1 Only Fools and Horses BBC1, 15.5 million
2 EastEnders (8.30pm) BBC1, 14 million
3 Coronation Street ITV, 11.8 million
4 EastEnders (6pm) BBC1, 11.4 million
=5 My Family BBC1, 8.3 million
=5 Emmerdale ITV, 8.3 million
7 BBC News (5.45pm) BBC1, 7.8 million
8 Queen's Speech BBC1, 6.5 million
9 Posh and Becks Big Impression BBC1, 6.5 million
10 Who Wants to be a Millionaire Celebrity ITV, 6.3 million
well i can honestly say that my christmas day viewing only consisted of:
michael palin (simply because the telly was on when i woke up)
and creature comforts, which was recorded and watched today.
there was nothing in the schedules to sufficiently interest anyone in my house to move into the lounge. fools and horses - done to death, "celebrity" millionaire - good ... a few years ago, the soaps - why watch other people enjoying christmas day instead of enjoying your own?.
all in all (purely from the radio times) it was a very poor line-up.
and it does make me laugh to think of some forum members taking the batteries out of their remotes to force their entire family to watch a single channel's offerings, just because they have some misguided loyalty to a channel.
Just watched a bit of footie and Michael Palin and that's it really!
I wonder if we'll see more old ITV idents next Monday on BBC4? There's an evening of programmes missing from the archives until now. A chance to see the 'Rediffusion, London' ident before 'At Last the 1948 Show' perhaps?
They probably will be shown if they have them. Leaving frontcaps intact is becoming more commonplace now. Most if not all archive masters still have them intact (along with their original endcap), and most new transmission copies retain them. Only older ones will specifically have them cut off.
I personally see no reason to remove them, they might arguably be out of place for contemporary programmes, but on repeats of old programmes I think it adds a nice touch to leave them on (and also original endcaps - although it seems Pearson and FreMantle have a universal hatred of skyline endcaps, with very few 'Thames Colour Production' endcaps still surviving on transmission copies). They only take a few seconds to run, the longest one is ATV's at just over 10 seconds, no channel can't accomodate them. And before anyone proclaims that noone cares or that they are confusing, I wouldn't care to guess how many people over 30 watching C5 tonight said 'I remember that' at the start of the programmes which had frontcaps intact.
Did anyone notice that On The Buses, did not have an ident, did not have the correct 'into break, out of break' footage/audio, but ended with the black & white version of the LWT river endcap !
I assume this episode was from Xmas 1970, because of the 'infamous' ITV colour strike, where everything made/shown during that period was shown in monochrome, but how come 5 edited out the ident & break captions?
In fact, did anything get transmitted in colour on ITV around December 1970, or wasn't it a very colourful xmas on the 3rd button?
Was there any press coverage/letters at the time, asking why ITV was transmitting in black & white, when over a year, they'd gone into colour?
Did anyone notice that On The Buses, did not have an ident, did not have the correct 'into break, out of break' footage/audio, but ended with the black & white version of the LWT river endcap !
I assume this episode was from Xmas 1970, because of the 'infamous' ITV colour strike, where everything made/shown during that period was shown in monochrome, but how come 5 edited out the ident & break captions?
Yes I did notice that. I did notice later on in the night though that they weren't putting breaks where they were originally. Even though OTB still only had a single break, it may not have been at the original breakpoint and so they removed them. But then, since last night C5 were showing frontcaps if they had them and one didn't appear at the start of OTB, it's possible that their episode was a transmission tape originally prepared for Granada Plus which had ran straight through without a break or frontcap.
In that case, maybe they should rename the show "Only Fools Flog Dead Horses" ?
Perhaps. I know people will pull out viewing figures and the undeniable fact that it was the highest rated programme on TV yesterday, but that's rather more because of the timing and packaging of the programme.
Should the BBC have done this for the sake of ratings chasing on christmas day which they undoubtedly could have attained with a rerun of an old christmas special anyway? No, I don't think they should have.
I wonder what BBC1 will use next year as their main ratings banker. I think in 2000 it was The Royle Family which was popular back then, and now in 2001/2/3 its been OFAH. For next year I can't think of anything obvious?
In that case, maybe they should rename the show "Only Fools Flog Dead Horses" ?
Perhaps. I know people will pull out viewing figures and the undeniable fact that it was the highest rated programme on TV yesterday, but that's rather more because of the timing and packaging of the programme.
Should the BBC have done this for the sake of ratings chasing on christmas day which they undoubtedly could have attained with a rerun of an old christmas special anyway? No, I don't think they should have.
I wonder what BBC1 will use next year as their main ratings banker. I think in 2000 it was The Royle Family which was popular back then, and now in 2001/2/3 its been OFAH. For next year I can't think of anything obvious?
Maybe they will nick something else from BBC TWO, something like Little Britain (well actually nick it from BBC THREE), or they may have something new.
Maybe next year we will see itv1 being ratings winners on christmas day.
WIth it being a Saturday Night, they could have a Saturday Night Takeaway.
Have the soaps, but perhaps for just 45 minutes each.
Harry Hill's TV Burp is getting more & more popular, after this series in february and one in the autumn, they may find it popular enough to put it on Christmas Day.
With all of the new comedy coming around this year on itv1, they may decide to plant some of that on Christmas Night, the new one written by Dave Spikey, the new show written and starring steve coogan and vic reeves (and starring bob mortimer), maybe if hardware is scheduled well, that may be a hit.
Perhaps they could try for a new quiz show that could take over in prime time from millionnaire. I quite liked Russian Roulette, maybe they could bring this back.
What happened to an idea that they were playing around with starring Brian Conley, it was supposed to be set around a roulette wheel where contestants bet red or black. By the sounds of it, it could have turned out to be a bit like banzai or stupid punts, where challenges aere performed by two people/things one red, one black, and they bet so much on one, etc.
Perhaps ending with an audience with. Perhaps getting someone with mass appeal. Someone like Peter Kay, I'd love to see that! And I'm sure the other millions of his fans would too.
By decreasing the soaps, going for entertainment and trying new ideas, along with ineteractive features with programmes, such as play along, audiences will come. Perhaps having a quiz with a massive jackpot if you play along at home. Or trying the BBC's approach. Keep all adverts and trailers within the programme breaks and cut from the end of one programme to an ident then the start of the next.
1 Only Fools and Horses BBC1, 15.5 million
2 EastEnders (8.30pm) BBC1, 14 million
3 Coronation Street ITV, 11.8 million
4 EastEnders (6pm) BBC1, 11.4 million
=5 My Family BBC1, 8.3 million
=5 Emmerdale ITV, 8.3 million
7 BBC News (5.45pm) BBC1, 7.8 million
8 Queen's Speech BBC1, 6.5 million
9 Posh and Becks Big Impression BBC1, 6.5 million
10 Who Wants to be a Millionaire Celebrity ITV, 6.3 million
Sad ratings... I would have thought that Creature Comforts and or World Idol would have been in there instead of the crap that is.