I dont get that, your the head of commissioning at the BBC, you should have a mail box full of show ideas, every single day, how is it that Animal Antics is the best of that bunch.

Why is the head of commissioning, simply not giving feedback like "this is not worth the licence fee" to shows like Animal Antics I have no idea.

But that you don't like the show doesn't mean that nobody will like the show. Quality is a subjective thing and I think quality early evening on a Saturday night is incredibly subjective. Animal Antics is clearly a show aimed at younger viewers (I can tell this because there's a man in a dog costume co-hosting) and I think on that front, a slice of CBBC on BBC1 essentially, its an infinite improvement on Don't Scare The Hare. Its designed to be cheap silly entertainment and I think it works well enough on that front.

It's next Sunday.

The first series of Doctor Beeching went out on Mondays at 8.30 opposite ITV current affairs and did quite well. But the sitco was so-so and came a cropper in series 2 when facing tougher competition on a Sunday.

6.30 on a Sunday is not a rubbish slot. Countryfile aired in that slot in the autumn and attracted good ratings. Blandings suits that slot. It's gentle PG Wodehouse humour.

if its to be viewed as "CBBC on BBC 1" why not brand it as such.

Im sorry but 30 minute of YouTube clips, is just not worthy of the licence fee, the point of the licence fee, is not created new content, not to leech off of YouTube.

I wonder how many of the clips featured, were filmed on something besides a mobile phone, and could be classed as even 720p

That happened a long time ago.

Ken

Had this been 1993 and Animal Antics was getting 15 million viewers I would say it was passable, but its old hat poor cheap filler for primetime Saturday night. I think they could do better.

Danny Cohen has already said this isn't the case though. For example he pointed out that he was getting many more sitcoms when he was at BBC3 than the number he gets at BBC1. If the pitches and the shows aren't there then no one can commission them. And people got up in arms when the BBC looked to rectify this by buying in a format from overseas (The Voice). And beyond this different shows are commissioned to fill different slots and fill different needs.

LOL - so true. The best we might get is "this could work as one episode of a multi-episdoe strand doing loads of sports" and lead to a revival of The Games on C4, who frankly could do with it now - but have probably missed the boat by a year.


Sadly though unlike all us armchair controllers and schedulers they also have a budget to deal with too - so it's not simple a case of getting the best shows to air. It's about filling the airtime at a certain price, that price being about £2.50 for half an hour of early Saturday peak it seems.

Bla,bla,bla. That argument is so old. Find another. Yes it was crap but so is that argument.

It's as if this has tuned into the daily mail thread. No. We talk about ratings not the bloody licence fee.



Ken

David Croft sat on all the negative feedback from the studio audience for the first episode of Dad's Army and a comedy clasic was born. Maybe history will repeat itself. Maybe in 40 years time BBC2 will be showing classic episodes of Animal Antics as part of their Saturday night schedule. (followed by Nick Knowles: The Many Faces Of...)

Indeed if they were trying to bury the Blandings, then I don't think they would have promoted it so much.

I am not against the BBC buying in formats, as that is really no differnt to buying in a show from an independent production company, better to bring in a good format, than commission, something like Animal Antics.

As far as im concerned if the pitches are not there, dont commission, and then look at why that is not the case, look at what your getting, and see if there is something you can learn from those.

Cohen finding success with Miranda and Mrs Browns Boys, should help in that respect.

I don't know I'm not in charge of scheduling BBC1 but that Animal Antics/Richard Hammond thing... is a CBBC on BBC1 pairing though. And I'd suggest the Hammond vehicle is more objectionable.

In general I think you're being overly harsh on Animal Antics. Certainly it isn't great but there are numerous other and more worthy targets on the BBC1 schedule (and the Saturday night schedule at that) which this can be aimed at. Antics is basically harmless cheap filler. In an ideal world maybe the BBC wouldn't be making it but we aren't in an ideal world and there are much, much bigger issues that should be tackled before there's even a discussion about Animal Antics.

I can't help but think that the outrage that would follow the BBC just not commissioning anything (and plugging holes with repeats) would probably be greater than them commissioning Animal Antics...

Whilst I dont agree that its enough simply to say that "the argument is old" is invalid, fair enough, I wont repeat myself further. I was asked to give my view on the BBC 1 line up, and I have.


at least with Dads Army, they bothered to film 30 minutes worth of footage, not 5 minutes, and a load of voice over.

ok fair enough, the BBC cant plug all the wholes with repeats, but I cant help but feel, the BBC should be doing better.

Erm...Splash! was alright but there's a lot of problems that need ironing out.

I can't help but think that perhaps just having 8 contestants who all dive each week with one elimination (like XF, SCD etc) might've worked better. With an extra week you could've had three in the final and it would allow for a more consistent format and viewer connection with the celebrities. It's all very well tonight having the judges saying 'they've come so far', 'I'm in tears' (as if), 'it's been such a long journey' but it all feels very forced and very fake. By having a rolling format, we'd at least actually get to see their journey week in, week out and gain favourites.

Also didn't like how different celebrities were diving off different boards, that seemed kind of unfair. With a rolling format you could've had them starting off on the 3 metre, 5 metre the second week, 7.5 metre the third and the 10 metre on the fourth (quarter-final). And then in the final the last three could've had one dive off of every platform.

It's a decent idea and no less stupid than making celebrities skate, it just needs a fair bit of work. The figures should be interesting, could be 2.7m, then again it could be 4.3m.

Splash! was silly but quite entertaining; now catching up on Britain's Brightest. Interested to see the numbers tomorrow!

I don't think there are many formats out there any more. It's a hard job. But the thing is you cant spend unlimited amounts of money. Fillers are useful. I don't think it's a waste of money though. There will be someone out there who enjoyed it.

I watched a bit of splash and it wasn't to bad. It suffered from teething problems but it doesn't deserve to flop. Britain's Brightest I thought was okay. Not amazing but I will probably tune in next week.

LE is difficult. I think LE departments need to change track because it's looking stale. Where are the Variety shows now? The only Light Entertainment we have now is talent shows.

Ken

Two problems I have with AA

1) The bloke in the dog suit is beyond silly. Surely even kids won't find that funny. If it had been a dog puppet.... But possibly the BBC were influenced by that American sitcom on BBC3 that features someone playing a dog (I forget what it's called)

2) one of the few clips I saw was a dog sticking its head out of a car window having its face blown in the wind. I think I must have seen that clip about a dozen times on You've Been Framed! So really, the same clip turning up on AA just annoys me.

I don't disagree.

The BBC really should be doing better and actually if they're going to essentially do CBBC on BBC1 on Saturday night I can't help feeling that airing something like The Dumping Ground might be a more effective use of the slot. I was always slightly surprised that Sarah Jane never really ended up in that slot or early Sunday evenings. Even just narrative repeats of the CBBC stuff would have been better and potentially exposed those shows to a greater audience and maybe won them some PR points after ditching weekday CBBC on BBC1.

In fairness to the BBC as I mentioned before I do think Animal Antics is a drastic improvement on Don't Scare The Hare and no doubt a hell of a lot cheaper. So that's some form of progress I suppose. Also its not as if they're giving the impression that this is something they're especially proud of.

I never thought a filler clip show on BBC1 would generate so much comment...

Realistically they could get the whole thing done in one show. At the end of the day it was about one minutes actual action spread over 90 minutes, must be a record.

Well Splash has had over 1,000 comments on here...

It's all very well saying that but a commissioners job is to commission - if they go back to their boss and say they'll have to screen the testcard for 30 minutes then they're not doing their job. Although if they approach them with "Celebrity Testcard" they'd probably get a five series commission.