If they've started filming Grantchester now I'm not sure they'll all be ready by January. Probably by March but this is just guesswork.

11pm is never a good slot for a drama, 5 wouldn't have put the last episode there so if it was doing well.

Channel 5 have done double bills for 10pm dramas before, and no one's called for the axe.....

Yes, I don't think Grantchester will be ready by January. I think it'll probably get March like this year.

I think in January they'll have Broadchurch, Tennison, Midsomer Murders and Benidorm running on weeknights. If I was ITV, I'd go with Broadchurch on Mondays and Benidorm on Fridays. Then I'd put Midsomer Murders on Thursdays rather than Wednesdays. Reason being is that it seems like there won't be a full series of Birds of a Feather in Q1 and Wednesday is the only night in January that BBC1 doesn't usually play drama. So I'd put Tennison on Wednesdays, with Midsomer on Thursdays at 8pm (with the two Emmerdales merged to one hour long ep).

Then in March they could have Grantchester, Unforgotten and Loch Ness. I notice they've got quite a lot of crime drama next year after going with some different genres this year that haven't all worked out. There's also the new 6 parter they announced this week (Fearless) and a few shorter series (including Safe House). Further to that they've bought the Lethal Weapon series debuting on FOX in September. It remains to be seen whether ITV will also start it in the Autumn or wait until early next year.

Not sure what they'll do on Sundays. There's Vera and Endeavour but also the new 8 part period drama The Halcyon. Plus The Voice may possibly have a presence on Sundays. Then come Spring The Durrells will be back. To me, an obvious pairing is to put The Durrells at 8pm into The Good Karma Hospital at 9pm. They seem somewhat compatible and I think it could work.

I forgot about Lethal Weapon, I'd be surprised if it gets a plum weekday slot, I could see airing at 2215 on Sundays after the news or possibly Fridays

I could see them trying it at 9pm on either Tuesdays (worth a go in the flopzone) or Fridays. Possibly later on Saturdays but it wouldn't be the sort of thing they'd normally do there. Although if it bombs in the US it won't get a good slot as there'd be no point.

The Deal or no Deal axing was reported in here weeks ago. So either someone guessed right or it was decided a while back.

As I recall they said then there is still a set of shows to air that were filmed over a year ago (that alone indicating it was a goner, I think).

Also there was mention of finding a vehicle for Noel Edmonds to replace it that was not a quiz show but some kind of other format involving working with the public. Sounded a bit like the show he did on Sky at Christmas a few years back.

Noel has been filming pilots for a new Channel 4 show.

Secrets of the SAS - very promising indeed, great to see this in the schedule.

BattleBots - a very savvy pick up that will fit in well on Spike.

Criminal Minds: Suspect Behaviour - could be a bit of a dud but probably dirt cheap, if only they could get the first or second run rights to the original and Beyond Borders.

Yes, I just read the press release and one of the things that seems to be coming is a 30 x 60 minute show - Cheap, Cheap, Cheap sounds like a gift to reviewers!

Set in an eccentric general store with quirky staff serving and where contestants guess the cheapest item to try to win large cash sums.

Sounds a little like The Price is Right meets Are You Being Served?

I also see that to say farewell to DOND they are doing a series of on the road episodes at the end of the year filmed at famous British landmarks.

This weeks episode of Suspects had a very low rating of 320k in the overnights.

That's the overnights, not the consolidated. I reiterate, it consolidates very well.

Let's hope they do one at the Seven Sisters cliff near the edge during a storm then.

Radio Times has already reported the first Sherlock will be on New Year's Day

The whole of tonight's Women's Hockey Final featuring Team GB will be on BBC1 tonight. Therefore the News has been pushed back to 10.30 (but might well be later than that). QI now on BBC2 at 10 with Newsnight at 11.

I really like the sound of Loch Ness. Its good to see further investmet in draa. It feels like they have more on the way than BBC1. I remember in 2014 the list of BBC1 drama V ITV was such a contrast.

I think ITV should put Vera opposite Sherlock early next year as it would be the best drama to put up a fight against the BBC drama.

Also interesting more i.e. Gratchester at Christmas. My guess is this will go on Xmas Day or Boxing Day replacing DA.

If Cold Feet does well this year, then its a dead cert there will be a christmas special next year.

On a different note, have you heard whether Doc Martin will be back again? I'm guessing it will, but do you think the next series should be a final series, with a Christmas special next year as a finale piece? It feels like it should start to wrap up?

So I've just read on DS that Victoria will air on Monday nights after its Sunday launch. Despte facing Poldark, I'm not sure its going to do that well on a Monday, seeing as it feels so much like a Sunday drama. With this happening I think that Cold Feet will be on Sunday's at 9pm now, most probably as a way on enticing the youngr viewers of TXF to watch and introduce it it to a new generation.

The provisionals for 3rd to 9th September have it on Sunday, not Monday.

The confirmed scheduling for week one seems to have an air of panic about it, firstly bringing it forward from mid-September, then whacking an extra episode out the following night.

I'd have stuck to what worked best for Abbey: mid-September start, one episode a week, Sunday nights.

Iv been to Highland area many times so I will be looking forward to that. Searching for a serial killer though does seem same old same old.

You think a two night launch for Victoria might not have been the plan all along?

I'm not sure whether it was always planned for the Bank Holiday launch or if it was originally planned for mid-September but it's definitely a bit odd. I get that they want to get in before Poldark but it seems a risky way to launch it. If the weather isn't on their side it could be pretty bad. I think it'll stay on Sundays as in the provisionals.

Of course, it started filming around October/November time last year and presumably will again if it gets renewed so perhaps they want a good few episodes to have aired before they give the green light.

The scheduling leaves room for their 4 part Tutankhamun drama to go on Sundays before I'm a Celebrity starts, although as I say I'm not sure that was always the plan.

I wouldn't put Grantchester on Christmas Day. It just wouldn't do what it could do elsewhere. But then that applies to anything they put there I guess. I'd be tempted to go with entertainment rather than drama and then juggle Grantchester, Maigret, Birds and Vicious around BBC1's plans. Not sure what else they've got lined up. My ideal show for the big day would probably be a Christmas Night Takeaway as I think it'd tap into a decent audience, but it seems unlikely, particularly with Ant & Dec busy doing I'm a Celeb in the run up to Christmas. A Cold Feet special next year does seem plausible.

I think it was reported last year that Doc Martin will be back, but I'd agree that it should be looking to wrap up. Plus, if Cold Feet does well it will probably have nicked Doc Martin's slot.

Very early indications are for a hot Bank Holiday weekend. Tv companies I think would rather swap this weekend for next(perhaps not the Beeb). Its a bit of a gamble launching anything that weekend to be honest-catch up or no catch up. We could see some very low overnights.

Britains Olympians providing story after story after story -its astonishing really, and the BBC lapping it up. All this with the flagship Olympic sport shoved out of the picture in the small hours for us-hardly seems to matter that our performance there has almost been also ran.

I can see the point, although I think Suspects is an exceptionally cheap drama to produce, I thought part of its USP was that it was made very quickly using documentary techniques.

The Olympic factor is something, and you can probably see why ITV decided to make no effort whatsoever during the games for that reason. It sort of reminds me a bit of C5's first ever drama series, the legal drama A Wing And A Prayer, which they started in the autumn of 1997. They showed it on Monday nights at 10pm (a cushy slot for the smaller channels in those days while BBC1 showed Panorama and ITV showed News at Ten), it got a reasonable audience and got nominated for a BAFTA. But sadly, the second series was foolishly scheduled for 8pm on Wednesdays, up against some enormous shows like big football matches and Midsomer Murders when that was in its pomp and it flopped massively, with the last few episodes being shoved out at 11pm, and that was the end of that. Had they been less gung-ho with the scheduling, they might have got a bit more out of it.

I think like Suspects, A Wing And A Prayer was a good drama, and people who saw it liked it, but it always seems a bit watch-it-if-it's-on, and these days especially I think dramas need to be so distinctive. This is a bit of a dull anecdote but it reminds of watching things like The Ruth Rendell Mysteries at my grandmothers'. I never watched it at home but we all found it at least tolerable so sat through it in lieu of anything more exciting. That kind of situation barely exists these days.

As I said the other day, I think if C5 want to have success with comedy and drama they need distinctive dramas that offering something different, not just things that could be on BBC1 or ITV. Like how Celebrity Juice single handedly got that channel in the comedy business.


This post is turning into my greatest hits a bit, but as I said, about a decade or so ago they would often run dramas across a Sunday and Monday to keep the audience over two nights. Although some of that was a bit of a legacy of the London weekday/weekend split to allow both LWT and Carlton to benefit from them.


Indeed, in fact of all the sports in the Olympics I've probably watched athletics the least, given it's mostly all on when I've been in work or asleep. Presumably one reason for the channel changes on the Beeb is because they were unsure of the kind of audience they would get without any athletics in primetime.

People that keep asking for a Christmas Edition of Saturday Night Takeaway - did you forget they already tried it and it didn't do too well?