I'd love it if the new episodes of Jonathan Creek were shown on Saturday nights after Casualty - it wouldn't feel right if the show wasn't on a Saturday night, that is its home! However I get the feeling they'll stick it on Sundays at 9pm. The BBC don't really show drama after Casualty on a Saturday anymore. In the past Casualty was on earlier, but now it airs after 9pm (when dramas like Jonathan Creek, Murder in Mind, Jekyll would be shown).

I predict both dramas will do well tonight. The summer is nearly over, and people will want something good to watch. 10m for Vera anyone?

An impressive list of names but none of them would drive people to tune in on their name alone. They could all present the Lottery show in place of Nick K or Dale and it would not make any difference. That's what is missing. Its either the big modern format(X Factor/SCD) that makes people tune in or, to an extent, Ant and Dec. There needs to be a bit more than being a presenting link. They need to search for the extra spark.

It will be interesting to see if the Michael Mcintyre idea gets past the drawing board. He is the only stand- up who is probably at ease with a family audience and has BGT behind him- even if he is a bit marmite. A live house party style extravaganza at the start of the year maybe would at least generate a bit more buzz than eight more weeks of In it to Win it. And it would be more than someone just announcing the next contestant or guest.

I see that having Dougie Colon on This Morning so that Eammon and Ruth could interview him as a top TV presenter really worked....

For ITV anyhow.

The dream for Generation Game would be Ant and Dec presenting.

That would clean up on any channel.

Perhaps the BBC should ask ITV to produce it so they can 'loan' them?

Not going to happen, sadly.

And so do the BBC, Rip Off Britain and the like do perfectly well. How are these "daytime type programming" and the likes of The Dales, Cornwall with Caroline Quentin and so on not? Daytime ITV has plenty of those programmes like Ade In Britain and Saturday Farm. Same exact thing. ITV have plenty of consumer shows in those slots too, like Martin Lewis.


The old too many cookery shows chestnut, as heard on Points of View every five minutes. It's amazing how easy it is not to have to watch cookery shows. At the moment BBC1 are showing repeats of Nigel Slater because they're cost-effective programming in a crappy slot in midsummer. And Masterchef is hardly a bona fide here's-one-I-made-earlier cookery show, it's factual entertainment along the same lines as The Apprentice.

In the past broadcasters would run series once a week for thirteen weeks or so. These days series last the same length of time but are shown a couple of times a week over a briefer period.

It's ludicrous to suggest slots opposite Corrie have ever been a hotbed of originality, in the eighties and nineties it was equally cheap filler and programmes sent there to die like Tomorrow's World, Doctor Who and Top of the Pops. Probably the last series to do anything in a 7.30 slot was Watchdog twenty years ago, which got promoted out of it. People complain BBC1 have too much filler at 9pm, there'd be a lot more of it if they were having to spend more money at 7.30 when there's a much smaller audience about.


I don't know what your issue is with pilots, they've got to make them regardless. If they then decide to televise them as well, so be it. Every channel does umpteen pilots, it's only C4 that tends to broadcast them on a regular basis. And Chickens is hardly taking a risk, the cast of The Inbetweeners in a show where they're basically playing the same characters.




The Dawson Bros have also contributed to many other successful programmes, and they are just two of the writers of That Puppet Game Show. Big School is also co-written by the very famous and successful comedy writer and performer David Walliams.

To say the BBC can't find the writers anymore is a massive overexaggeration. Last Christmas four BBC1 sitcoms got enormous ratings in Miranda, The Royle Family, Mrs Brown and Outnumbered. OK, so it's not the huge number we had in the eighties but in previous Christmasses the comedy output consisted of various Last Ever Episodes of The Vicar of Dibley or Only Fools and virtually nothing else. Then you've got Peter Kay's new sitcom* and Matt Lucas' new series so clearly BBC1 are trying plenty and they're in a far better place than they were three or four years ago.

* Thrilled to see the Peter Kay repeat do virtually nothing because surely that suggests they might finally be overdoing them. Of course the McIntrye repeats on BBC1 are almost as bad (though they're not from 2001, nor the centrepiece of the evening), and excited to see that in just three weeks on Comedy Roadshow John Bishop has gone from a new act to top of the bill.


Very good. No column inches at all about Sharon Osborne in the build-up to The X Factor, are there, it's all about last year's winner, whatsisname.


The Top 100 tells us that Monday's got 3.14 million and Friday's got 3.07 million. Though as we know, the Friday episode certainly isn't always the lowest rated, before anyone plays the Evans card again, because Friday's Emmerdale is also the lowest rated.


I hadn't noticed that. Christ almighty, this magazine is sloppy. I had noticed the BBC Studios ad which in huge letters promises that "we'll ensure you're show happens in style".


What would be wrong with Alex Jones doing Blind Date?She's a pleasant and popular personality, I like her. Davina does plenty of light entertainment and she hardly spent two decades treading the boards on the music halls, did she? She started as a model. Exactly the same as Alex Jones.

And when Noel arrived on Saturday nights loads of people slagged him off, and the BBC had worries about him, because he wasn't an established light entertainer like Brucie or Tarby but a DJ and presenter. So that's hardly a very good example.

The reason Casualty is after nine these days, of course, is because there's often drama before it like Who or Merlin or indeed Atlantis. So you can have dramas at 9pm on Saturdays, but you'd have to lose the dramas at 7pm.

The problem is that Ant and Dec have never shown any inclination to move elsewhere after they were handcuffed to ITV. They aren't even allowed out to do Comic Relief these days. I suppose they have enormous wealth and three of the biggest gigs on tv. I still think their best years are ahead of them. Takeaway is great entertainment but I doubt they will want to do such a frenetic show forever. The only way the will work for the BBC is if they subsequently want a different challenge. Somehow I don't think they have that kind of mindset.

I don't see Ant and Dec leaving either.

I was only being semi serious about ITV helping the BBC out by allowing them to do this under ITV control. On loan sort of.

The BBC could reciprocate by letting Brucie do a follow up to Paul O'Grady's dogs - maybe 'Brucie's Retirement Homes' ?

I see Carole McGiffin is the first casualty of the Loose Women changes - jumping before being pushed or just not into the new format changes and 3 month trial contract being proposed? Either way not coming back when it returns on Sep 9.

Quite possibly not the last,

Not even in jest!

A good format is always key but a good host is just as vital. Alex Jones could never be as good as Cilla on any show Cilla did.


She'll be back.

Now what we have here, barring Chris Evans and Graham Norton, are adequate presenters, we don't have enough entertaining entertainment presenters. Noel, Cilla, Barrymore (before he lost it) and Brucie at their peaks wipe the floor with every single name in this list. None of them have that extra something to raise a show from a good one to a very good one. They all have a lack of wit needed to be an entertainment presenter.

I did understand, but on the basis that people to move/work for different channels it can never be completely out of the question.

They could do Strictly, they could do a renewed Generation Game-and a sketch based entertainment show. I just think maybe the grass isn't greener (enough) here and that they are too well served with IAC/BGT/SNT as well as perhaps not being adventurous in the way most actors are in wanting to try different roles.

Or a celeb version of a popular daytime show for Sunday evenings .... "Brucie's Retirement Homes Under The Hammer"

found out that itv are releasing the downton abbey full trailer on saturday 31st. Hopefully means we will get an autumn drama trailer this week? Also hoping bbc releases one soon?

How did Xtra Factor do last night?

When do you think ITV will eventually air Deathly Hallows? I'm thinking over two consecutive nights - before the X Factor final on the Saturday and Sunday (they don't have to worry about it starting too early as it's the winter, and people will be inside at teatime).

BBC1's problem like other channels is that they need these shows to be around more as regular series than just specials. But this is tougher when you have sitcoms reliant on one or two writers a series.


Seriously?

Alex Jones is a competent presenter, she isn't a competent entertaining presenter. No presence as an LE presenter, no quick wit. Davina is light years better than her and always had presence during her MTV years and various ITV shows. Cilla was given Blind Date after impressing LWT bosses when they saw her get interviewed on Wogan. She was witty and entertaining. Alex Jones isn't close. I like her but not as a Saturday evening presenter. Reminds me of the story about some TV exec watching Mork & Mindy and he said they should make a show with Mindy.


Noel was still a hit on Saturday mornings with Swap Shop and on Radio 1 winning many awards for both. He already had a quick wit. Wogan was just the same and the BBC gave him shows in the 70s. Then Blankety Blank became a huge hit.

Terrible examples to put Noel, Cilla and Davina on the same level as Alex.

No. As I've said before. Hallows 1 & 2 will not be shown before 7pm.

Maybe across the weekend of December 28th & 29th?

Or if they have to wait until 2014 for Hallows 2, then maybe Easter weekend?

Maybe. I don't think it follows that they are going to have both films for broadcast at the same time. Hallows 1 has left Sky Movies, whilst Hallows 2 is still being shown.

I disagree with that, not least because Alex Jones has already done a Saturday night show in Let's Dance and did a perfectly acceptable job of it. Game For A Laugh was a huge hit in the eighties and Sarah Kennedy came straight off regional news bulletins. Ulrika was another one, she was a weathergirl who read off the autocue. Certainly she had an easier job than Alex dealing with all the odds and sods you get on The One Show.

It's not as if Davina can rescue any old format anyway, He's Having A Baby was a huge, huge flop, Reborn In The USA another. Davina couldn't help that out. And Alex has only been on national telly for three years, at this stage in Davina's career she wasn't on primetime ITV, she was doing things like Streetmate on C4 and God's Gift at one in the morning.

I also like Alex's hair and clothes. That goes a long way.

BBC1 could fit mkore dramas in on Saturday nights if Casualy wasn't on for 40 weeks a year. Casualty is wallpaper and gets a solid 4/5m. But imagine that BBC1 just tried something else there for a few weeks and it could get an even bigger audience. That's what they should be doing.

Alex Jones was adequate on Let's Dance as was Steve Jones. Neither were entertaining. The quality of formats is one thing but as I said before the quality of LE hosts isn't good at the moment.

An entertaining presenter is an entertaining presenter. No matter how much experience Alex Jones has she'll be more experienced but won't be more entertaining. Davina has that, Cilla had that, Noel had that. I don't think Alex ever will.

Alex Jones is like Gaby Roslin and Fearne Cotton. Good presenter but not a good witty, entertaining presenter. That is the quality you need to be a good LE presenter. They shouldn't be anywhere near light entertainment programmes as hosts only as guests.

I wouldn't even call her a good presenter. You're right in that she's not witty or entertaining. She's on TV as much as she is because she's pretty.

She is competent but anybody that thinks Alex Jones is the future of light entertainment probably watches Marx Brothers movies for Zeppo.

Hallows 1 will certainly be available before 2, but I think they should hold 1 back and premiere them together, or at least repeat 1 the week or night before the 2 premiere.

Well Brucie has travelled between BBC and ITV over the years, he's probably best known for his BBC work, but also had massive success on the other side with You Bet, Play Your Cards Right and Sunday Night af the London Palladium.

Ant & Dec won't go because they can't take their ITV formats with them except Takeaway. BGT and I'm A Celebrity are huge and they wouldn't want to give those shows up.

But Ant and Dec are only 37 - going by Sir Bruce they might have another 50 years left in them. Have BGT and IAC both got even another five years in them? I doubt it. Ant and Dec are not going to be at ITV forever.