmas 2000 was also when BBC2 shown a late night season of Universal horror films. How I'd love to see a season like that again today.

Just looking at the schedules for this week, BBC2 are showing The Flintstones at 11am followed by a film and an afternoon of programme fillers such as Open Gardens and Animal Park. Where the hell is their imagination there? Why no repeats of classic TV serials like they used to. Why are they showing the same old filler material (Animal Park is the biggest culprit there!) over and over again.

Reading these reminiscences, one thing is clear - we were all young when we enjoyed Laurel & Hardy films on television. Its also clear that many of us were young quite a long time ago.

I wonder whether broadcasters think they could hold children's attention with black and white films (that are older than their great-grandparents in some cases).

*We* know they were brilliant, but I'm not convinced schedulers think so.

The thing is though, these days weren't so long ago. The last time L&H was shown on BBC2 was only in 2005 which was just 4 years ago. But those days when schedulers would dedicate BBC2's early morning schedule to films was back in 2000 or 2001.

In any case, I know for an absolute fact kids love L&H. My nephew loves them and he is only 9 and all my neices and nephews like watching them as well. So I think it's not as much a case will kids like to watch L&H or an old B&W comedy film, but more a case BBC2's *current* schedulers don't like this sort of thing on the channel.

The more they fill the gaps in the schedule with Animal Park, Escape to the Country and Living in the Sun, the more I believe that.

I remember seeing Harold Lloyd in the mornings on BBC2, and am just old enough ( 34 ) to remember Champion the Wonder Horse on Saturdays. I'd certainly like to see the former again.

I think it would be better to have less CBBC in the morning on BBC Two, and the same with Breakfast during the Christmas / New Year period. A poster has mentioned in this thread that children's output might disappear from BBC One / Two once the digital switchover is complete. This should also mean that Breakfast / news output should be restricted to the BBC News Channel ( but I doubt it! )

But back to thread - I totally agree - it would be good to see some black and white films on television. Again, I'm just old enough to remember Saturday Cinema 1 and 2 either side of Play Away in the late 70s / early 80s on BBC Two in the afternoon.

And I know my interest in B/W comedy was increased a lot, through the children's programme " Make Em Laugh " which Mark Curry presented.

Yes I've heard that too about the possibility of CBBC and Cbeebies being taken off BBC1 and BBC2 after the Digital Switchover is completed which is by the end of 2012. I'm not building my hopes on this happening though. I think news broadcasts will definitely still be shown on BBC1, but probably shortened down to just x1 30 minute news bullitin sandwiched between multiple smaller news bulltins throughout the day. I can't see BBC1 removing the news completely from the channel. But CBBC I fully expect them to though, but as I say I'm trying not to build my hopes up there.

I just wish that BBC2 would stick an old black and white film or a Laurel and Hardy film at say 7am and then show CBBC from 8.30am or 9.00am. This way there would be added variety in the schedule and not just the same old CBBC programmes - which I might add are all *repeats*. I just find it hard to justify 5 straight hours of CBBC every morning. I remember the days when the BBC only shown CBBC at weekends and only during half terms, summer holidays, Bank holidays and Christmas/Easter holidays. Nowadays they seem to be showing CBBC everyday regardless.

I also disagree with the BBC's method of showing 'Breakfast' on Christmas Day mornings. Surely we can do without the regular Breakfast programmes for one day of the year. It wouldn't be so bad, but Breakfast is on for nearly 3 hours a day. That's quite a big chunk of the morning schedule to throw away, especially on Christmas Day. The BBC need to stick CBBC on BBC1 from 6am until 11am. I noticed last year they are still after all these years showing CBBC between both channels, starting with BBC2 showing it from 6am until 8.30am and BBC1 showing it from 9am until 11am. It would be better all round if the BBC kept CBBC on just the one channel, preferably on BBC1 each morning, which paves the way forward for BBC2 to show what it shows best - classic cinema greats like Humphrey Bogart, Clark Gable, Jimmy Cagney etc.

I think I read that won't happen because of the channel's remit to appeal to all


I really can't see any major reduction is news output. Can you really see the 1, 6 and 10 news being altered? They are key programmes in the BBC1 schedule. The News at 1 is one of the most watched daytime programmes, the six and ten also get high ratings and the ten is arguably the BBC's 'flagship' news bulletin. Maybe the weekend lunchtime news will quietly get chopped but I can't see anything else going. Not only is the news a key part of the schedule, but imagine the outcry if the BBC started axing or reducing in length key bulletins

[quote="excel99" pid="626182"]
I think I read that won't happen because of the channel's remit to appeal to all

If this is the case then BBC2 will be simulcasting all CBBC programmes alongside the CBBC channel which surely would be pointless. Unless BBC2 decides to reduce the CBBC programming instead perhaps to keep in line with their remit?