Christmas TV. Even Worse Than Usual ?

[SS4]

I suppose it is a human shortcoming to look at this one year's TV output and compare it with their rose tinted view of the 'best' TV in their recall. In any typical Christmas offering there was lots of rubbish, even by the standatrds of the day. The prime shows hosted by favourites of the time would make us cringe with embarassment today, just think of Mike Yarwood, Cliff Richard, Cilla Black, Lulu, Larry Grayson. There is little enthusiasm to show repeats of these dire broadcasts which only succeeded because there were only 3 channels to choose from, despite the current trend to recycle everything in the vaults.
I'm no fan of Sky or any of the PPV media but for those who have made the financial commitment, they only have to spend a few minutes looking for something different.

I reckon the internet is more the cause than the proliferation of channels (many of which are +1 and show the same type of thing complete with synchronised ads). TV looking poor? I can fire up netflix, Prime Video, Youtube or the on demand services offered by the broadcasters as well as what I've recorded. These often have the bonus of not having to sit through the kind of adverts that were already overused and stale at the beginning of December. Put more simply there is more choice today which is also what you're saying - then you had to sit in front of the TV.

You also tend to have an older demographic who watch TV so naturally broadcasts are catered to them more than youngsters and Christmas, typically a time for reflection, means the nostalgia filter is out in full - hence the vault trawling

 

[yorksrob]

I reckon the internet is more the cause than the proliferation of channels (many of which are +1 and show the same type of thing complete with synchronised ads). TV looking poor? I can fire up netflix, Prime Video, Youtube or the on demand services offered by the broadcasters as well as what I've recorded. These often have the bonus of not having to sit through the kind of adverts that were already overused and stale at the beginning of December. Put more simply there is more choice today which is also what you're saying - then you had to sit in front of the TV.

You also tend to have an older demographic who watch TV so naturally broadcasts are catered to them more than youngsters and Christmas, typically a time for reflection, means the nostalgia filter is out in full - hence the vault trawling

Oh but if only they were vault trawling. It's been mainly children's films as far as I can see.

 

[miami]

It's not just the rise of Netflix etc, people in bygone eras had nothing else to do than watch TV, the internet provides a whole different type of interactive entertainment. TV viewing figures as a whole have been falling for the last 15 years.

That said there were 5-7 million people watching many of the "big hitters" - strictly, dr who, the soaps. By comparison that's about 4 times as many people that use the railway (3 million journeys a day so 1.5 million people)

A hankering back to the dross that used to be on TV in the 80s is the TV equivalent of nostalgia about the pre-beeching network. Sure there used to be hundreds of little branch lines, but they only survived because there was no other choice, people didn't have cars, and the roads weren't good enough even if they did, so the only choice was the railway line, no matter how poor it was.

 

[yorksrob]

Don't get me started on soap operas.

 

[miami]

Oh but if only they were vault trawling. It's been mainly children's films as far as I can see.

Looking at last year xmas week on bbc I see they repeated two Ronnies and dads army, attracting 1.75m and 1.5m respectively. Porridge did 1.7m.
By comparison a new documentary on dads army drew 3.5m. People don't want repeats of old stuff.

A brand new "still open all hours" attracted slightly less than Shaun the sheep and slightly more than countryfile. It did just beat the Christmas Day bbc news bulletin with 6 million viewers, coming in at #20 on bbc1 for the week.

On ITV there was downton at the top, then the soaps, the itv news.

People don't watch nostalgia TV. Or they do, but only for a few minutes when they realise just how bad it was.

 

[Trog]

People don't watch nostalgia TV. Or they do, but only for a few minutes when they realise just how bad it was.

Is it just me or is nostalgia not what it used to be?

 

[DynamicSpirit]

I suppose it is a human shortcoming to look at this one year's TV output and compare it with their rose tinted view of the 'best' TV in their recall. In any typical Christmas offering there was lots of rubbish, even by the standatrds of the day. The prime shows hosted by favourites of the time would make us cringe with embarassment today, just think of Mike Yarwood, Cliff Richard, Cilla Black, Lulu, Larry Grayson. There is little enthusiasm to show repeats of these dire broadcasts which only succeeded because there were only 3 channels to choose from, despite the current trend to recycle everything in the vaults.

I think there's a good point there: Chances are, in any given year, there is some good stuff and lots of stuff that turns out not to be so good. But human nature being what it is, we tend to remember the good things and forget all the - umm - forgettable programmes. And that obviously means that our view of tv a few decades ago is badly distorted - we think only of the best programmes then, and then compare those with the average programmes today - and obviously end up mistakenly thinking that everything was better in the past.

 

[stephenhartley]

Agreed! Though it will never beat Dinner for One...

That's an unusual reference for a UK forum... have you spent time living in Germany?

 

[PeterY]

I still prefer to watch DVD's . I'm in control and no ads every 10 minutes. I don't know how anyone manages to watch a film on commercial TV .

I also like to buy box sets and watch old and new programs in the order they were made.

I work in a charity shop and they're sold for a £1. If the film is rubbish, then I haven't lost much.

 

[backontrack]

That's an unusual reference for a UK forum... have you spent time living in Germany?

No, actually - we just always watch it every year. It's still in English, after all.

 

[stephenhartley]

No, actually - we just always watch it every year. It's still in English, after all.

Interesting, may I ask how you know of it? AFAIK, it has never been shown on British TV. "Same procedure as every year, James..."

 

[yorksrob]

Looking at last year xmas week on bbc I see they repeated two Ronnies and dads army, attracting 1.75m and 1.5m respectively. Porridge did 1.7m.
By comparison a new documentary on dads army drew 3.5m. People don't want repeats of old stuff.

A brand new "still open all hours" attracted slightly less than Shaun the sheep and slightly more than countryfile. It did just beat the Christmas Day bbc news bulletin with 6 million viewers, coming in at #20 on bbc1 for the week.

On ITV there was downton at the top, then the soaps, the itv news.

People don't watch nostalgia TV. Or they do, but only for a few minutes when they realise just how bad it was.

I repeat my point regarding specials such as French and Saunders and Victoria Wood. People don't necessarily want repeats of these, but they probably would like a modern equivalent. These are missing this year, regardless of how much you want to avoid the issue.

It's all well and good bringing up last year's TV schedule, however I'm talking about this year. It would have been blessed relief to have found an Inspevtor Morse on one of the digital channels in the day, but it seemed to be far too much children's TV.

 

[Starmill]

Oh but if only they were vault trawling. It's been mainly children's films as far as I can see.

I did make the point that Children's films endemically have a certain appeal to adults - more with some franchises than others. For a start, adults have got to sit through these in the cinema with their children, and they have to be worth showing on TV in order to become Blockbusters. There would be far more complaints if they only showed cheap D-list films, or really old ones and not Frozen, Shrek or How to Train Your Dragon 2. Have you seen Skyfall or any of the other Bond reboots? Or indeed the Star Trek reboots? Or The Hobbit? Of course, Fantasy probably isn't your style, but don't knock it 'till you've tried it!

Besides, half the fun is spotting the dirty jokes the producer has left in that the kids won't get...

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Besides, half the fun is spotting the dirty jokes the producer has left in that the kids won't get...

You mean - that the parents /think/ that the kids won't get

 

[yorksrob]

Besides, half the fun is spotting the dirty jokes the producer has left in that the kids won't get...

Fortunately there have been a few Carry On films on at times. Many of the jokes in these would have passed me by the first time I saw them

 

[Bevan Price]

Mike Yarwood was a top impressionist of the day, and Larry Grayson had that most excellent vehicle "The Generation Game".

In the last twenty years or so we've had excellent Christmas specials from the likes of French & Saunders, One Foot In The Grave, Victoria Wood, Only Fools And Horses etc. The sad truth is that our terrestrial channels seem to have largely given up on quality comedy recently in favour of cake baking and ballroom dancing.

Plus soaps, and never-ending "continuing dramas", which mostly ran out of original ideas 20+ years ago These seem to consume most of the funds that could be more usefully spent on creating new one-off & short-series dramas. ITV offering included 2 hours of soap on Christmas Day evening.

Overall, it was a typical average christmas on TV - old films, animated films mainly intended for kids, sitcoms (old or new), and a few worthwhile new dramas that the channels often schedule at the same time (thank goodness for recorders.)

 

[backontrack]

Interesting, may I ask how you know of it? AFAIK, it has never been shown on British TV. "Same procedure as every year, James..."

Well, we've just always watched it at New Year. We have a DVD recording of it that's been ripped off a German TV channel. We do find it very funny.

 

[bradford758]

Did anyone else watch Peter Pan Goes Wrong tonight? I was howling! This is what Xmas TV is supposed to be like.

Yes, and didn't know it was going to be on. Nicely rounded off the evening's programmes for me. After a disappointing Christmas menu (TV remaining off), I was not expecting anything for New Year.
Not to everybody's taste, but after 7, Nowhere Boys (CBBC), Sherlock, Mrs. Brown, Football and the above.

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[stephenhartley]

IMHO last night's Sherlock was a belter...!


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[miami]

I repeat my point regarding specials such as French and Saunders and Victoria Wood. People don't necessarily want repeats of these, but they probably would like a modern equivalent. These are missing this year, regardless of how much you want to avoid the issue.

It's all well and good bringing up last year's TV schedule, however I'm talking about this year. It would have been blessed relief to have found an Inspevtor Morse on one of the digital channels in the day, but it seemed to be far too much children's TV.

In 2009 Victoria Wood Mid Life Christmas pulled in 7.45 million, 64% of Dr Who, and 63% of the Royle Family. Viewing figures for this years xmas week aren't out yet hence looking at last year, but your complaint about "tv is rubbish nowadays" is an age-old complaint and not limited to 2016. I'll be interested to see what Michael McIntyre, Outnumbered, and the Brian Cox/Eric Idle panto pulls in.

What would you drop from the schedule to put on your variety show? Who would front it? What evidence do you have that people in today's viewing climate want to watch that?

 

[yorksrob]

In 2009 Victoria Wood Mid Life Christmas pulled in 7.45 million, 64% of Dr Who, and 63% of the Royle Family. Viewing figures for this years xmas week aren't out yet hence looking at last year, but your complaint about "tv is rubbish nowadays" is an age-old complaint and not limited to 2016. I'll be interested to see what Michael McIntyre, Outnumbered, and the Brian Cox/Eric Idle panto pulls in.

What would you drop from the schedule to put on your variety show? Who would front it? What evidence do you have that people in today's viewing climate want to watch that?

I wasn't aware there was a new "Outnumbered". Their past Christmas specials are certainly what I would class as the sort of top end Christmas special that the TV companies should be providing. Is this a new special, or a repeat, in which case you have no point.

The Royle Family Christmas specials are also the sort of high end Christmas specials that would be the highlight of our Christmas viewing, but again I'm not aware of there being a new one this year, or an equivalent in another comedy programme (the Royle Family was genius, but we can't expect it to go on forever).

Your points merely seem to reinforce my argument.

 

[AlterEgo]

I wasn't aware there was a new "Outnumbered". Their past Christmas specials are certainly what I would class as the sort of top end Christmas special that the TV companies should be providing. Is this a new special, or a repeat, in which case you have no point.

The Royle Family Christmas specials are also the sort of high end Christmas specials that would be the highlight of our Christmas viewing, but again I'm not aware of there being a new one this year, or an equivalent in another comedy programme (the Royle Family was genius, but we can't expect it to go on forever).

Your points merely seem to reinforce my argument.

The Royle Family won't go on forever because one of the writing partnership had cancer and died this year...

 

[miami]

I wasn't aware there was a new "Outnumbered". Their past Christmas specials are certainly what I would class as the sort of top end Christmas special that the TV companies should be providing. Is this a new special, or a repeat, in which case you have no point.

New special

The Royle Family Christmas specials are also the sort of high end Christmas specials that would be the highlight of our Christmas viewing, but again I'm not aware of there being a new one this year, or an equivalent in another comedy programme (the Royle Family was genius, but we can't expect it to go on forever).

Your points merely seem to reinforce my argument.

That variety shows like morcame and wise don't attract the audiences they used to, that specials

BBC1 Christmas day afternoon and even consisted of
1) Top of the Pops christmas special
2) The news and The Queen
3) UK TV Premiere of a Family film (Frozen)
4) Christmas Special of Bake Off - one of the most watched shows of the decade (I don't like it personally but people seem to like baking)
5) Christmas special of Dr Who
6) Christmas special of Dancing show which again is highly liked
7) Call the Midwife Christmas Special
8) Inevitable christmas special of Eastenders (no doubt someone got killed/divorced/run over)
9) Mrs Browns Boys christmas special

So 1 children's film,

BBC2 had the the 'vault trawling', showing
* 1977 "Good Life" christmas special
* Morecambe and Wise 1976 christmas special
* Blackadder's Christmas Carol
* Dads Army episode "Turkey Dinner"

In addition to a high-brow film, a documentary on the Nut Cracker, a couple of hours of religious stuff (gospel singing in the evening, carols in the morning) and University Challenge.

Personally the only thing I watched of all that was Dr Who (having seen Frozen many times on DVD), but almost all was christmas specials, and all of them on BBC1 are of highly rated shows, and there's plenty of nostalgia on BBC2 for those who like the good old days.

Back in 1997, 19 years earlier, Christmas day afternoon on BBC1 was

* Top of the Pops
* Repeat of Two Ronnies sketches
* The Queen
* Noel's Christmas Presents
* Family Film (The Flintstones)
* Animal Hospital
* Auntie's New Festive Bloomers (Outtakes)
* Film (The Mask)
* Eastenders
* One Foot in the Grave - non Christmas episode
* Men Behaving Badly Christmas episode

So BBC1 2016:
1 Music show
2 Reality TV shows
1 Family film
1 soap
2 christmas dramas
1 christmas comedy

Total of 7 christmas specials.

1997:
1 Music show
1 clip show from repeats
1 clip show from outtakes
2 reality shows
2 Family films
1 Soap
1 Non Christmas comedy
1 Christmas comedy

Total of 4 Christmas specials.

Personally I think 2016's line up is far better.

 

[Starmill]

The Royle Family won't go on forever because one of the writing partnership had cancer and died this year...

Caroline Aherne, may she rest in peace

Back to TV that Nutcracker documentary was on in the background, I didn't watch it but it looked good. We also had some of the religious broadcasts on for the nice music and indeed University Challenge. To me this is higher quality output that might not be being broadcast if it weren't for the BBC and I do think it constitutes part of good Christmas Day viewing.

 

[miami]

4 hours of carols on BBC on Xmas day

However I'm not sure now that it wouldn't be broadcast in future. With things like YouTube and Facebook live it's possible for pretty much every church, and certainly all cathedrals, to broadcast their services in real time, 360 degree telepresence. The cost of staging an OB like this has fallen dramatically in the last 15 years, in all areas. The need for a middleman like the bbc is diminishing. My kids only know of two channels - Netflix and Amazon.

30 years ago Star Trek made a prediction that TV would die out by 2040. I'm inclined to believe that prediction may well come to pass.

 

[Be3G]

I actually think the BBC (I don't tend to watch much of the other channels) have done an excellent job this year. In terms of brand new TV they've given us:

• A full-length opera (admittedly about a week before Christmas, but still amazing to watch)
• A cheesy Christmas pop-classical concert
• Two servings of relaxing slow TV
• Intense drama (Witness for the Prosecution, the Brontë thing I didn't watch)
• Light-hearted drama (Doctor Who, Sherlock)
• Tugging-at-the-heart-strings drama (Midwife, again didn't watch)
• Some comedy Christmas specials (Outnumbered, Mrs Brown whom I can't stand but accept the appeal of)
• Christmas editions of popular reality shows
• High-rated movie animations (Frozen, How To Train Your Dragon 1/2)
• British-made comedy drama films (Lady In The Van, What We Did On Our Holiday)

I think anyone who can't find a few things amongst all that that they like probably doesn't actually like the medium of TV much full stop! I also think that sometimes the problem with times of the year like this can be discovery – i.e. actually finding out about the worthwhile programs. Just channel-hopping and tuning in to a good program halfway through isn't all that useful because by that point you might have missed much of what makes it good, but on the other hand sometimes programs are much more interesting/enjoyable than the brief descriptions in the TV guide make them sound.

 

[Bevan Price]

Some of you might be interested to see the BBC / RT archive listing for BBC TV back in Christmas 1966:
http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1966-12-25

Mostly pretty dire, although Lucille Ball & George Burns were fine comedians / comedy actors (and note Ken Dodd, 50 years ago) , and there was one of John Wayne's better westerns in the evening. But 4 mainly religious programmes / services was a bit over the top for one day's TV.


Boxing Day 1966 was almost as unattractive, including the sick "alleged humour" of Alf Garnett, although Rolling Stones and a few others were all too brief highlights on Top Of The Pops (although introduced by J. **Vile):

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1966-12-26


Black & White Minstrel Show was something to avoid - some white singers "blacking" their faces, and singing all that is worst in so-called "light" music. There was only one BBC channel & ITV back in 1966.

 

[Butts]

IMHO last night's Sherlock was a belter...!


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Totally agree with that having just watched it on I-Player.

Definitely the best program to air over the festive period.

 

[Butts]

http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/bbcone/london/1966-12-26[/url]


Black & White Minstrel Show was something to avoid - some white singers "blacking" their faces, and singing all that is worst in so-called "light" music. There was only one BBC channel & ITV back in 1966.

If you actually remembered Till Death Us Do Part it may have dawned on you that "Alf" was actually being ironic and mocking racism.

The Black and White Minstrel Show was a mainstay of BBC Entertainment up till at least the eighties I would have thought , so it's not suprising to see it on.

 

[Bevan Price]

If you actually remembered Till Death Us Do Part it may have dawned on you that "Alf" was actually being ironic and mocking racism.

.

I watched one or two episodes, and rapidly concluded that the "irony" was rather sick, and boring, and that there were better things to do with my time.