That's why people have PVRs and watch such programmes time shifted. No one watches programmes that contain ads live any more surely? The skip button on our Humax is set to the same length as your average ad break - hey presto no ads.

Gone down well with whom? If you're referring to the so-called 'fans' on a certain forum not a million miles away then a plague upon their houses. They haven't praised an episode since 1965! Why people watch shows just to pick holes in them I simply cannot comprehend. If you can't enjoy it then switch it off.

Well, I think it's entirely your fault that the episode didn't even get a poll. Grrr. And don't get me started on the lack of spoilers recently....

Seriously, hope you had a good 'un, man!

And when the advertisers realise that's what you're all doing, hey presto, no commercial TV stations.

Deleted.

Call the Midwife is not only wrong for Christmas Day, at 90 minutes, it's far too bloated as well. It will bomb tomorrow.

EastEnders continues to be a work-in-progress. 50 minutes of filler, with some plot development for Phil and 1 minute of actual drama at the end does not a good episode make. Coronation Street will be top soap, I predict.

Doctor Who and Strictly were better than I thought they would be. Not sure about Bake Off on Christmas Day. It didn't feel quite right. Not that the BBC has that problem again.

Well I've been doing it since I got our first VCR in 1974. Perhaps they haven't realised I'm doing it?

Mind you the vast majority of what we watch is either on BBC2 or BBC4.

This may have been mentioned but has a Christmas Miracle occured in that BBC One has run to time? Certainly Strictly and Mrs. Brown's Boys ran to slot whilst EastEnders at the very least finished on time.

I like having adverts at random times because it means if you go up-digiting you don't hit a million breaks.

If sky's catch-up service is a decent guide, POG, today's itv soaps, Blank and Keyhole are all doing well.
For the BBC it's EE from recent days, MM and GBBO that are timeshifting.

Today I asked a few people of different ages what they were recording or downloading and only Maigret and Witness Prosecution were mentioned. I asked if they saw Blankety Blank and they didn't even know it was on. After I told them Walliams hosted it they seemed to like the idea of it. I didn't get the impression they'll download it but they'd watch a repeat if they caught it.

We are now home and i've finally got the kids in bed and the box is on (NFL). I'm drinking the hardstuff now, I'm on Lemsip. Rock n roll.

Could be some extended news bulletins tomorrow. George Michael

The Tracey Ullman clip show has specially filmed links linking the clips.

More than Peter Kay managed yesterday.

Gobsmacked, 2016 takes another one

2016 has been a truly awful year for icons deaths

Couldn't believe it . I bet the news channels were not expecting a massive story like this on Christmas night.

I was tempted to swing by and start an official discussion thread at the eleventh hour, but I knew I would only end up going back to it if I did that.



Same to you!

...

Just seen the above news while typing this out. I would say it was unbelievable, but this is one year where anything is possible.

And people thought the curse of 2016 stopped before Christmas when the reviews of the year started being shown. It seems not, there is sadly still time to fit a few more in, even on Christmas Day

The BBC News Channel have got on a presenter I've never seen in my life, obviously quite a junior presenter, who was probably expecting a easy shift reading out the same half hour of news they've been reading out since this morning.

Yeah I noticed that. I initially thought the presenter was on the phone because we only heard her voice for 20 minutes. She did very well considering she probabaly hasn't had much live TV work.

2016 more than any other year has really taken a lot of high profile names.

God 2016 has been an awful year.
The guy who sang Last Xmas dies on Xmas Day. Just a p-take now.

Jane Hill is on now so they must of called her in as I would assume you know her.

The second thing I thought of after "What?!"

I'm so shocked and sad

I think Jane Hill was always scheduled to do the late BBC One news bulletin, but obviously she wasn't available immediately.

I assume they'll be a tribute programme on in the New Year. As morbid as it sounds but it's likely been in the can for some time similar to how obituaries are usually written well in advance