Is it just me or is Christmas TV in the UK utterly rubbish?
I know there's a global pandemic and shows can't be made like they were, if at all, but there are literally millions of old shows, series and films that could be shown that aren't complete trash.
OK, to give BBC4 its due, on Christmas Eve there were a few Mark Gatiss repeated ghost stories late on, for which I was truly thankful for, but these appeared to be a rare example of TV programmers actually scheduling anything different for Christmas.
The same old gaggle of tired comedians, inane minor celebrities, endless repeats and reality re-runs, not to mention exactly the same dire barrel-scrapers like Knives With Wives on just the same as if Christmas didn't exist at all.
What the hell happened? When I was a kid there were just three channels for God's sake, but the programmers managed to show, over the Christmas holiday, every Sinbad film, every Hammer horror, every Buster Keaton comedy, every Laurel and Hardy show, a full run of Flash Gordon and for monster nuts they even made their own ghost stories just for Christmas Eve.
Has Christmas programming on 'normal' channels hit rock bottom or am I missing something here?
Do I have to sell my soul to Sky, Netflix, SkyNet and Cyberdyne to get any proper Christmas telly?
I guess if you like woke nonsense you'll be in your element.
ReplyDeleteWe have long given up on British television. Fortunately we have a very good supply of non PC, non Woke Telly from long ago.
And Alf Garnett from 1967 still makes us laugh better than the nonsense we pay a television licence for.
Just wait for the BBC to start bleating when we have a vote on abolishing the licence fee.
I don't wish to be controversial on your blog Woodsy, but the BBC need their wings clipped. Plus ITV is no longer a channel we watch any more.
Unfortunately by taking the woke approach, it only feeds the rise in piracy, or legitimate watching of old videotapes or DVD collections.
There were a few decent films on over Christmas, unfortunately I'd seen them. But I suspect most of telly was always rubbish, although I find the serial adaptations of novels etc. to be less watchable and more clumsily pretentious than they were. Not sure what "woke" means, but probably don't need to know!
ReplyDeleteYou aren't wrong. The schedules were very poor. I watched very little. The highlights being Waterloo and The Justice League. Nothing else worth watching bedsides the news
ReplyDeleteI think people have complained for several years now about the Christmas TV line up not being up to much. The BBC do get the most criticism of course, as we pay a licence fee whether we watch it or not. There does seem to be a consensus that the BBC do have a 'woke' agenda nowadays, which puts a lot of viewers off, including myself. While I might agree with some of the progressive ideas and values, I don't want to be preached to or have it shoved down throat in what I consider an obvious and unsophisticated way just in case I'm a viewer who isn't clever enough to work out subtle points the writer is trying to get across; the virtue signalling Vicar of Dibley this year is a case in point, which received 266 complaints about the pollical impartially of the BBC when it came to the BLM movement.
ReplyDeleteDoctor Who is another case in point. Following a policy on gender diversity, the once popular series not only suffered plummeting ratings for its woke preachiness, but also disappointing writing culminating in the established history of the main character being completely rewritten much to the annoyance of many fans. It an effort to save the show, and Jodie Whittaker's Doctor, a popular male character is being brought back in Jack Harkness, along with the monsters that have saved the series before, The Daleks.
When it came to Christmas Day Viewing the only film I watched was the not very Christmassy, The Italian Job, and the Xmas cracker, Die Hard 2.
I, like most of my fellow Anderson fans watched Stingray's, Christmas to Remember: Thunderbirds, Give or Take a Million; and the Joe 90 episode, An Unorthodox Shepherd over the Christmas period.
Personally, I've been watching The Joy Of Painting, with the late Bob Ross on BBC 4.
ReplyDeleteCreative, inspiring and relaxing, it's worth the licence fee on it's own.
Catch it at 7.30 pm, most week nights and tell me it's not, why don't you !
Mish.
The Joy of Painting is superb. I watched it back in the 90's or 00's on The Learning Channel and earlier this year on VICE (I think its still on there, but at some strange time now).
DeleteAh, remembering the annual Morecambe and Wise Special. Now that was always worth watching.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the holidays gave us the delights of Laurel&Hardy, Flash Gordon etc Xmas Day telly was almost as bad as now. As an example I have picked 1971. Highlights:
ReplyDeleteBeeb1
09.30 Aspels xmas crackers (cartoons)
11.35 Basil Brush
12noon Rolf Harris
12.50 Ken Dodd
13.15 Generation Game
14.15 TOTP ( No.1 was Ernie fastest milkman.... Loved it)
15.00 Queen
15.10 Billy Smart's Circus
16.15 Black and White Minstrels
20.00 Morecambe and Wise (The Andre Previn one yippeeee)
Time for Timmy Toad to go to bed
Beeb2
Dull dull dull
Boring boring boring
The most interesting thing is
22.45 National Folk Ballet of Korea (wow, wonder what that was like)
ITV(London cos I cant find my ATV(Midlands) anywhere)
10.45 Childrens xmas cinema (I mihht have had Thunderbirds or Cap Scarlet instead)
11.30 Captain Sinbad 1963 film
15.00 Queen
15.10 King Solomons mines 1950 film
20.30 Around the world in 80 days 1956 film
Yay! Sinbad! I knew it! I was just turned 11 and would have loved Sinbad! Cheers Timmy. Very interesting!
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