Naff & brilliant - a winning combination


Grittiness & gloom at Christmas - who do they think they are - Eastenders?

Well, I noticed one of the weekend TV guides called Downton's 2 hour festive murder trial special "unremittingly gloomy punctutated only by Maggie Smith's dottiness".

It's hardly got me itching to see it...

Looks like the Samaritans will be particularly busy this year in the 9pm hour. At least BBC1 has 90 mins of comedy to round off the night for those who need it.

btw, will you be held captive again this year by your folks/in-laws and forced to watch EE against your will, as usual?

Is that why you're so tetchy this year?

Hope you aren't counting Ab Fab? That might get the Trading Standards out on treble time on Christmas night.


I've an escape plan this year - but my relatives kids now prefer non stop Discovery channel to anything else so I think it will be a 12 hour trucks and how its made marathon, rather than BBC1.

Gosh, DA losing out to EastEnders or Ab Fab in the overnights would be one thing. Losing to Ice Road Truckers too....




It's had positive previews from people who have actually seen it. I have heard that the first ten minutes is a bit scattergun, but the rest is supposed to be a cracker, tempered only by a whooping and wildly cheering studio audience apparently.

But that never stopped TXF...

I don't think Young James did that badly. It's December when quite alot of people are out christmas shopping. I think if it gets at least 4.5m viewers it's got a chance of coming back

Stuff Big Brother; I think a broadcaster should lock RobbieSykes and GeorgeS in a room together and just film it.

The EE pre-Christmas bump is a bit of a myth.

In 2008, the 3 episodes in xmas week before the big day were all under 9.4m. 2009 saw both the Tuesday and Thursday episodes under 9m. Last year was the only year when figures were higher, mainly over 10m with Monday 20th episode hitting 11.42 but that can be attributed to snow.

They would never agree what channel to air it on.

We'll arrange that but not tell them...otherwise one of them would go on strike and refuse to talk.

Great news for fans of edgy US drama: Sons of Anarchy is being fast-tracked. C5 did originally state their rights did not kick in until the summer, but in an apparent about turn Season 4 will receive its UK premiere on Wednesday 18th January at 10pm. The hit cable series did appear to be gaining momentum during its last season on 5USA, regularly topping 300,000 in the official data and making the channel's top 10 most watched programmes, normally dominated by reruns of CSI and NCIS.

Also on the C5 network in Week 3: the Aussie soaps return, Police Interceptors is back, this time following a new police team based in Derbyshire (Mondays 8pm), Kate Thornton: My Anorexic Past airs (Wednesday 10pm), World's Greatest Heroes begins and former Apprentice stars Raef Bjayou and Stuart 'The Brand' Baggs become the latest Celebrity Wedding Planners.

Channel Five would show it.

I think George and I would both agree that's the right place for it.

On Boxing Day...

You would say Boxing Day. I think there should be a line on the floor that you can't cross to prevent fisticuffs.

Im not sure what the possibilities with Young James were, but I imagine a portion of the audience tuned in expecting All Creatures and went away when they found it wasnt. Having watched it, its not all that bad, it just looked cold and dark. Even when episodes of ACGAS were filmed in snow it still felt warm. The Sunday 8.00 slot is vacant following the ending of Larkrise and I wonder if there was ever a plan for this series there at some future point. As it is it looks like Countryfile and AR are even more of a Sunday night mainstay.

I spent last night watching Natl Geo for Inside North Korea plus Discovery, Sky News and some CNBC.

No ITV (apart from News At Ten) or BBC1. You'd be bored rigid

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/...r-bbc-one.html

DS reporter - Vets don't "harvest" - well not legally anyway!

Like there's going to be a TV in that room...what do you think this is - Screenwipe???

IF the above analysis is correct, C5 would still be loss-making as it lost much more than £30m in 2010.

C5 2010 results:

Period post acquision by Northern & Shell (24 July 2010 to 31 Dec 2010): Operating loss £10.9m

Period pre acquision by Northern & Shell (1 Jan 2010 to 23 July 2010): Operating loss £38.2m (excluding loan waiver from Parent)

http://www.northernandshell.co.uk/do...Shell_2010.pdf

Home for the Holidays
Sun 18-Dec 1.43 8pm
Mon 19-Dec 0.73 10pm

Candidate for Christmas Turkey!

Media Guardian have their end of year top 20 shows of 2011 list up and top 10s in various genres:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/tabl...-tv-shows-2011

Main thing I notice is that they're including +1, but not including the BBC News simulcast for The Royal Wedding, meaning that TXF is #1. Also I see they have a figure for the SCD Final already. Not sure where they've got that from. It could be where it's up to so far or a projection of what its official rating should be based on how it's done up to now timeshift wise.

The article to accompany the lists is here.

Pillocks. The accompanying article declares TXF as a bigger draw than The Royal Wedding, seemingly ignoring that not only was the rating they refer to all day coverage, it assumes only BBC1 aired it. Who wrote it, the work experience girl?

She also forgot that there are 11 days of the year left!

Blimey, that's been spun, spun and then spun a bit more, hasn't it?

I think I'll stick with our 'unofficial' list.

The show's title is silly. In the UK, it brings up thoughts of summer holiday.

"Holidays" is the American, generic PC term for this time of year.

We all know that All Star Family Fortunes is going to end up the most watched show of 2011

And breathe, Robbie, and breathe...

On the first point, everyone here knows The Royal Wedding won the year. On the second point, I don't think anything's going to beat that, The X Factor or Strictly Come Dancing to be honest.