Three Years of BBC Three

It's Happy 3rd Birthday to BBC Three today. Wonder what the next year holds with a new controller on board. I see to celebrate they are looking for new comedy talent.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4697694.stm

Yet more repeats of Two Pints, no doubt.

3 Years!!. Heck, that long, seems like yesterday that they were having so much trouble with the government to get this channel launched. Don't know what the fuss was about really.

Somehow, I preferred it when it looked like this:

http://www.rp-networkservices.com/tvforum/uploads/choice.jpg

sad really, bbc three seems to be like bbc choice in it's dying days when they were winding it down, showing the same old shows ad nauseam.

BBC Three hasn't been the same since they got rid of Johnny Vaughan and more recently Paddy O'Connell. In my opinion obviously.

I think they use it too much for "extras" Dr Who Conf, Behind The Scenes ar Scritctly Dancing etc... it never gets any programmes of its own. Not big budget ones.

To be honest I'd forgotten all about BBC Three. I normally flick straight past it in the EPG, only sometimes halting momentarily if (another) Little Britain or Two Pints repeat is on; only to continue flicking immediately after when I realise just how many times I've seen that episode before.


BBC Three urgently needs a refresh. The blobs, whilst slightly quirky and amusing first time around, are becomming stale and frankly boring. The music that accompanies the idents just has to go!! I liked the orange box era of BBC Choice whereby the music changed every couple of months to something new and funky from the recent charts.


Three doesn't have a flair nor a kick. Liquid News was great. The Johnny Vaughan show was good. The occasional repeat of Little Britain was okay. EastEnders at 10 is a good idea but given that the plotlines are currently octogenarians' sex parties (or something similar) that too is becomming ... bleugh ...

Good kick up the arse is what the channel needs in my book.

For me the best era of the BBC's third channel was the first original era of BBC Choice.

Surely they should have kept that ITV2 style format of replays from the main channel, spin offs and some new programmes, rather than the BBC Three format of mostly new programmes (but with only enough budget for a series of Two Pints and then a year of repeats)

To me BBC Three appears to be going for a different demographic than when it first started. It certainly seems to have much more of a female skew to it these days.

Whenever I switch on, when it isn't showing Two Pints, it's always lifestyle / parenting kind of programming. A look over the schedules for the next weeks shows programmes like :

Anthea Turner : The Perfect Housewife
Honey We're Killing the Kids
Wedding Stories
My Childhood
The House of Tiny Tearaways
The UK Love Map

What happened to the edgy comedy, the live chat, the innovative original content ?

It's gone 'safe'.

When wasn't it?

It does have to be said that BBC Three is a bit like whats the point these days. It really doesnt show anything interesting anymore.