Dickensian should be easier to move as each ep is half hour. They could also start doing double bills so its only on once a week rather than having two nights with a low rating show on

That always would happen as long the show is on air, Most of the comments will get deleted now.

Good job the BBC changed their original plan of having Dickensian at 8pm and EastEnders at 8.30 last night.

Last night's episode makes up for not having one last Thursday at 7.30, and probably rated higher than it would have on New Year's Eve.

Yes I had my doubts when the idea was being mentioned here and there last year. There are probably too many people who don't like the idea of great fiction being further fictionalised. Arguably that was one of Atlantis problems too. Personally I think the BBC will let it play out.

So do I, the figure last night was pretty bad, buthe up to now it's been posting decent enough overnights and consolidated numbers- It feels Christmassy though, so running into the new year has been a mistake imo (2 batches of 10, one for thus Xmas one for next would be better

The irony is it seemed to get completely lost launching at christmas. Yes it consolidated ok at first but it could have done a lot better.

I'd have done a short series say 60 min x 3 and if it was a smash hit then consider a 20 part twice weekly serial.

They got ahead of themselves and will now have to burn it off.

Indeed. Clearly not enough viewers find it an Old Curiosity


I'll get my coat

They probably had to give it a decent length of run to let it actually fulfil its purpose though. If it only had three hours they'd only have managed to play out a couple of decent storylines with characters from two or three books. Which would totally defeat the point of a Dickensian soap and leave them none the wiser as to whether the concept actually worked.

For what it's worth, I can understand what they tried with the scheduling - serving up a couple of double bills to try and help people get a grasp of a big cast of characters quickly. It hasn't worked, but I don't think any other scheduling pattern would have either. I'm glad they tried though - good to see something a bit daring on a pre-watershed weekday. But I think the series itself just turned out a bit flat in execution and didn't quite live up to the potential of the idea.

Although Dickensien is flopping, it's a much better programme for the BBC to trial than yet another 'secrets of how to save money or eat healthier at a supermarket with Greg Wallace' style show that often fills midweek pre watershed.

Going straight in with 20 episodes was a bit of a risk though.

Scheduling them all over the place even more of a risk. Running them nightly at 7pm instead of Celebrity Mastermind and The One Show for a couple of weeks may have been more likely to find a regular audience.

In other news, great rating for Midsomer Murders, must be one of the highest for ages, I'm sure it's usually in the 4's, and it was up against EastEnders as well.

But there was two on nyd so that made up for nye. Theres 5 episode this week so still an extra episode ?

The news was strong again last night

BBC1

6:00pm BBC News at Six 5.97m (32.0%)
6:30pm Regional News and Weather 6.62m (34.0%)

10:00pm BBC News at Ten 4.59m (25.0%)

ITV

6:00pm ITV Regional News 4.16m (22.0%)
6:30pm ITV Evening News 4.05m (21.0%)

Have you got any numbers for 5 News with Sian Williams?

No sorry, this is from ITV Media.

hope eastenders rates well tonight, been a great week...

Hope ED rates well tonight, been a great week .

Both soaps have had a great week and both ended on good cliffhanger to get viewers back for the next ep

yes, emmerdale has been strong too

Just Corrie trailing behind..........as usual. But hopefully that will soon change.

It was incredible tonight.

Fair to say the reaction to tonight's EastEnders was rather mixed, actually. Personally can't believe they brought back Charlie Slater just to kill him off! Actually I can, because it's EastEnders.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/e...laters-7136894

Good for the ITV soaps last night.

Emmerdale up 0.6m y-o-y, Corrie up 0.3m and EE dead level. That's a comparison excluding +1 versus the equivalent 2015 episodes.

it's had a great reaction online, that's some tabloid trash taking a few tweets and turning it into a main opinion...

I don't watch EE but it was all over Twitter. I reckon 8.1m

don't think it will be that high! It was also split into two episodes so i think it will be around 7.4m for the first ep, 6.8m for the second...

I'm hoping Death In Paradise beats them both.