Two MANY Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps

<< BURRRRRRRRRRP!!!>>


BBC Three shake up needed. Everytime I turn on this channel - this programme is on! Talk about overload. Same goes for Flog It (to death)! on BBC Two.

Didn't I hear that the BBC were meant to be cutting the amount of repeats on TV? So just reducing the amount of classic Only Fools and Horses is doing just that is it?

Well you can add another half-hour of repeats to BBC Three from this week. The 30 minute live, not repeated, news bulletin has been replaced by... Repeats of shows like Three Investigates, Body Hits (yep - again...) and Dreamspaces (yep - again...). All good shows - but the latter two series have been repeated again, and again, and again, and again.

Although they axed 125 hours a year of news output, they are replacing it with 5 hours of factual programming.

It's now become a completely pointless channel. Whenever a BBC Three show gets the merest whiff of popularity or success, it gets repeated on BBC One or Two anyway. For example, Honey We're Killing The Kids is now being repeated on BBC One at 7pm on Wednesdays. And if it gets dire viewing figures it just stays on BBC Three and gets commissioned for another series.

Apparently BBC Three's annual budget is nearly £100 million - so it's remarkable how they seem to make so much money go not very far at all.

And with the end of the 7 O'Clock News, for the first time in the seven-year life of BBC Choice/BBC Three (apart from a brief period in 2000), there is no longer a daily live programme (Backstage/Liquid News/7 O'Clock News) which means that there is no longer a guarantee of at least of 30 minutes of fresh programming each night on the channel.

BBC Four has a considerably smaller budget but somehow manages to run a much less repetitive schedule. BBC Three desperately needs to get the rule that 80% of its output must have been commissioned for the channel either relaxed or abolished, to allow for more catch-up repeats from other BBC channels, which would benefit viewers far more than showing the same old episodes of Two Pints, Body Hits and Trauma for the millionth time. Hopefully the new controller Julian Bellamy will have some fresh ideas (and cut down on all those endless programmes about badly behaved kids!)

How on earth are BBC3 spending their budget?

It's one and a half times that of E4, but E4 seems to be far better scheduled with seemingly far fewer repeats - though obviously it's dominated by US imports.


It's BBC3's stupid remit though that means you get endless repeats of programmes first shown on BBC3, as they have to have a quota of "original" content, even if it's a repeat.

It would far better serve the audience with some selected BBC1/2 repeats - for example, things like Extras and The Catherine Tate Show.

I shall be expecting more from BBC Three in the new year. It launched with such a promise back in 2003 - the big generic 'THREE' studio, Live news, the pilot episode of Little Britain etc.

You've answered your own question.

E4 has a schedule that is mainly acquired US programming - which is often cheaper to buy in than commissioning domestic shows - and these are also repeated quite heavily. It also repeats a lot of shows originally shown on C4.

Neither of these programming options are available to BBC Three.

As others have noted, it is now entirely possible for an evening of BBC Three to be entirely repeats - with the loss of the last regular live show (the 7 O'Clock News).

At one point you had Liquid News, Celebdaq, The News Show / Seven O'Clock News which were all live... (Apart from the Friday Liquid News, which was a round-up show and recorded on Thursday)

Not sure if this warrants a new thread, but I noticed that BBC Three was going out DOG-free last night, and is again tonight. I assume this is another experiment to test viewer reaction, as with the two earlier experiments in 2003 (the first which resulted in the DOG being removed from films and certain other programmes); though I wonder if it is any way related to the fact that a certain Mr Murphy has now left the building??

(Damn, I knew it was pointless starting a new thread)

Well, I'm bumping this thread up again to tell you that I had my grumpy head on the other day and decided to email BBC Three. This was my reply....



Yeah, thanks...

I like the way the email goes "It's the same with Friends on E4 and The Simpsons on Sky One." How catty is that?

To be honest, I quite enjoyed the complete re-run of every episode of "Two Pints" last year, as I didn't see them when they
were first shown, so I for one, am glad they repeated the entire series from the beginning. Mind you since they finished
the complete re-run, BBC Three now seems to be doing little more than filling in the gaps with randomly selected
repeat episodes until the new series of "Two Pints" starts in a few weeks time.

At least they've said that new, and as yet unrepeated, episodes are on their way soon.

While "Two Pints of Lager and a Packet Of Crisps" may not necessarily appeal to everyone, with the occasionally bad
taste, and sometimes rather crude humour, but it's a darn sight funnier than the seriously unfunny "Tittybangbang".