TV this Christmas

[Fat Bloke]

Have the christmas TV programmes been really dire this year or is it my imagination?

[daginge]

Yes, but this year it has been diabolical really hasn't it? Even Sky with 999 channels, there's nothing really been worth bothering about!

[dothawkes31]

Outnumbered was brilliant on Sunday night and I;ve atched it again on the BBC website, we had the BT Vision box delivered today and I've just found out how to use iut and there are HBO shows and CBS shows on there, Curb Your Enthusiam for one, oh and Smallviulle season 8, loads of shows that I;bve not seen, and so i won't need the freeview as much now and we put the sky box in the drawer 6 months ago.

[dothawkes31]

and this Heads and Tails show with ustin lee Collins is dire, even worse than the last stupid show.

[hc4361]

dot, you'll be very disappointed in a few weeks when you've watched all those and find there is nothing new.
Everything you have mentioned is a repeat of a repeat of a repeat.
But enjoy it before the novelty wears off.

[T&S]

I thought Victoria Wood was about the best thing on this Xmas. Despite the dodgy special effects, I quite enjoyed the Triffids.

[socket2008]

TV Channels have had to cut costs, hence all the repeats. With so many channels now broadcasting and things such as 24 hour shopping, the internet, more entertainment leisure parks etc etc, something has to give. 20 years ago Corrie/Eastenders regularly got 20 million viewers, these days its less than half. The fact is, we all had less to do/available to us.

But then would you want to go back to the 80's and the days of just 4 channels?

[beejaybee]

So glad we had Bt Vision. Plenty of choice there

[gilf]

socket2008 - As it happens yes. Apart from the increased Sports coverage I would say there is about the same amount of quality on TV as there was back then. Now however that quality is spread over 50 channels rather than just the 4.

[socket2008]

Add the channels up on a sky box. It's a tad more than 50. Plus all of the box office channels.....

There was plenty of dross on in the 80's and repeats. The difference was that we had fewer options as an alternative. I remember the same moans about tv then as we get now.

[reinganum]

Broadly, I agree with Socket. I was looking at an old Christmas edition of <I>Radio Times</I> from the 1960s the other day and the mixture was much the same: Christmas 'specials', films of varying vintage, a circus (glad that's gone, I just found them boring) and of course only three channels.
Of course there are going to be loads of repeats. New drama is horrendously expensive and the mainstream channels pour most of their money into soaps and 'bonnet' dramas these days.
High points for me were Victoria Wood, and David Tennant in Hamlet. And of course the film noir season on BBC2.

[Nummy]

i just don;t get why the repeat so many of the films that have already been played to death during the rest of the year e.g. the matrix (tho it is an excellent film)

When you watch something like the 100 Greatest Family Films...you realise that most of those films haven't been on for ages. it's like the find one boc of films and put them on a loop...when they find a new box, they;ll put that lot on a loop