Well I'd start the day with a spelling bee!

Thanks for your feedback. I did post the terms of the semi final a couple of weeks ago. The semi final was created to avoid a mad frantic rush of nine players all trying to post frenetically within minutes in an end of quiz tie-break. The extra points for quickness was deliberately designed to encourage people to enter as quickly as possible, it adds more tension. As it goes, the first person to post didnt get them all correct but they werent a leader either. The second person to post got all correct and did indeed trawl through the Radio Times. The scores have slightly changed but at this moment in time it is not looking towards a situation as described in smokeycats post. I hope this gives a little assurance and I hope you are not too annoyed with me.

I will just say, that if anyone posts incorrect answers where it is clear they made no effort, I wont count their entry. I cant get fairer than that.

Okay fair enough.
Thanks for clearing that up.

Looks like this upcoming series of Sherlock may be the last

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2016-...ct-cumberbatch

The BBC won't have anything to show at this rate! Fingers crossed it won't end for good, but all things end eventually, don't they?

Well firstly and personally I cannot hear the songs without immediately recalling the henious crimes committed by both. There are hundreds of Christmas songs and I'm sure we can all get by without these particular two. Again personally, I feel (and I stress, these are my feelings) this is akin to turning a blind eye, just as many did with Saville for decades. And whilst I don't think Harris was anywhere near as evil as Saville (or Glitter) they're still evil predators. As the old saying goes, 'If I have to explain it, you'll never understand it'

I appreciate anyones rights to individual views and beliefs. However, how anyone can listen to these songs and not immediately associate what these perverts did, is incomprehensible to me. I don't see how you can get any pleasure from the song when it reminds you of what they did.

There is a difference between acknowledging the crimes of a singer during a song and banning things entirely. We are adults. We all deal with things differently. If I choose to listen to Another Rock 'n' Roll Christmas, that doesn't mean I'm condoning what Glitter did. It means I'm capable of separating the person from the song. After all, it's just a recording. It isn't the person singing it in real life, he already has sung it. It doesn't stop me recognising and condemning him as a pervert though.

We mustn't fall into the trap where censorship is king. Otherwise we'll never be allowed to think for ourselves.

It doesn't remind me of what they did. I don't associate the song with the person. I associate the person to the crimes. I tend not to dwell on every detail of everything.

In response to this and your previous post wizzy, I, like you, do not want to live in a dictatorship where we are told what we can see, hear, read, say. But unfortunately I cannot divorce the song from the man and whats more, I'm not sure I want to. I think enough has been said on the subject (especially be myself) and maybe we should move on.

With that in mind, I think somebody asked early in the thread what people would like to see at Christmas.

Personally I'd love to see a Christmas QI with SF as a guest. (i understand it's been filmed so that's not going to happen this year)

Something like this for BBC 1 Christmas Day

6.00am Christmas Cartoons
7.00am Flintstones Christmas Special
8.00am A Claymation Christmas Celebration
8.30am Looney Tunes
9.00am Yogi's First Christmas
10.00am The Nativity
11.00am Film : Miracle on 34th Street (1947)
12.40pm Christmas TV : Looking back at past Christmas TV
1.40pm Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show
2.45pm The Two Ronnies
3.45pm Film : Big Hero 6 (2014)
5.30pm The Generation Game
6.30pm Doctor Who
7.30pm Top of the Pops : Christmas Hits
9.00pm Sherlock
10.30pm Film : Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
12.30am Film : A Matter of Life and Death (1946)

I'm sure I've missed some things out, but I'd have no News on BBC1 (There's the News channel for that) and no soaps!

Orf to the tower with you - n0 Queen?

Oops!

http://1923.radiotimes.com/uploads/i...nal/119250.jpg

As we progress towards the close of this year's Quiz, here's a quick reminder for you to get your week 7 answers to me by 11.59pm on Saturday 8th October.

For those who want to enter the semi-final, there's just two days to go until the deadline passes for your answers: 9pm on Thursday October 6th.

The final week's Questions, week 8, will be posted in the usual way this coming Sunday, October 9th.

Final results and declaration of winners will be revealed on Sunday October 16th, after which, claires_dad will be the focus for the next event(s) of the Countdown thread's year! How time flies.

Anyone else think the listings pages are overdue a revamp? they have been more or less the same since Ben Preston took over.

Speaking of Ben, isn't it time he moved on ? he must be one of the longest serving modern day editors ?

I've missed this thread, it's been a while! I need to have a read through & catch up. What date does "guess the cover" open?

Normally 1st November but thinking of starting this year's on 29th October as that's a Saturday

CBeebies favourites will be dancing to The Crucible Theatre, Sheffield this November for a modern adaptation of The Nutcracker for the annual CBeebies Christmas show.

Families can join the festive fun for three performances that will star a whole host of your favourite CBeebies presenters including Justin Fletcher, Cat Sandion and Ben Faulks. Junior members of The Sheffield People’s Theatre will also have a starring role in the production.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/lat...the-nutcracker

for those who dont get True Christmas on Freeview hope this is good news

Freeview viewers in locations where there's a local TV service can now receive an additional TV channel, which is being piggy-backed on to the local TV signal.

Christmas movie channel True Christmas, which launched elsewhere on 30th September, has been added to channel 74.

Previously only available in the Manchester area on Freeview, the service, which replaced True Movies 1, is now available in most major cities across the UK, including Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Swansea and the Tyne & Wear area.

True Christmas is the home of back-to-back festive films. The channel - which routinely replaces True Movies for around three months a year - was first broadcast on Freeview in parts of the UK late last year.

There are now three extra TV channels that are broadcast alongside the local TV signal on Freeview: True Crime (channel 60), True Christmas (channel 74) and Kix (channel 127). Viewers may need to retune to gain access to the new channel. True Christmas is also available on YouView receivers on channel 74 subject to local coverage.

Sister channel True Entertainment remains on its current slot on channel 61 and is more widely available on Freeview across the UK (except from transmitters in Wales).

http://www.a516digital.com/2016/10/x...-areas-on.html

Still not available where I am !

One of the benefits of Freesat is getting True Christmas!

In attempting to research some of Wizzys semi final questions, I scrolled through the Christmas Radio Times I keep. I went back as far as 2005, although I have them back to 1999.

Flicking through those 9 or 10 copies it's pretty clear that the Christmas editions are pretty similar every year. Every copy I looked at seemed to have a major Dr Who piece. There was an interview with Judi Dench in 2 or 3 of them. Miranda Hart has appeared annually in the past 4 or 5 years. Call the Midwife appears regularly in the last few years, as does Sherlock. Strictly also makes a regular appearance.

There is also the picture quiz that appears every year, find the TV programmes hidden in the picture. Then it is onto the film reviews, followed by the daily tv listing and then the radio listing.

If I had to take off anything that would give you the dates, you would struggle to identify what Radio Times was for what year, particularly in the last 5 years.

Maybe it's the comfort in the familiarity that keeps us going back to it!

The first Christmas songs will be playing in the shops/cafes etc in just under 4 weeks time

Yes, I too have noticed how samey, bar the cover, the Xmas RT has been over the past decade. You have to go back to 1998 to actually see something that was annually different. The magic of the Christmas RT has all but gone, and whilst it is a festive tradition to buy a copy, that anticipation, the little squee of delight, the fuzzy feeling you'd get when you knew it was almost Christmas, has somehow flickered out, like a solitude, unimportant candle.