Originally Posted by guestofseth:
“Would help boost the Christmas show, which didn't do as well last year. Could they move it to New Year's Day, or the Saturday inbetween, this year, Christmas is looking pretty crowded this year with Royle Family, Call the Midwife, and Miranda to fit in.”
There'd be no value in having a Strictly Olympics special at Christmas when the Olympics will have been long over. It wouldn't boost the ratings at all, I remember at Christmas 2003 when ITV did a one-off Tarrant-fronted show to celebrate England winning the Rugby World Cup and it got absolutely nothing on a Saturday night after the Pop Idol final. Mo Farah's already been on a million shows, and there's still four months to go.
And for what it's worth I'd like the Christmas Strictly to be the Champion of Champions again as last year's felt like nothing special, they had worse celebs than the actual series and at Christmas you want everyone to be great and the judges to say nice things.
Originally Posted by Brekkie:
“Sadly though the BBC isn't in the business now of trying to surprise us with their Christmas presents - it'll be the same old same old I'm sure.”
Dear The Times, Following your correspondence on the first cuckoo of spring, I thought you may be interested to know that Brekkie's first complaint about the BBC1 Christmas Day schedule was on 19th August. Is this a record? Yours, Steve Williams.
By the way, only three programmes on BBC1 on primetime Christmas Day last year had been on the previous Christmas Day - Strictly, Doctor Who and 'stEnders. Meanwhile, the number of programmes on primetime ITV on Christmas Day last year that had been on the previous Christmas Day was, er, four - You've Been Framed, Corrie, Emmerdale and Family Fortunes. And Happy Feet was in the exact same slot it was in two years previously. Where's the complaints about that?
Originally Posted by Andy23:
“Although Call the Midwife had big ratings, I'm not sure it is Christmas Day material.
Heartbeat used to be massive back in the day, but I'm not sure it'd be on on Christmas Day.”
Well, it was on Christmas Day twice, in 1994 and 1996, but 1994 was a line-up just as cynical as the year before on ITV as after all the complaints about them making no effort in 1993, they whacked on Corrie, Blind Date and Heartbeat, but it didn't do much, I don't think Call The Midwife will be on Christmas Day, though, because BBC1 don't seem to want to show drama on Christmas Day, the last time I think they did that was Miss Marple in 1989.
Originally Posted by Andy23:
“Will The Royle Family be on at all, have they actually written one? and has the year's gap meant that any momentum has been lost and it's lost it's place?”
Well, they went six years without doing one once.
Originally Posted by AlexiR:
“I also really can't see the BBC revisiting Birds of a Feather. Ever. Nor do I think they should.”
The only people who seem to be suggesting they bring back Birds of a Feather are the cast. They revived To The Manor Born the other year, mind, and that's surely even more obscure, but that probably only got Christmas Day by default as they had nothing else.
Originally Posted by D.M.N.:
“By that rationale then, Ruth Rendall's 39 Steps and Accused are also being burnt off then?”
Well, Ruth Rendell certainly is, because it's a two-parter which looks tailor made for showing on consecutive nights but which is being shown a week apart. It's likely most dramas on ITV in the summer are being burnt off because unlike the Beeb they don't have the obligation to do decent new stuff all year round.
Originally Posted by
grimshaw:
“That would be 12 episodes. Christmas Eve for Merlin it is 
Course. Merlin could just start a week earlier.”
Or Merlin could run on into January. What is the obsession with this show being finished for Christmas? Series have straddled the holidays many, many times.
Originally Posted by RobbieSykes123:
“As above, I do treat this with some scepticism. I think 30m may have watched on TV, but split more evenly amongst BBC1 and ITV surely. Don't forget that the population was much lower in 1966 (sub 50m?) and many many millions would have had no telly at all in 1966, just a wireless. It's inconceivable to my mind that much more than 30m in total watched the '66 final, even with just 3 channels and little all else to do in those days.”
Yeah, and in the sixties ITV were massively, massively popular, they dominated over the BBC so it's surely likely that there'd be a sizeable audience that just had ITV on all day.
”
DOES ANYONE KNOW??? 
