Unbelievably, I just fired up the EPG and found a few things I liked the look of tonight on the main channels.

Definitely the strongest night of the holidays so far with some real highlights on the big four.

This sequence promises to be more than a little poignant bearing in mind GM was finalising his own doco when he died:

Pages Fudd. We will have to submit new predictions for the DSRPG.

Interested to see how tonight turns out. I can see both BBC1 and C4 having a strong night. BBC1 in particular looks solid as a rock, although I don't think this year's Christie will do quite as well as last year's. Can't call whether Captain Phillips will do OK or die on its arse.

David Brent had no actual funding from BBC films - they're only listed as producers due to owning the Brent character. Ricky has sold worldwide rights to Netflix so doubt it will air on TV.

Ab Fab is fully BBC films and distributed by Fox so imagine it will premiere on BBC2 or BBC1 Christmas 2017.

ITV should show more films then over the holidays. Also interesting that they won the midnight and later slot, so when they do put something on instead of gambling, they can attract an audience at that time.

I'll just void the show and a back up will take it's place.

Cheers for the replies.
Good to hear that you enjoyed it; not the largest sample size but enough to to encourage me to watch it.

I expect it to consolidate well, we shall see. From what I can tell Blankety Blank is. I'm a little surprised at the stick Walliams is getting and I say that as someone who never liked Little Britain.

Not dropped. He's been moved to 11.20pm. That's convenient for me who wanted to record this and Inside No 9 but couldn't record both because they clashed.

Can't help feeling the BBC treated this as a bit too convenient as well. It seems a little bit tasteless that they using George's passing to move a ratings flop out of prime-time, but maybe I'm being over-sensitive.

It's been like that ever since Matt Smith took over from David Tennant, I reckon. Steven Moffatt took over from Russell T Davies as lead writer at the same time, and the quality of the show just nosedived. I gave up on it after the first Matt Smith series.

ITV2 showing Skyfall AGAIN!! How many times has that been on over the past couple of years?!

Not as much as flipping Potty Potter and Love Actually.

Nice little goodbye montage on BBC One after The Great Christmas Bake Off.

I believe the term you're looking for is guilt tripping!

The earliest other slot where it could have gone was Thursday. Right decision to be honest.

Waaaaaay to sensitive. Doing a tribute for a pop legend is hardly tasteless

...and the BBC should be congratulated for doing so at this time of year...

so many differing entertainment 'legends' have gone this year.......it is hard to believe another one goes right at the end of it....

It's a bit mean spirited/off to exclude +1 ratings in the first place. Of course in this case it was done to ensure EastEnders was positioned above Corrie, and also so ITV's first entry in the chart was way down the list.


Half the performances being from the Teen Awards, Glastonbury etc rather than being performed in the studio gave the impression it was cobbled together as an obligation rather than with love and care.

You've also got it frozen in time with Fearne and Reggie still hosting, who haven't presented together for about 10 years and aren't that current anymore. Surprising they've never moved on to using the likes of Nick Grimshaw, who despite his marmite popularity would at least keep up the tradition that a current Radio 1 host fronted the show.

The fact it was bumped from the pre Queen slot it's aired in for years will have had an effect, I wonder if the are testing the water and the axe is on the cards?


To be fair in previous years I've read articles saying that BBC1 was in the lead throughout the entire day, with maybe only corrie and/or the bit where BBC1 show the church service being times when ITV were ahead.

The fact ITV a was ahead for almost 6 hours in daytime is unheard of.


Also I'd be dead against ITV showing a film repeat on Christmas Night, that would seem poor to the general public which is why they always show something which at least looks a bit special.

Curious how Sky 1 did with The Last Dragonslayer. Any news?

Love and care over Top of the Pops ?
I think it is an obligation purely based on tradition. Grimmy's last TV outing was abject failure so I can't imagine the show would wish to be associated with him,
These two would seem a safe pair of hands. At least people have heard of them.
Problem is not enough people care who's in the charts anymore.
It only finished 10 mins or so before the Queen didn't in, hardly some massive schedule change.

Decided on BBC Two and Channel 4.

Have to agree, the Vicar of Dibley Christmas special from 17 years ago was much funnier than anything new I have seen this year, let alone this Christmas. The BBC really should try to get them to do another next year.

As well as Goodnight Sweetheart, of course. (Sorry, could not resist).

The BBC have already turned down more Goodnight Sweetheart. I suppose they could always get picked up by ITV, although you'd think they'd have done so by now if they were really interested.

The BBC moved it forward ten minutes to fit in a news bulletin because their insistence in over-packing their Christmas Day schedule and their desire to match ITV junctions meant they had no news bulletins on BBC1 between 3pm and 11.30pm. It's hardly relegating it to an out-of-the-way slot.

BBC may change there mind now because they lost the Bake Off, Plus last nights Christmas Day ratings were down for them. Its there own fault for showing EastEnders when it should be comedy instead anyway. Led to people turning the TV off to play Monopoly.