The original Taggart story was called Killer, but as Mark Mc Manus made such an impression it was quickly renamed Taggart. On New Year's Day in 1992 the series peaked with 18 million viewers.

To all those saying Vicious is not a flop I have one question - Is Citizen Khan a flop? I think you see where I am going.

Vicious/Citzen Khan/Job Lot are all flops. Big School is on the edge of floppiness.

Vicuous averaged out at 3.2 million, it's sort of not good but not a flop. To me anything below 2.5 million on a main station is a flop.

It wasn't good retention by any means, but that is an exaggeration: the fall was just short of a quarter (-24.7%), not just short of a third. The share fall was similar (-24.2%).

Hello everyone - hope all on here had a happy Xmas!

Not strictly ratings related but whilst dusting off some old VHS tapes this evening I came across an interesting BBC continuity clip of Noel Edmonds having to introduce Tom & Jerry in place of House Party from the CBBC Broom Cupboard! I think a few ratings regulars have mentioned this in the past. If I recall correctly I think it was due to a bomb scare at TVC but perhaps I'm wrong. I'm guessing it was March 1992 or 1993.

Back on topic, I'd be interested to know if that was the highest rated Tom & Jerry cartoon ever on BBC One given it was Saturday primetime.

Calling Steve Williams!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LILmH0iG_ko

If you're not getting 4-5m at 9pm on ITV/BBC1 in the overnights with minimal competition then you are flopping. I like Vicious but the ratings aren't good enough and that goes for Citizen Khan too.

That's exactly what happened and Noel's House Party was flying so high then that even a Noel's Christmas Presents repeat that night beat Blind Date.

Regan was a one off drama that Thames brought back as a series called The Sweeney.

Killer was a one off but it was so popular that it was turned into a series and called Taggart. The fact remains that when Taggart died the show and title of the show didn't.

Thanks Cylon. Bit presumptious of me to assume only Steve W would know

I still find it odd seeing Noel in the CBBC broom cupboard doing BBC One's continuity on a Saturday night!

I remember watching it and thinking how weird it looked. But with a bomb scare that musthave been one iif the few places they could go which had a camera.

I wonder what would have happened to Taggart if Mark McManus was still alive.

Overnight ratings for Vicious:

Series 1

29/04: 5.53m (23.0%) / 5.87m (24.8%)
06/05: 3.52m (16.1%) / 3.71m (17.1%)
13/05: 2.66m (11.5%) / 2.90m (12.8%)
20/05: 2.55m (11.0%) / 2.74m (12.0%)
03/06: 2.36m (10.3%) / 2.62m (11.7%)
10/06: 2.77m (12.2%) / 2.88m (12.8%)

Average: 3.232m (14.1%) / 3.453m (15.3%)

Christmas Special

27/12: 3.11m (13.9%) / 3.28m (14.7%)

As Glenn said, the first series averaged 3.2m (3.5m with +1), which was obviously "inflated" by the premiere. Of course we must include the premiere in the series average, but it is also fair to point out that the Christmas special undershot the series 1 average.

Vicious, Citizen Khan and Big School were all rated at a level where no-one would have been surprised if they had been axed.

I'm glad BBC1 and ITV will willing to give Big School and Vicious second series though I'm not sure either can pick up in the ratings.

Not entirely sure Khan merits a third series. I can't help feeling it was only re-commissioned because of its ethnicity.

Big School rated a bit better than the others (~4m) but it looks doomed to me.

How interesting. How odd. Love these little TV traditions though.



Completely agree - if both stations had other hits to choose from you'd axe them in a heartbeat, but in the current climate it's probably better to try and give an underperforming first series a second chance than start from scratch again - but if it doesn't improve over it's second run it should be axed.

Repeat runs are crucial - ITV missed a trick by not giving Vicious a 10pm repeat run off the back of Downton Abbey when they had nothing else in the slot. Then again if it's not filming till the autumn they could still do that this year.

If he was still with us Mark would be 78 years old, so I imagine he might have quit the series about 10 years ago and, therefore, it wouldn't have lasted as long as it did. (It ended in 2010). Unless the producers brought in a nephew also called Taggart to allow the series to continue.

According to wikipedia, the bomb scare was on the 6th of March 1993. And by chance I've got access to the stage archive where they produced ratings going back to the 1960's (it's fantastic!)

Here's the top 30 for each of the four channels from w/e 7 March
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3712/1...83be3865_o.png

You should read about Dinner For One in this Wikipedia entry for English comedian Freddie Frinton.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Frinton

He was 59 when he died, so probably would have called it a day by the end of the nineties. Yet the show continued to do well with a new cast, Alex Norton was like a new Taggart, until it was cut to an hour and ratings toppled.
Yet apart from being a very well made show, a massive rater in its heyday that was capable of attracting 18 million viewers.
Speaking of Scottish shows and Scottish ratings, Take The High Road in the mid eighties used to rate as highly as Eastenders in the STV and Grampian regions( in England it barely registered and was mostly confined to daytime).Odd that what most Scots came to regard as granny fodder near the end of its run, the average of a High Road viewer was 70 by 2001, was actually hugely popular for a few years.

Bet it will be really low for tonight for TV cannot find anything to watch at least I have stuff on planner.

Fascinating stuff Lewie.

Looking at the BBC One top 30, it appears T&J isn't in there - I'm assuming because it wasn't credited as a programme in its own right given it was a rushed replacement? Or it could have been amalgamated into the 11m rating for Noel's Christmas Presents. If so, that's a stonking rating for a 5-minute cartoon short!

Great stuff to see these old ratings.

Well of course we have our fair share of Christmas TV traditions here. Besides the Queen, you've got showing an episode of an otherwise axed music show every Christmas, even though there are no chart music shows on mainstream TV at any other time of year, plus showing the same Morecambe & Wise, Two Ronnies and Wallace & Gromit, not to mention all the same old Christmas films every year.

Tonight on BBC2 they are showing the Turkey Dinner episode of Dad's Army. I would like to bet this is the most repeated episode of any British sitcom on terrestrial TV. Anyone think of any other single episodes that has been repeated more times? ( Excluding repeats on Dave etc)

That's great Lewie! Will that source fill in the gaps you were asking about for Christmas in the late 1980s? I haven't gone back into that yet: alcohol + ratings research don't mix!


Currently BARB do not include programmes of less than 5 minutes' duration in their public charts, so that could be why. Everything that goes out is logged and submitted to BARB by the broadcasters, so the rushedness as such wouldn't be the reason.

Ha! Sadly it doesn't. There is a top 10 for 1988 which is sadly full of Neighbours episodes.

It's a brilliant resource though, shame I only have it for a week. Frantically trying to copy down as much stuff as I can.

Reports coming in that Doctor Who Christmas Ep had an appreciation Index AI of 83 - one of the lowest in the Matt Smith era. Apparently MBB and CTM were both 87.

http://www.doctorwhonews.net/2013/12...ce=twitterfeed