Terrestrial Bank Holiday schedule declining?

Does anyone else think this is the case? I think looking at the provisional listings for the August Bank Holiday Monday, there is no effort being made at all, apart from afternoon films on BBC ONE and Channel Four, every other channel appears to be treating it like an ordinary day. ITV1 aren't even showing a daytime film and the first film on ITV1 on the Holiday Monday is after 10pm.

The annoying thing is the BBC recieved a few complaints in a recent edition of Points of View about the state of the Bank Holiday schedules and George Dixon at the BBC promised to improve the Bank Holiday schedules for the August Bank Holiday. The provisional Bank Holiday listings have all the usual daytime fillers on BBC ONE up until the afternoon

Aren't you really meant to go out and do something on a Bank Holiday? Especially as this one is the last one before Christmas, and spare a thought for those of us (ie myself!) who have to work them.

On a TV perspective, I used to hate Bank Holiday afternoon TV, so seeing the usual weekday stuff frankly doesn't bother me much at all, as the audiences are low anyway, why would any channel put something decent on?

Besides it gives those people who do work 9-5 on weekdays a taster of what they're missing during the day...

Why did you used to hate Bank Holiday TV? How could anyone hate 'The Sound of Music' or 'The Wizard of Oz'? Because it was films like these that would regularly get shown on a Bank Holiday traditionally. We don't get film screenings like this anymore on a Bank Holiday. Would you rather watch Homes Under the Hammer instead?

I'm sorry you have to work on the Bank Holiday, but do you honestly believe the Bank Holiday schedules are better now than they used to be?

I'm really talking about the elderly who can't get out and about but this affects everyone if it's raining outside and you're stuck indoors. We can always turn the TV off yes and do something else, but I'm just really talking about the lack of effort being made by all the broadcasters for every Bank Holiday. If you compare a BH schedule say ten years ago compared to now, you'll see just what I mean.

It's been like that for a while now, and it is a shame. Even Easter is pretty much a regular schedule - only Christmas has more variation, but rather than changes across the week it's basically narrowing down to just Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day now. The rest of the week is increasingly just like the regular schedule, and even the New Year schedules were not that notable last year.

Yes that's right. January 2nd is nowadays classed as a 'business as usual' sort of day. Those good old days (not so long ago in fact) it wasn't until around 4th or 5th January the schedules would return to normal.

Yay to that.

Nothing beats seeing something you know you never get a chance to watch. It used to be the same old rope that was dragged out for a bank holiday anyway - tired old yawnworthy movies.

Nice to be able to catch regular crappy daytime and see what they great unwashed get. Sixty Minute Makeunder, Jeremy Bile, Slack Women and such and such.

I hated Bank Holiday TV as well - the same awful films coming out every time and a reduced news service. Amen to the change.

from 1972 to 1998 was good Television programmes on Bank Holidays - both BBC and ITV.

That one thing that really annoys me between Christmas and New Year on the normal weekdays when you have changed schedules. OK, hardly anyone wants to watch Panorama or Question Time, but for many people they are normal working days. It would be nice to have, for example, a full length news at the normal time

As for this bank holiday, I would rather watch Homes Under The Hammer than a film, though surely there needs to me a mix between the normal, and some different in order to provide something for everyone?

Panorama drop on August Bank Holiday - 31st August 2009

It depended what day of the week New Year's Day was. If it was Saturday, then Monday January 3rd would be a bank holiday in lieu of New Year's Day being a Saturday, so special schedule that day, then back to normal Tuesday 4th January. If New Year's Day was Monday 1st January, everyone would be back at work Tuesday 2nd January (though school kids may well go back to school later that week or even the start of the following week), so it would be normal weekday schedule 2nd January.

In the evening of course the soaps are a huge part of the reason programming isn't too different to normal - until after 9pm really, as schedules not only keep their own soaps, but also stay clear of competing against them too.

The same has happened in daytime too - things like Countdown and even "live" shows like Paul O'Grady and The One Show continue as normal, rather than taking a break for a day. And similarly at breakfast now GMTV have stopped providing kids programming, instead sticking to the usual rubbish (minus Lorraine Kelly!)