The viewers never did have a probem. The BBC Trust ordered a review of the daytime schedules only after they came in for scathing criticism from a young, thrusting New Labour MP called James Purnell: http://www.theguardian.com/media/org...music-campaign

As a result of the Trust's review, the daytime controller made a pledge that there would no longer be more than two shows of the same genre (e.g. antiques) on any one single day.

Interestingly, James Purnell is no longer an MP.

He's Director of Strategy for the BBC.

Regarding the World Cup, I notice that after the first 2 rounds of the group stages, the last part of the group stage and all the knockout stages will air at 5pm and 9pm (rather than 5,8 & 11).

This means for a few weeks there will only ever be one news bulletin at 10pm, with the other one airing after 11pm. With the prospect of the knock out stages having extra time, that could be pushed back after 1130pm with the regional news airing after Midnight!

It'll also mean that there should be more room for soaps every night in the extra hour they gain in the middle. This year's World Cup is pretty much perfect scheduling from a time zone perspective, with no matches in daytime.

Interesting that all those figures across all channels both weeks are within 1% of last year, that is except for the week ending 25 May where BBC1 gained 3% at the expense of Others which lost 3%. I wonder if there is any particular reason for that.

He rather blotted his copybook with the Labour Party by resigning from the Cabinet almost exactly five years ago, on the night of the local and European elections, to try to destabilise the premiership of Gordon Brown.

.

You're not wrong. You pointed op.ut Homes Under The Hammer and Bargain Hunt to me being on all the time. They NEVER take a break outside of Christmas. I think when BBC1 were losing to ITV they just kept trying more things until something worked.

Homes Under The Hammer and Bargain Hunt are fixed points but because the programmes in between change regularly it makes the morning schedule feel more varied.

I think it's just a coincidental quirk of the figures. Nothing really sticks out on the multichannels or on BBC One that suggests a particular reason for a shift in primetime share from the former to the latter.

"Others" were up about two points in daytime (09:30-18:00) year-on-year, down three points in primetime as mentioned, and in all hours (including late night/early morning) were down by just a point. So these daypart figures can bounce around a bit.

I am a little wary of these Broadcast figures though, as they show a primetime share for ITV in BGT week last year of just 20.6%, which cannot be right as the performance show was up in the high-30s to mid-40s on five nights that week, the results show on low-to-mid-30s, plus four Corries in the mid-to-high 30s (that is without tape-checking). So we should take these figures with a pinch of salt.

When the magazine comes out later this week I can look at the primetime shares they give for w/e 1 June 2014 and w/e 2 June 2013 and see if there's been a correction for the latter.

Sally Wainwright was just the lead writer on itv's "Scott and Bailey" crime drama series. It was created by Sally Lindsey and Surrane Jones so they will work with itv over the writing behind it. They persuaded Wainwright to become involved after working with her on "Coronation Street" and lamenting the lack of serious roles for women on television. I think we are seeing a change here with Wainwrights work. "Last Tango in Halifax" and "Happy Valley" have promoted women into the lead roles. The sharp writing and inclusion of Lancashire and family life, observation on how people actually speak to each other makes me think how poor the soaps have become though. This is actually drama that is powerful and well rehersed and performed.

Bit like 1994, this, when in the group stages matches kicked off at 5.30pm, 9pm and 12.30am. The Beeb put a number of their group stage matches on BBC2 so they could show the news at nine, while ITV ended up putting the news on at 11.15 when they had a 9pm game. Those were the days they didn't show every game, of course. The huge advantage of that was that ITV didn't have to move Coronation Street at all.

ITV's coverage of that World Cup was notoriously bad, with the hapless Matthew Lorenzo in charge and dreadful pundits like Don Howe and their ridiculous Dallas bunker set (with no windows, so it could have been anywhere), with Lorenzo chosen as the scapegoat and immediately replaced after the tournament. One of their other mistakes was to massively front-load the tournament so they got first choice in the group stages and then let the Beeb had first choice in all the other rounds, meaning in the semi-finals the Beeb got the match that kicked off at 9pm (with the news at 8.30) and ITV had the match that kicked off at 12.30am.

David Jason has just said on Lorraine that he will be (hopefully) filming a new series of Open All Hours in August. Looks like its definitely happening and I'm predicting that the first episode will be shown either on Christmas Day or Boxing Day

Oh dear I will have to find a new name for Britain's Got No Talent then.

Still think it would be better to wait for September 2016 for the Great Fire since that would be the 350th Anniversary, why they are doing it 2 years early is a puzzle.

If they film August the series will be 2015?

The tactic didn`t produce the desired results but surely few would argue that Brown was a leader worth keeping? Purnell was right on that score.

I think we could see a January or February air date. Who knows? Shouldn't take that long to film a series.

I remember series 3 of Miranda was recorded around September-October 2012 and was shown over Christmas time, maybe the same will happen with Open All Hours?

I actually like the stupid names people make up sometimes they are funny, I think people need to lighten up. Never has a made up name been more appropiate than that one either - IMO of course.

UK TV Ratings ‏@TVRatingsUK 1m
Acclaimed @BBCOne drama #HappyValley ended with 6.18m/28.0% last night, making it yesterday's most watched programme.

Excellent for Happy Valley! Way off my 7m target but never mind. An exceptional piece of drama.

I was hoping for a bit more, but it should consolidate well at least. A solid rating for an excellent programme!

Great rating, the clash must have really hurt the soaps!

It depends whether your a troll or not I suppose. Whether you are making up names in spite and bitterness towards a channel. Most I imagine make it as a joke, while others (not naming anyone) just do it as another form of bashing a channel.

Boredchurch - as one of the worst names to be made up, it was clearly not boring.

Great rating, and very well deserved.

James Norton was on GMB today and talking about the possibility of 2nd series plus being cast in ITV's new major drama Granchester playing a priest.

BBC1
TOS - 3.6m
EE - 4.9m
Holby - 4.1m
Happy Valley - 6.2m
News - 4.5m

ITV (+1 figs in brackets)
Emmerdale - 5.7m (5.9m)
Quads - 2.9m (3.2m)
Secret Life of Babies 2.6m (2.9m)
News - 1.7m (1.8m)

BBC2
Springwatch - 2.2m
Welcome to Rio - 1.3m
QI - 1.3m


C4
Location Location - 1.3m (1.5m)
The Complainers - 1.1m (1.3m)

C5
Dog Rescuers - 1m (1.1m)
CSI - 1m (1.2m)


BBC Breakfast - 1.6m
GMB - 600,000

Great rating - not many 6 part dramas increase their ratings across a series. Better than that I really enjoyed it.

Or in the case of Britain's Got No Talent just stating a fact.

That's a very poor rating for EE, in recent clashes it's been much closer to Emmerdale.

ED didn't do very well either though.

Thats a dreadful rating for Eastenders.