Originally Posted by Chris1964:
“Half a thought that the fight was shown on BBC and ITV and the 17.9 million might have been a combination of both showings. Not sure-clutching at straws really.”
No, of course this was big news because it was the first big event shown live on Sky, who screened it on the Saturday night, and this replay got a massive audience because, of course, nobody had Sky. That year Sky also showed Bros' post-Ken concert live, which also later showed up on BBC1, but nobody watched that on either channel.
Originally Posted by
Pizzatheaction:
“TV listings for the first week of September were something to get excited about in those days because there would be a whole rash of new series every night of the week. Same with the first full week of January. 
”
Amen to that. I remember the People's TV guide, the one that used to do the telly for the week after next to get a jump on the Radio Times, announcing that the first week of January is a massive week for telly, "only the first week of September has more new shows".
I remember Russ Abbott had a compilation on the Saturday before his new series began on the Friday. The last time I can remember being amazed by the telly in the first week of September was in 1996, when Top of the Pops had moved to Fridays in the summer "temporarily" and I was expecting to see it come back to Thursdays, only Watchdog was there and Pops had been dumped to opposite Corrie.
Originally Posted by Pizzatheaction:
“I can't remember which rights ITV and C4 had, but I'm sure they were always Friday night meets.”
ITV had the rights to British athletics in the late eighties and early nineties so it would normally be Grand Prix from Sheffield and Crystal Palace, while the Beeb had international meets. ITV showed a few international events too, though, they had the Weitklasse (is that it?) meet in Zurich for a while.
Originally Posted by
RobbieSykes123:
“Surprised it had so many post-watershed airings in the first decade.
Was it considered a bit "edgy" in those days? 
”
Summer Wine was very much a slow burner and the first few series didn't do very much in the ratings, so the Beeb used to give it slots previously vacated by the likes of Till Death Us Do Part and Perrin to help it out a bit. Also, it was quite an unusual show in those days, very slow moving and subtle - indeed in Forty Years of British Television, another good telly book, there's a letter from someone in the Radio Times in 1979 complaining about it becoming too vulgar and the audience laughter being too loud and inappropriate.
Monday and Thursday at 8.30 used to be a popular slot for BBC1 sitcoms as ITV were showing World In Action and This Week respectively, so you were guaranteed a good audience. This Week ended at the end of 1992, but World In Action stayed there until the end of 1995 before they dumped it opposite EastEnders. The last new sitcom to benefit from that easy slot was The Thin Blue Line.
