I might watch Watchman, but I have seen it before, other than that im not seeing anything I might watch.

Ordinarily, I'd agree, but Ab Fab hasn't set the world on fire for any of its umpteen comebacks, and the most recent series logged some very disappointing ratings.

Personally, I think it's a steaming turd and I wouldn't even give it houseroom in the Christmas Night schedule.

This is the big thing really - BBC controllers/schedulers can watch these shows in advance and they know what's worthy of big slots and what isn't.

Hence why the abysmal Victoria Wood show a couple of years ago got dumped early on Christmas Eve.

I hope Jennifer Saunders has managed to pull something really good out of the bag this time, for the BBC's sake, even if I already know I won't like it.

im going to pass on Ab Fab, its not my thing.

Actually that brings me to a point I meant to make earlier, the Christmas schedule seems to be something for everybody.

We have 13 shows officially over 10 million viewers so far, I wonder how many new entries we will have by the end of 2011. There is room for Dr Who to improve at Xmas, Children in Need ought enter the top 20 comfortably next week.

It will probably have more guest turns in it than the TXF Final....

BBC 1 and Channel 4 have some brilliant commissions in store for Christmas. Looking forward to This Is England, MBFGCW and AbFab very much indeed!

ITV have got some high quality commissions coming up aswell actually. I think it gets far too much stick on here now, considering how far it has improved from the days of Love Island and Coronation Street Family Albums!

By the way, I spat my tea over the keyboard when I saw your comment about ITV on Tuesdays.

Source: http://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2011/1...4361/not_ideal

Indeed.

I'm still not entirely convinced that Ab Fab is going to land on Christmas Day and if it does I would be disappointed if its used as the lead-in for the Royal Bodyguard. With the apparent 40 minute run time of EastEnders this year they could do an episode of that at 9PM leading into Bodyguard and then McIntyre after that.

I suppose he could try selling the show to Dave.

The problem is of course, if BBC 3 creates a show that isnt an easy fit for another BBC channel, what happens when that show ages, when BBC 3 is really meant to be about new comedy for a younger audience.

That said Ideal could just about fit in on as part of a comedy block on BBC 2.

Vegas is not the face of youth any more, he is the face of Tea, that hardly makes him relevant to today's youth and BBC 3s target demo.

As late as last Summer, she was still complaining about that in interviews.
Does any of her friends and family got the balls to tell her how poor it was? 'The Midlife Olympics':sleep:

Catherine Tate's Nan special was commissioned last minute to fill the slot along with a normal episode of Gavin and Stacey.

I would say that BBC3 needs to break new shows, not keep them around for years - if they cannot make the move to BBC2 due to low ratings then they will have a finite timescale.

This is what BBC3 had to say back in August. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/comedy/2011/08/ideal.shtml

well thanks for bringing up that unpleasant memory.

Catherine Tate, David Tennant and the BBC have never disappointed me more.

Yes it wasn't that long ago that ITV1 was relying on soap based filler and absolute stinkers like Love Island that should have been on ITV2. They do seem to have moved on from this cheap tat and their dramas, factual, sport and news coverage are far better than they were five years ago. Also having schedules dependent on soaps, soap filler and celeb reality was scaring the viewers away.
A lot of what ITV1 shows now still is awful- Daybreak comes to mind- but the station does have some watchable shows now and their hits like TXF are raking in the cash.

but ITV is still dependent on soaps, and reality TV, which is part of celebrity culture, if only the celebrity of the judges, those shows certainly enjoy the tabloid celebrity culture.

There may have been some improvement, but the past isnt that far away for ITV.

Oh I don't know, Charnham, remember such piffle as Soapstar Superstar every night, where now you will get a decent drama or factual. However, I will agree that ITV is still too dependent on the soaps and does tend to milk shows like TXF. Yet the station does seem to have moved on somewhat from its dog days around 2006-07 when it was like something the editor of HEAT and Inside Soap dreamt up.

I do agree that ITV has shown improvement, but im just saying it wouldn't take much for it to go back to that. The Only Way Is Essex maybe on ITV 2, but it still shows that ITV still produce that type of show, and shows like Sing If You Can, are at best uninspiring, whilst Red or Black? and Daybreak makes them looked clueless.

I agree, there are still stinkers- just like on every channel actually- but I feel its drama and sport output have vastly improved over the last 4-5 years. The building up of ITV 4s sport portfolio has been excellent, ITV 2 has found a very loyal and steady audience and ITV 1 has given us some good drama with S & B, Whitcher and Downtown. Considering they are clearing off there debt by the end of this year (?) I feel we could see some pretty big things coming for the channel soon.

It is by no means perfect at all , but I feel it is probably the most improved of all channels.

oh I completely agree that ITV 3 &n ITV 4 have both shown improvements, the same can not be said for ITV 2, and ITV 1 as said still does over relay on soaps and a few big name reality shows.

I agree - though I think ITV1 especially is a key example of channels focusing on key slots at key times of the year - a few quality high rated products rather than more lower quality but fairly appealing shows. They've realised they can't be competitive in every slot of every night of every week of the year, so are picking their battles and basically accepting that on some nights it's not the end of the world if their line up doesn't rate.

Which we're not going to. Well, I'm not going to let it in!

I would say they have moved on in the last few years and the dark mutterings about a digital channel being closed down or ITV1 closing for part of the day came to nothing. Also who can really fault Downton Abbey, which does well in the vital ABC1 demos?

TBH the last few specials of abfab were nothing fab to me

i recently watched the whole series a while back and the very last xmas special they had was just terrible it was all about redecorating eddies house it was a chore to sit through i think it should be left in the past now really.

the last series was not too good either i dunno its just hard to recreate the chemistery of the days when they were doing the proper yearly series seasons 1-3