A few interesting bits that haven't been mentioned now that the schedules for 13th to 19th March are confirmed:

BBC One
- Victoria and Albert is on Sunday, March 14th @ 19:00
- Bang Goes The Theory (new?) airs on Monday, March 15th @ 19:30

ITV1
- Trevor McDonald interviewing David Cameron is on Sunday, March 14th @ 22:15. Stupidly, it airs after the ITV News, not before it
- YBF! is taking The Krypton Factor slot from Tuesday, March 16th @ 19:30. Schedules also confirm that the repeat of Law and Order: UK is Episode #3, which would confirm my theory yesterday

Five
- The Business Inspector starts on Wednesday, March 17th @ 20:00

BBC Press Office has updated, and oh, episode 2 of Richard Hammond's Invisible Worlds is on Monday 22nd March, that's despite the fact that Episode 1 is on Tuesday 16th March.

Ashes to Ashes and Over The Rainbow are, however, unplaced. I have a sneaky feeling that Over The Rainbow is going to be on Fridays from 20:30 to 22:00. It can't be on the Saturday for Week 1 as it is Six Nations from 14:00 to 22:00 - so OTR is definitely on another day....

Friday or Sunday seem the most logical choice although it is strange that they aren't launching it the same day as Doctor Who which is April 3rd.

Football did very well for ITV1, Channel 4 was hit hardest with Ramsay and DH down. NCIS held up surprisenly well with only a small decline against football and Five Days, BBC Two did okay with Becoming Jane and Masterchef was down as well.

Yeah Saturdays look out of question. I think it might air at Sunday 7pm, as isn't Have I Got News For You returning to Friday nights in the next month or two?

I really don't understand the point of moving Richard Hammond to Monday even though it airs on Tuesday the week before! Looks like Ashes to Ashes will get either Tuesday or Thursday - it'll do really well on either night.

As it looks like BBC1 are showing docs and filler on Monday nights, I think ITV1 should air Identity once Married Single Other ends. The competition looks quite easy really and it could do well.

Why are Saturdays out of the question, what else have they lined up for Saturdays?

On that particular Saturday night, they have Six Nations all day.

And then in the following few weeks, there'll be: Doctor Who, Total Wipeout, The National Lottery: Who Dares Wins, Casualty, BBC News, Match of the Day. I don't think it'd be possible to fit Over The Rainbow in, especially the live shows which run to about 90 mins.

Does that mean Ashes To Ashes has been given the Tuesday slot, which means it will clean up for the rest of its run and destroy the Law and Order repeats which I can see being taken out of the schedules if its against ATA.

Credit must go to the BBC schedulers for Over The Rainbow as at least they have realised that there wont be room for it on a Saturday, thus giving Doctor Who a plum slot each week when it returns.

If its true it means 2 small positive moves from the BSI. I think I need a lie down.

Tuesday would be my guess for Ashes to Ashes.

I dont see a Casualty on Week 12, but looking at all the Six Nations Rugby, that is not a surprise. Wonder if it will be on Sunday instead the BBC do that sometimes. However 8pm - 10pm is scheduled, so maybe not.

Woah. Bumper Spring for the BBC, followed by the World Cup and then Elections for News ratings. After which The Apprentice airs.

Thanks

Erm, all the shows rzt mentioned will air (with the exception of OTR) on a Saturday.

I think only the first week (or two) of Over the Rainbow will air on Fridays.

One week of Silent Witness repeats, one week of 9pm Masterchef, one week of rugby, one week of Five Days, one week of Eurovision, one week of Sports Relief, one week (or two!) of Over the Rainbow, or a Good Friday special such as Jonathan Creek and the schedulers have avoided putting a full drama series or a pair of sitcoms in the Friday night 9pm hour for Feb/March, and managed to fill the gap before HIGNFY returns.

As for Ashes to Ashes, it could still appear on any of the four nights, Mon, Tue, Wed or Thu, regardless of where Hammond's series is in the provisional schedule.

Have I Got News For You could go at 8.30pm or 9.30pm as later editions of Over the Rainbow will only be one hour.

That would be possible too, and it would save them having to pair a sitcom with HIGNFY.

With Life of Riley, 2010's first BBC One sitcom series finally arriving in mid-March, the schedulers wouldn't want to spoil us by having two sitcoms running in the same week.

I think Jonathan Creek will be on Easter Sunday more than Good Friday so I think two editions of OTR make sense.

Only problem with that is where would the result show go as they can't put after the news as it would be too late unless the result shows move to Saturdays.

Yeah, I guess Creek would push Jonathan Ross too late on Good Friday.

Although it would probably be seen as a snub, arguably Doctor Who would benefit from a move to Sunday most. In theory the family audience is there more on a Sunday than Saturday, and the wider audience certainly is - whilst on Sundays it would also stand out in the schedules a bit more, rather than be lost in a packed Saturday evening.

Over the Rainbow though will probably start with one or two audition shows, which could air elsewhere in the week compared to the live shows. After Popstar to Operastar though I'd suggest Sunday is more suitable than Friday - though I think unlike previous versions this series is being done because it has to be done (ALW didn't even want to do it on the BBC, but he's under contract).

I wish they'd gone for something much more current than The Wizard of Oz too (even Wicked perhaps!) - and ideally considering this makes it 3 out of 4 series they've searched for a female role it would have been better off looking for a male lead IMO.

On the plus side they're also seatching for Toto - talking of which, More4 screen Crufts next week following it's axing by the BBC - though Claire Balding will jump on over to host. Hour-long shows on Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7.30pm, with a two-hour show from 7-9pm on Sunday 14th March.

Also some supporting documentaries, including a new edition of Animals in the Womb focusing on dogs and Good Dog, Bad Dog, which touches on the scandal and looks at best practice for raising pedigree dogs.

What was Webber's sudden problem with the BBC? Did ITV offer him more money or something?

That'll go down well with the Kennel Club or whatever they're calling themselves these days.

They could do the results within the one hour show. It is a bit of a squeeze though.

BBC1 has commissioned a 6 part documentary which will air later this year:

Also this report says that BBC1 will increase spending on Strictly Come Dancing this year: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/t...-X-Factor.html

Last year, Strictly reportedly cost them £400,000 a week which must be half of what ITV1 pays for The X Factor!

There aren't many shows that are really popular to benefit from reality casting, all the BBC shows plus the ITV copycat have been based on The Sound of Music, Joseph, Grease, Oliver! and The Wizard of Oz, all are known to the general public, My choice would be either Beauty and the Beast, My Fair Lady, West Side Story or Jesus Christ Superstar. Wicked is hard as the roles are vocally demanding.

They told him he wasn't allowed to mention his new Phantom sequel on the show, so he threatened to go to ITV.

His point was that he was happy to promote any other West End shows during the run, like they did before, but that it would be stupid not to be able to mention the launch of this one, which will be big news while the show is on air.

They wouldnt [Mark Thompson] allow a performance from his new musical 'love never dies' on the Over the rainbow.

He got in a strop and said he was going to ITV.He was then reminded that he was under contract. His business partner then said that they were abondoning the revival.

According to broadcast [before it went subscription] Jay Hunt who has good 'relationship' with him convinced him to do it and that it would be produced by his friend Suzy Lamb[former BBC producer on the previous ALW shows] who now works at TalkbackThames