Originally Posted by wizzywick:
“Every year since 2012 you have said CtM shouldn't be on Christmas Day yet it performs as well as DA which apparently, according to some posters, is perfectly fine for Christmas Day!
Christmas Day has for BBC1, been a day to showcase their top shows with Christmas specials. So with that in mind, let's look at it analytically:
Strictly: BBC1's biggest entertainment show. CHECK!
Call the Midwife: BBC1's biggest drama series. CHECK!
Doctor Who: BBC1's biggest family drama. CHECK!
EastEnders: BBC1's most succesful and biggest serial drama. CHECK!
Miranda/Mrs Browns' Boys: BBC1's two biggest sitcoms. CHECK!
So, yep, considering what Christmas Day has always stood for for BBC1 programming, Call the Midwife absolutely does belong on Christmas Day. To put it on any other day would be doing the show a big disservice. Programmes don't just get Christmas Day randomly, they never have done. Shows generally earn their Christmas Day slot by status. That's how it should be.
Boxing Day has often been the day to show one off dramas or films. It is the perfect day to launch three parters and special dramas such as The Borrowers in 2011.
Putting Call the Midwife on Boxing Day would not feel right. However, Esio Trot on Boxing Day would be perfect. To determine what will be on on Christmas Day means firstly you have to determine what the biggest shows the BBC have. Work out what these shows are and you can basically come up with The Christmas Day schedule.
Come Fly With Me was a rarity for Christmas day but its stars were well known and their comedy style was familiar to the audience, and it followed the regular, known programming.”
This is what I said yesterday.
Originally Posted by pedrok:
“Call the Midwife is one programme that should be on the tv on Christmas Day in my view.
For me Christmas evening tv should be a family viewing event, that is, tv that every member of the family could sit down and watch should they wish. From 5pm right through until 9:30pm. So, something such as CtM would very much sit there.
It is the likes of Eastenders and Mrs Browns Boys that I would want to see removed from that particular schedule. I just don't think there is any place for them within a family friendly tv line up.”
Whilst I agree that perhaps EastEnders is a bit gloomy and Mrs Browns Boys is a bit cheeky, both shows belong on Christmas day, for the very reasons I stated above. In the pre-EE era of the early 1980's, Dallas, BBC1's biggest soap of the time, also featured on Christmas Day.