Only if you measure suitability based purely on audience figures. Thankfully the BBC do not look at it like that and quite right too. Your view is very narrow-minded and a bit offensive ("God-bothering", "Pope blathering on"). Why shouldn't the UK's biggest publicly funded channel cater for Christians on the biggest day of the year in the Christian calendar? It is absolutely crucial PSB output and needs to be on the main channel.


A simple channel switch takes about a second, hardly a big inconvenience. It was unnecessary of course because they should have just ran the whole thing on there. But for those that were really that bothered about a one second interruption, the red button feed was available.

Events of religious and cultural significance need to be reflected in what BBC One does, not shuffled over to BBC Two in order to chase ratings. Seriously, look carefully again at BBC One's schedule for yesterday. Where else would you get that kind of variety?

I think you are dangerously close to forgetting what the BBC is all about and doing them and yourself a bit of a disservice with some of your comments. It shouldn't be populist all of the time, it needs to be broad and all-encompassing, or else risk riling commercial rivals to such an extent that the LF in its current form at least will become virtually impossible to justify.

I dont think BBC airs the 1 hour EE on Thursday to compete with Emmerdale, but becasue its an easy way to make sure viewers know when all the episodes are.

If its on Wednesday you have to make people aware of that fact, but if its a 1hour Thursday episode, you dont even really need to tell people its a 1 hour episode, or at least not go to any specail effort.

I think BBC One were always in a bit of a bad situation scheduling-wise. Ashes to Ashes could only get a clear run-in on Friday nights (apart from Tuesday's - which actually should've been where it was scheduled, otherwise it would've been interrupted - never good for a drama - especially in its final series.

So, why didn't it air before?!

This would be my ideal Spring schedule on 1:-

Monday
7:00pm The One Show
7:30pm Bang Goes The Theory
8:00pm EastEnders
8:30pm Panorama
9:00pm Wonders of the Solar System
10:00pm BBC News

Tuesday
7:00pm The One Show
7:30pm EastEnders
8:00pm Holby City
9:00pm Ashes to Ashes
10:00pm BBC News

Wednesday
7:00pm The One Show
7:30pm Life of Riley
8:00pm Waterloo Road
9:00pm Outnumbered
9:30pm Would I Lie To You?
10:00pm BBC News

Thursday
7:00pm The One Show
7:30pm EastEnders
8:00pm The Doctor Who Story
9:00pm Have I Got News For You
9:30pm Not Going Out
10:00pm BBC News

Friday
7:00pm The One Show
7:30pm Inside Out
8:00pm EastEnders
8:30pm Outtake TV
9:00pm Casualty
10:00pm BBC News

Saturday
6:30pm Over The Rainbow
7:45pm Doctor Who
8:30pm National Lottery: Who Dares Wins
9:15pm Live at the Apollo
10:00pm BBC News
10:15pm Match of the Day

Sunday
6:00pm Countryfile
7:00pm The Antiques Roadshow
8:00pm Over The Rainbow
9:00pm A Passionate Woman
10:00pm BBC News

Some of this delves in the realms of fantasy (Casualty, Not Going Out, The Doctor Who Story), but I think the Wednesday idea might work - given the competition is football.

Erm, OK. Actually in all fairness they could've (and have in the past) got someone a lot worse than Michael Ball. He'll probably be OK, but will it be at 5pm or back at 3pm? With the gameshows ITV are going to be showing at 5pm a move back to 3pm seems likely as Titchmarsh didn't do brilliantly at 5pm.

As for the F1/Religious stuff argument, I agree that they should have stuck with the F1 and bumped the Pope and his friends off to BBC2. Yes, I can see the argument about BBC1 being a PSB broadcaster but frankly as long as it's being shown by the BBC on a terrestrial channel I don't see the problem and I don't think it matters whether it airs on BBC1 or BBC2. The audience for the religious stuff is so tiny that I'm sure they'd have all tuned in to BBC2 anyway, whereas the F1 has a much larger audience which includes a lot of casual viewers who simply see it on BBC1 and tune in, and therefore didn't bother with BBC2 (as shown both yesterday and last October when it was shifted to BBC2 because of the rain delay). The religious stuff only attracts a very core, hardcore audience and no casual viewer will tune in to be bored rigid by the Pope and his friends, so they may as well have put it on BBC2.

It finished dead on 8pm. As long as EastEnders didn't start early it'll be fine.


When and why are ITV airing an hour long Emmerdale against EastEnders? I'd understand if they moved an 8pm episode to an hour long against an EastEnders hour long, but otherwise...

I think the BBC need to show more awareness than the commercial channels for obvious reasons. The license fee is important because it allows the BBC more scope than commercial channels. But for me that means they have responsibilities that they have to keep to. One of those (and TBH I think ITV should do this as well) is not clashing genre with genre.

Just out of curiosity, why doesn't the BBC broadcast Islam, Hindu, Buddhist, Judaism and Sikh messages?

And if the answer is something along the lines of "we are a Christian country" then I'll say that the UK is mostly Atheist, and if it's along the lines of "we are historically a Christian Country" then I'd say that the UK is historically a protestant country - why should the BBC be broadcasting the pope then? - and traditionally the UK is a pagan country.

More balance is needed; Diwali is celebrated by many religions as well - that should easily be a contender for a 'special day'.

I'm not sure if there are programmes for all the above, but BBC One does programmes for Ramadan and Jewish New Year.

I remember he wore a toupee, and he eventually admitted to it, and stopped wearing it, revealing a fairly good head of hair in the process.

Then he went bald...

Thursday 15th
They have Emmerdale 7:00-8:00pm and Corrie 8:00-8:30pm.
It's it's just goes to show ITV have no idea what they are doing because you'd have thought they would have made Emmerdale an Hour last Thursday so the 8:00pm slot didn't lose as many viewers due to the Hour EastEnders.

EastEnders started at 7:58 pm and they didn't seem to have the news update tonight

It's because of the prime ministerial debate at 8.30pm. They're not doing it just for the sake of it...

t's true
on Thursday the hourlong Episode wasn't advertised or anything and alot of people didn't know it aired for an Hour
but seeing it was still on at 8:00pm people just assumed it was an hour anyway and stuck with it.

The BBC used to make up any missed episodes of Enders on a friday but seeing as corrie got the 8:30pm slot
they didn't want the clash so they started to air any Hour eps on Thursdays and have stuck with it.

Personally i think some changes could be made to BBC1 though

Yes there is probably a link with Lennie Bennett in there somewhere

Did i say they were?
But whats wrong with an Hour on the Weds or have Emmerdale on a sunday with Corrie to make up for it
or they could have run Emmerdale 7:00pm and 8:00pm on the Thursday and moved Corrie to sunday
imean its good enough for them this week and next

Doctor Who is 65 minutes long on 17th as well. Over The Rainbow will have to clash with BGT for a bit then.

I don't see the big deal.

You can't say it's okay when EastEnders does it but it's not when it's Emmerdale.

I don't think it is - wasn't it just a typo on the Press Office?

That explains it. As dan2008 said though, it seems silly they decide on the hour long on that day yet didn't bother giving Emmerdale a chance against the hour long EastEnders'.


I think they've done the obvious thing - it means there are no awkward slots to fill and should give the debate a good lead in. As Agent F said above, the BBC combine episodes when it suits them, so ITV can't be blamed when they do it.

Frankly, they're as bad as each other.

Unfortunately because of constant channel hopping I lost when Coronation Street's second episode started and finished. I'm guessing it may have ended at 21.01 as A Touch of Frost didn't start until 21.04.

Emmerdale is always an hour on Thursdays so to show half on a different night would screw up the continuity. The debates wouldn't have been known about at time of writing

By the way, WHY are we discussing this yet again?

I agree it's silly but that's just ITV making a rod for their own back. There's a legitimate reason for them to do this on the 15th so I don't see why they're being criticised for it.

For the many occasions when people like Dan suggest that ITV will "move Corrie" or "move Emmerdale" to ruin one of EastEnders big episodes they don't.

They may have done a couple of years ago but things have changed since then. The Emmerdale/EastEnders clash has been removed (something that was applauded by the Emmerdale producer in a Radio Times interview as himself said the two should never clash) and ITV have largely kept the schedule as it is - even when EastEnders has had hour specials and live episodes and what not. After a while people are going to have to get over the fact that once upon a time Emmerdale clashed with EastEnders on a regular basis and begin to focus on the here and now.

isnt Emmerdale 5 days a week at 7pm? why would EE airing a 2nd episode on Thursday night clash with Emmerdale?

Emmerdale has two episodes on a Thursday.

Yeah but on A Thursday Emmerdale has a double episode one at 7:00pm and then again at 8:00pm

I think that was me. Sorry.