I think there was/is some sort of long-running problem with clearing his BBC TV material for repeats in any form.

Ah, yes! My apologies.

Quite the opposite. Its the BBC shows that run on a loop on the Paramount Comedy Channel (or whatever its called now). The Thames stuff never gets an outing.

That Wednesday series was weird, though, it was well after a year since the previous series, I think most people would probably have assumed it had already been axed. Maybe Camelot just asked for a format so they could plug their Olympic tie-in so they dusted that off. It had a decent run on Saturdays anyway.

I remember during that series the papers reported Eamonn Holmes was exhausted as he was doing that, Sunrise and This Morning all on the same day, He didn't have to say yes to everything, though, did he?


Hmm, I dunno about that because they did get repeated on Paramount a lot and there was also a DVD about ten years ago - and when he died they did a couple of repeats. It might have more to do with the fact that it's one of the few hit comedies in the ITV archives so it gets a disproportionate amount of outings (a la Rising Damp, if that had been on the Beeb it would have been just one of umpteen classic shows). And his ITV shows are better, anyway.

EDIT: Er, yeah, what was said above. The ITV shows had loads of bands on them, of course, so they're harder to clear than the BBC shows which generally had one easy-to-remove musical act per episode.

It must have been sorted out now then. I remember Cleo Roccos (spelling?) complaining about it for ten or fifteen years.

It was weird. The format was tinkered with, the picture quality had deteriorated for some reason, there were technical problems, and it seemed completely out of place on Wednesday nights.




Yes, I suppose removing the musical act would be a good way of solving the problem.

Actuall, looking back at Robbie's original comment, he said that all the stars featured on Comedy Britain got their big break on the BBC which is a moot point with Morecambe & Wise.

Their first TV series was Running Wild made by the BBC in 1954, which was a legendary disaster that nearly killed their career.

They also starred in a show called Double Six for the BBC in 1957. I don't know whether this one was a hit or a miss.

What revived their career after Running Wild, however, was a regular spot (with scripts by Johnny Speight) on The Winifred Attwell Show whih was on ITV in 1956 so maybe this qualifies as their big TV break.

It's also true that their ATV series was a very big hit so it was quite a big coup for the BBC to sign them up in 1968. However, when they were on ATV they were a tradiitional double act, in the same vein as Abbott & Costello, Mike & Bernie Winters or Cannon & Ball (dimwitted funny man, bullying bad-tempered straight man) and it was Eddie Braben who lifted them to megastar levels when he became their writer early in their BBC career and revamped their comic personas so that their double act became unique.

I don't think I ever saw any of Kenny's ITV shows, but I saw his last two or three BBC series, and I was probably just the right age for them: still a child, so young enough to appreciate all the dressing up and childish jokes, but also old enough to pick up on all the cheeky smut in the scripts.

Although, I can understand that the shows I saw were probably not all that enjoyable to adults.

Oh really, I bet a lot of dads didn't object when Hot Gossip came on. However, you are right that Kenny's humour was more aimed at younger audiences, certainly it was a breath of fresh air after Op Knocks.

Wasn't it just!! I often wonder why light entertainment is always on weekends now. Early Monday evenings before Corrie was a hotspot for 'big' shows in the sixties and seventies.

I still think Penn & Teller should have had a weekday slot. David Nixon did well in the Thames LE 6.45-7.30pm slot on Mondays as did Whodunnit.

July iPlayer data now known, only one entry per show:

01 - 1.28m - Top Gear Series 17: Episode 3
02 - 1.12m - The Apprentice Series 7: The Final Episode 14
03 - 0.84m - Torchwood Miracle Day: Episode 1
04 - 0.69m - Adulthood: 20/07/2011
05 - 0.63m - Kidulthood: 14/06/2008
06 - 0.63m - Mock the Week Series 10: Episode 5
07 - 0.58m - Waterloo Road Series 7: Episode 10
08 - 0.57m - EastEnders: 07/07/2011
09 - 0.46m - Angry Boys: Episode 7
10 - 0.43m - Richard Hammond's Journey To...: The Centre of the Planet Episode 1
11 - 0.41m - Cars: 24/12/2010

The top 40 was covered by those 11 shows.

saturday nights are a bit dull right now, a bit to predictable.

Bring in Doctor Who.

I think the BBC moving it to Glasgow to tick a few unnecessary boxes ultimately called time on it.

That's becoming predictable too, in fairness. Middling numbers being met with the usual "it'll timeshift well, and iPlayer numbers will be huge" type comments.

fair enough, but at least Doctor Who will be worth watching.

Odd then that ITV selected all the BBC bits for their retrospective last night.

Ask the man on the street last night what channel they'd associate all the stars featured on last night's show with, including the host, and, with the possible exception of Mitchell and Webb, they'd say BBC for all of them.


You've not changed jobs and left ITV for Sky now, have you George?




Hm, would this be like the same long-range forecasts that predicted warmer and drier than average weather for most in July and August?

The long range forecasts have been all over the shop this year, so I wouldn't get too excited.

Unless it snows...


Again, it's a puzzler that. It's like how whenever you see Morecambe and Wise clips, it's always the same handful from the 1970s, and never the stuff from 1979-1984. It's a shame we never see their late ITV stuff dredged up, because there must have been some equally classic era-defining material in there.

Surely?

Also the slot occupied by Emmerdale on Mondays was home to the biggest entertainment show of the seventies, Opportunity Knocks. You used to get loads of decent shows in that slot, Kenny Everett, Wish You Were Here, Sapphire and Steel, Whodunnit, all of which had decent ratings as well. However, until there is a culture change on ITV1 on weekdays, you're likely to be stuck with soaps ad infinitum in this slot.
Yet as I am becoming more pro ITV than I was a few years ago, they will rightly point out Emmerdale and the Street( nineties nickname) attract 7-9 million viewers and only the Cowell shows make more money for them. Also there is a risk factor in changing this slot, suppose something like Show Me The Funny appears and stiffs big time in the Dale slot.

Forgot to ask.

Does anyone have the ratings for the England- Wales rugby match on Sky Sports 1 yesterday 1.30pm to 5pm. Also the match average from around 2.30pm until 4.40pm?
(Also the repeat that was on Sky Sports 2 at 7pm)

Thanks.

I know you enjoy watching it and bashing it, in equal measure, but ITV until recently was not a single company. ITV plc has no automatic rights to Thames or ATV shows as those rights belong to other companies now.

But I think there is general consensus that Kenny Everetts best tv work was done at Thames. I'm not even sure his Thames shows were networked though, so some of the Granada boys may not even have seen them.

The world has moved on since the day of 3 channel tv (with BBC2 broadcasting the Open University til 6.40pm and then broadcasting shows in primetime that would be too high brow now for BBC4 or Sky Arts).

If you want to go back to diversity on ITV1 I suggest you shoot down the Astra satellite and close all the other digital channels, get Five and 4 shut down and ask the BBC to dumb up

No, I'm told I used to have nightmares as a small boy as a result of Kenny Everett "breaking through" the Thames TV logo at the start of his show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsEFupZZ4X0

(This didn't trigger some life-long ITV hatred, in case you were wondering. At least I don't think it did...)

It might be worth seeing a psychologist about it though, Robbie. You obviously have something deep seated against ITB - it could all be down to Kenny Everett busting through the Thames TV Logo.

ITV had a good night...for once.They should've ditched their prime time fodder and just aired Harry Potter across it every Saturday, but that's been said already. Ronnioe Corbetty didn't do too badly-around the same figure as Penn and eller but I bet Penn & Teller's demographic is more appealing!

BBC One held up well. Casualty seems to be rebuilding it's audience as the year goes on. In It To Win It is always a reliable performer. Con Air performed very well against GoldenEye.

Camelot is not the big hit Channel 4 were maybe hoping for. Watchmen was on too late considering it's length. Battle of Britain did reaosnably well, though.

Channel 5 struggled in the early evening slot but picked up after 9pm. I guess it's a cheap biut reasonably effective schedule over all.

Dad's Army is a consistent performer for BBC Two even 50 years on. The high brow programming certainly suffered compared to the 'entertainment' programmes.

Next Saturday BBC2 are showing the sketch show It's Marty at 5.30 followed by Marty Feldman: Six Degrees Of Separation, a documentary first shown on BBC4 in 2008, at 6pm.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b009pgsc

They're actually listing It's Marty as It's Marty Feldman because Marty is a forgotten star of British comedy and a lot of young people won't know who he was.

Mmm, well I reckon we could allow 5 and 4 to carry on, but in principle your idea doesnt sound too bad

Holy Moly reporting on Twitter that his first presenting gig on Big Brother's Bit on the Side will be "up against The X Factor launch"

Assuming this means X Factor will launch on Saturday 20th August.

Surprising if those two shows end up directly against each other though - are there schedules available yet?