Gritty??? it's Lark Rise in a shop with a bit more sex. Gritty...........oh dear God.

I remember most of those 9.05pm dramas were highbrow dramas that rated relatively low and were usually trounched in the ratings by the smash-hit London's Burning. It really is nothing new for BBC1 to put low-rated highbrow fare on at 9pm on a Sunday night.

I've got a few old copies of the Radio Times. Some past Sunday nights on BBC1

14th Sept 1986: 9.05pm Sunday Premier: The Monocled Mutineer (3/4). Book adaptation by Alan Bleasdale starring Paul McGann. Provoked controversy for its left-wing politics but IIRC it wasn't a big ratings winner.

2nd Nov 1986: 9.10pm Sunday Premiere: Past Caring. Denholm Elliott as a 67 year old man moving to an old people's home. Probably rated lower than Andrew Marr will tonight even though there were only 4 channels in those days.

8th Oct 1978: 7.15pm A Horseman Riding By. (3/13) Period drama adapted from a novel by RF Delderfield (An earlier slot for the posh stuff.)
8.10pm Film: The Third Day starring George Peppard (repeat). Not exactly rivetting Sunday night telly.

10th Jan 1982: 7.15pm King's Royal (1/10) Period drama adapted from a novel by John Quigley.
8.05pm Film: The Shootist starring John Wayne (premiere -ooh!)
9.40pm Omnibus: Highbrow arts magazine series.


So you see BBC1's line-up tonight keeps up a long tradition of posh programming and not chasing ratings all the time.

Ok. Too sexy for 8pm! It's Hotel Babylon set in a shop!

Also Neil non fans get tired by the way it's portrayed as the greatest thing in the world by its fans. A woman at work was told to get a life by an XF fan when she said she didn't like it. I've never seen what is just a singing contest develop such a fanbase. I don't mind it, but certainly wouldn't lose any sleep if TXF was cancelled.

It's a pretty good range of classic and family films. Getting rude on a internet forum doesn't make you look good.

Has anybody caught on up on the Meet The Controller sessions from the Edinburgh Festival? Any interesting snippets?

Do you remember this BBC1 schedule from 1984?

6.40pm Songs of Praise
7.15 Last of the Summer Wine
7.45 By The Sword Divided
8.35 That's Life
9.15 Tenko
10.05 BBC News
10.20 Everyman

For what it's worth I think it was one of the better Boot Camp episodes last night - and they've finally got the structure right in Saturday being about the first phase and Sunday about the second, rather than beginning the individual final auditions midway through Saturday then continuing them on Sunday. It definately needs a shot in the arm though, and I think they need to make a real effort with the live shows this year to try and find some momentum.

Interesting to note once again TXF is going live a week earlier than traditionally - I guess they want to go live the week Strictly's live shows begin.

And at least Dirty Des to his credit, although I'm no fan of him, now gives us the full length Australian credits of Neighbours on Fridays which everybody is credited (although speeded), which didn't happen in the Opie/Lighting era when the soap had been poached by them. See 5* at 1pm on Monday.

If Dirty Des, with the money he pours into Neighbours, was able to do a BBC and request the Eleven format of credits from FremantleMedia, wouldn't the option have been there back then 4 years ago?

I think 1986 also had The Singing Detective in the weeks between those two dramas, and that seemed to upset the Government of the time, too, for some reason. The first six weeks of that autumn season saw new runs of sitcoms Ever Decreasing Circles and Only Fools and Horses at 7.15 and 8.35, with a new series of Howards' Way (complete with newly-mangled theme tune) at 7.45pm. Later that autumn the two sitcom slots were gone, but there was the series 20 Years of The Two Ronnies.

The 1978 offering looks unusually poor. Were the BBC particularly strapped for cash that year?

Looks as though BBC1's winter Sunday schedule wasn't in full swing by 10th January 1982. Presumably they'd have had the (at the time) popular That's Life back later that month, and the reasonably popular Mastermind?

Blimey that's a big difference in the two half hours! That the repeat last night pretty much matched Friday's first showing says it all. C4 need to stop relying on Million Pound Drop so much. It's ratings are really nothing special these days and by pumping it out so much and making episodes so bloated they are preventing other shows from breaking through. Baggage could do reasonably well an hour later but it isn't being given the chance. I'd restrict Million Pound Drop to two 10x60' series per year, all on Fridays (ditch the Saturday episodes as they don't work anymore). C4 could actually have a pretty decent Friday night schedule for most of the year with decent hits like Million Pound Drop, Chatty Man (again, two 10x60' runs could work) and 8 Out of 10 Cats anchoring the schedule, along with new shows like Baggage, Comedy World Cup and a couple of others. They'd also have sitcoms like Friday Night Dinner and Peep Show and Derren Brown series to fit in, so I think it's time for them to cut back on MPD as they clearly have enough stuff to carry them through the year even when MPD isn't on. They could also then launch new sitcoms (both US and UK ones) in a decent slot, unlike New Girl, as opposed to the current situation where anything new gets thrown to the wolves as there's no room for it because of MPD.

Yes, I certainly don't remember quite the same hysteria over New Faces - I'm just old enough to remember the back end of that. Nina Myskow made headlines by being the 'nasty' judge, I recall. Although it has to be said the hysteria over TXF isn't what it was, despite Tulisa's revelations in today's Sun.

Are you serious?!

Where on earth would you put History of the World? It's a major, expensive, flagship documentary presented by one of the BBC's biggest faces. And it's the sort of programme ITV would never contemplate. It's exactly what they should be doing. If that isn't worthy of a prime slot, then you're basically suggesting that BBC One should just give up on history, arts, culture. etc. completely. No, it won't do strong figures - but that in no way means it isn't worthy of the slot.

And though Tuesdays isn't ideal for The Paradise, I can't see a legitimate alternative if they want to air it this autumn. Sundays is pointless suicide - gets crushed by the opposition, and has the newspapers sticking the boot in when it loses a 'Ratings War' with Downton Abbey (even if it didn't directly clash). I'm all for the better use of Sundays most of the year round - pushing CF and AF back to 6 and 7pm respectively to air new things 8-10. But in Q4, with Strictly airing in the 7pm hour, I don't see the issue with what they do.

Also, I think the BBC are right to be trying to push beyond the traditional Sunday nights for period drama. With so much of the stuff on order - The Paradise, Call the Midwife, The Village, War of the Roses, The Ark - it seems ludicrous to exclude 6 of the 7 days of the week! (Especially when you consider all the 90 minute dramas - Wallander, George Gently, Quirke, Case Histories, Sherlock. etc - that require a Sunday slot too).

I remember Tenko, a big ratings hit, going out post-watershed on Sundays.

I remember By The Sword and there's a vague memory of its slot. Posh, low-rated drama on primetime Sunday.

Don't remember That's Life in a pre-watershed slot.

Although BBC1 did put out some big hitters on Sunday nights like Poldark and the Onedin Line, often ITV had the ratings smashes on a Sunday in the late seventies with such massive rating shows as Jesus of Nazareth and Moses the Lawgiver. On three occasions there were Bond premieres on Sundays, which were guaranteed 20 milion viewers. BBC 1 knew they couldn't compete with these, so put out a high brow schedule for the few that wanted it.

1978 was the year that changed the BBC. Several big stars (including Bruce Forsyth and Morecambe and Wise) had defected to ITV and industrial action was rife around BBC corridors. The Autumn season was probably their most cash strapped season ever as programmes were deliberately held back due to strike action and threats. Christmas that year was also in doubt as the strikes threatened the Christmas schedules.

1978 has possibly the worst Christmas night line up:

4.20pm Film Premiere: The Sound of Music
7.10 BBC News
7.20 Some Mother's Do 'Ave 'Em
8.05 The Mike Yarwood Christmas Show
8.45 TV Movie: True Grit: A Further Adventure

It was only in 1984 as a lead in to Tenko that That's Life received a pre-watershed slot. ITV were particularly weak that Autumn with Crazy Like A Fox taking up primetime in Autumn. Their big hitter went out on Tuesdays in 1984. The Jewel in the Crown.

If you want to talk about how ratings worked in the late seventies, ITV, as now, dominated Mondays. A schedule featuring Opportunity Knocks( then the biggest show on television), Coronation St, George and Mildred, World in Action and The Sweeney was bound to flatten a BBC1 schedule that often consisted of an import, Panorama, news and an old film. However, BBC1 always won on Saturdays as ITV could never compete with the quality of BBC entertainment,

I think By the Sword Divided limped to a second series in early 1985, after its first in autumn 1983. I seem to recall its slot swapping at the last minute with Last of the Summer Wine part of the way through its second series in 1985, presumably because of Sword's poor ratings.

Thanks, wizzywick. Yep, that Christmas night schedule looks a bit grim.

Wikipedia says 6-part Singing Detective ran from 16th Nov to 21st Dec 1986. IIRC it rated reasonably well, higher than average for that slot in those days.

Howard's Way, the BBC's answer to Dynasty, always did a good job in holding its own against the populist drama ITV put on at the same time, things like The Ruth Rendell Mystery,


At the start of 1982 BBC1 screened their 8 part costume drama Fame Is The Spur on Fridays at 8pm.

I think it left the Daily Mail outraged at the sight of bare bottom.

You ought to try Christmas Day 1988

6.30 Songs Of Praise Christmas Celebration (Xmas Day was a Sunday that year)
7.15 Bread
8.30 Russ Abbot
9.10 News
9.20 Film Premiere: Silverado (westen starring Kevein Kline)

In 1978 True Grit was on against Morecambe & Wise's first ITV Christmas show. BBC1 clearly decided not to compete with thetwo big stars of 70s Christmas TV.

Everyone always says this, why don't they just make bootcamp more interesting? Same with how it rates badly in August because it's got to start in August because of the format. If it's not working, change the format! The Voice managed to find an interesting way to narrow the contestants down, surely The X Factor can come up with something.


How the hell has that happened? It faced identical opposition to last week, it's had no extra publicity and show one was really poor so surely there's been no buzz about it. How can that have happened? Are we sure that's right?


What happened was that as the golf overran they recorded it last Sunday, presumably before it got too dark, in the hope presumably they'd be able to show it later that evening, but the golf overran so much - by more than two hours - that there was never a slot available that evening. Clearly the Beeb just didn't change the description.


Yeah, but as mentioned BBC1 is far more competitive on a Sunday now than they have been in the past. In the mid-nineties of course they were awful and that was with a schedule of Lovejoy, Birds of a Feather and another drama, Lovejoy was thrashed by Heartbeat and Birds was thrashed with You've Been Framed. The 9pm dramas were usually beaten by ITV as well and it was only the odd programme that did anything - like Keeping Up Appearances and even then they had to shuffle around the schedules and shove fillers like Hotshots in to give it a decent chance. For a while a Sunday night slot would be the kiss of death for a BBC show.

BBC1 is unique in being able to show big factual shows and I think this is the best decision they could have made. Countryfile is a hit show, there's no denying that and when Strictly returns you'll get BBC1 winning the early evening, without wasting appealing programmes.


Well, much as I've slagged off C4 in recent months, it's not really that different to Streetmate which filled plenty of Friday night slots ten years ago, and She's Gotta Have It which I used to really like. But they didn't put them opposite EastEnders, I admit. It's a shame now the 6-7pm slot is booked up all year round that light young-skewing formats can't go out at 6.30 anymore.


Well, it's not a choice in the Radio Times, presumably because it's been shoved on at the last minute, and with that in mind I wonder if many of the audience will assume it's a repeat, or are happy to watch it on one of the ten million repeats it'll get. I think the Paradise will do rather well.


Well, the last programme is awful, but then it was opposite Morecambe and Wise on ITV so they couldn't do much else. But the rest was alright, The Sound of Music was a bloody big deal, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em was the last episode ever and had been getting huge ratings that autumn and Mike Yarwood had been the previous year's top-rated show. And they also had the Gen Game at 3.20 which got the schedule off with a bang while ITV could only offer up Battle For The Planet Of The Apes. Eric and Ern won the night but up until nine BBC1 were very competitive.

So, the Christmas night 1988 schedule could be the worst, alongside 2010's worst ever Boxing night schedule!

Autumn Sundays on BBC1 used to have so much variety. Antiques Roadshow would be on at teatime rather than primetime. You'd get sitcoms and a few dramas as well as some factual. This is why I find Sunday nights on BBC1 so pitiful at the moment. It's just not good enough with endless cheap factual filler.