I hope Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach isn't axed. To be honest, ITV is the reason it is not performing well. It opened with 5 million viewers, and should have either:

a) stayed on Thursday nights, where viewers are familiar with it
b) move it to Monday nights, where it can get an inheritance from Corrie, which would probably appeal to the same audience

Friday nights for a show like this because it just doesn't suit it. Echo Beach is too light to be on a Friday night, IMO, and New Tricks is on at the same time, which has a strong audience and is taking away its viewers. On Mondays, there is less competition.

They should have stuck with the original plan - Moving Wallpaper airing on ITV1, Echo Beach airing straight after on ITV2.

I'm sure Echo Beach would have been a hit on ITV2.

Moving Wallpaper I think has a future as an out and out sitcom that could be a hit. Echo Beach on the other hand should be dumped.

I think Moving Wallpaper relies FAR too much on in-jokes - spend a few months away from the UK and you wouldn´t have a clue what was going on. I´d prefer to see a better script, and Raquel Cassidy always seems to be underused.

Echo Beach - no comment except everybody´s right, it doesn´t work on a Friday night, and in winter too...It´s not prime-time viewing, is it?

The problem with Moving Wallpaper/Echo Beach is that the first is a good comedy, the second is a dire soap.

Were they treated as a proper comedy combo then it would work. Basically make it as a one hour behind the scenes look with the fourth wall brought into Echo Beach so that the audience were aware that here were actors MAKING a soap.

The scope was endless for outtakes, mistakes, shots of the crew fuming at thingfs going wrong, interference from outside etc. And you could have still shown enough of the plot of Echo Beach to make the point.

As it is those attracted to the insider humour of Moving Wallpaper will find it something of a chore to sit through a not especially well done soap that is not played remotely for its humour but is meant to be taken seriously.

The shows do not attract the same audience, dooming the concept in the format it has adopted.

Spot on. I said before week 1 that the idea sucked, and it would be like the BBC showing 30 mins of Extras followed by a 30 min episode of When the Whistle Blows.

And I was right.

No Saturday ratings then, I take it?

Barb haven't uploaded the saturday ratings yet, unfortunately. Looks like we wont get them till tomorrow.

One of the Birmingham papers has been printing archive editions recently. Fascinating stuff including the tv schedules. See what you think of this line up.

WEDNESDAY 1ST FEBRUARY 1978
BBC1
4.40 Screen Test
5.00 John Cravens Newsround.
5.05. A Traveller in Time-serial
5.40. Evening News
6.00 Midlands Today/Nationwide
6.50 Sykes.
7.20. Wednesday Film. Hell in the Pacific-starring Lee Marvin.
9.00. News.
9.25. I Didnt Know You Cared.Comedy.
9.55. Sportsnight-Figure Skating from Strasbourg.
11.05. Tonight.
11.40 Weather and Closedown-no doubt to the tune of God Save the Queen-and not the Punk version either!

ITV(ATV)
4.45 Pop Quest-with Mike Read
5.15 Mr and Mrs-with Derek Batey.
5.45 News.
6.00 ATV Today.
6.35. Crossroads.
7.00 This is your Life
7.30. Coronation Street
8.00. Im Bob He's Dickie(Bob Monkhouse and Dickie Henderson)
9.00. ITV Playhouse.(wife returns from holiday to find husband kissing another woman shock)
10.00 News
10.30 The Shoot-about a gamekeeper.
11.45 Butlins Darts Championship
12.15 Closedown.

This would seem to be an easy win for ITV, as many weekdays were before the arrival of Eastenders in 1985. BBC1 often started the night at 6.50 or 7.05 or 7.10(rarely on the hour) at which point the night was already lost. This is your life was enormously popular back then.
In the small print it was said of Bob Monkhouse and Dickie Henderson that "they dont make comics like them anymore"-and this was in 1978!

Only kissing?

Ah, the old days.

Yes you werent allowed to do too much more than that on tv in the seventies. In fact life would be alot simpler if people just kissed-ofcourse the human race would die out but hey.

No change there then. Now they advertise it as 7pm, but start at 6.57.

And back then you had to get up and walk over to the tv to change chanels.

Actually remote controls were in their infancy in the seventies-our tv reacted to money rattling in pockets-most confusing.

I see what you mean.
With Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach it would mean that you could enjoy watching Moving Wallpaper as long as you watch the bad soap Echo Beach that it's about.
But,...if Echo Beach is so bad that you can't really watch it, then you'd end up stopping watching Moving Wallpaper too because the jokes don't work if they're about Echo Beach and you don't watch that.

Is that kind of what you mean? Because it does make sense.

I must have dreamt what they got up to on "I Clavdivs", then!

K

No you didn´t, but that was BBC2

Of course, but the post I quoted said "tv", not "itv"... Even so, The Sweeney was a bit livelier than that as well!

K

Not sure about that.
I think that in some respects you could get away with quite a lot on television in the seventies compared to today.

I don't think that television nowadays allows that much. In fact I think it's more restrictive in some ways.

Last week there was a fuss about a female TV presenter showing too much cleavage. In the seventies and eighties that sort of thing would be nothing.

We always like to think that in the modern day we are naturally more liberal and open than we were in previous decades. But I really don't think that is necessarily the case at all. I think in some ways we are actually more prohibitive and conservative about a lot of what's shown on TV now than before.

There was a TV drama about reality TV called 'The Year of the Sex Olympics' or something in the seventies wasn't there?
It's probably called something different but somebody will know the name of the play that I'm thinking of.

how did 'Neighbours on Five' do?

Doesn't it only start today?

We wont find out till tomorrow.

There was a programme last night on Five - a behind the scenes doc called 'Neighbours on Five'.

Oooh...my apologies.

I should think so!!

Guys in your infinte wisdom what are your predictions for The Weakest Link going up against Neighbours?

Im expecting about 2.9million for TWL and about 2.4million (max) for Neighbours

Any more informed guesses?

ITV1

Sunday

6pm Dancing On Ice 8.2m (36%)
7.30pm Wild At Heart 7.3m (28%)
8.30pm Dancing On Ice: The Skate-Off 7.7m (29%)
9pm Kingdom 5.4m (22%)


Saturday

6.50pm Harry Hill’s TV Burp 6.8m (32%)
7.20pm Primeval 5.8m (26%)
8.20pm Dancing On Ice: Make Me A Star 3.5m (15%)
8.50pm Duel 2.9m (13%)