TV series which should be pensioned off

I agree with you views entirely JANEROWENA on the reasons why to not watch "soaps," well said.
A programme that really irritates me is "Pointless" due to the regimental ways of Alexander Armstrong. He never ever varies his words, seems to ridgidly follow a script to the letter. It's so unnatural, boring, and predictable By comparison, Bradley Walsh on "The Chase" is much more relaxed and spontaneous, much more fun.

Maybe, but the rants just don't seem that funny to me now. So I think the humour is dated, if nothing else.

I'd like to get rid of all 'reality' shows. They have a different reality to real people. Soaps I don't watch, but the memsahib is an avid viewer so I can't get rid of them, and am sometimes a captive audience while she watches. I despair at the standard of writing for them though with paper thin plots.

Doctors, for example is terrible. The series is used as an apprentice scheme for budding drama writers at the BBC. If they are successful, they get promoted to either Casualty or Holby City. In Doctors, one of the GPs will disappear from their surgery for an entire day, following a hunch about one of the patients, or some complete stranger that crosses their path. The entire staff all attend courses or team building events leaving the surgery unattended. No wonder the NHS is in such a state.

But aren't Basil's rants supposed to be so over-the-top to deliberately mark him out as an intolerant git? They are not opinions that the writer seriously wants to promote.

Yes, 're FT that's true eloethan so women are shown in a good light in the series, I'm just grumpy today. I googled some of 'Basil Fawlty' s funniest quotes' and this one came up (perhaps it needs to he in context). There are loads of similar ones.

"Basil Fawlty: [to Sybil] I'm fed up with you, you rancorous, coiffured old sow. Why don't you syringe the donuts out of your ear and get some sense into the dormant organ you keep hidden in that rat's maze of yours?"

People have different tastes in the programmes they watch but I agree that some programmes are rather jaded or becoming sillier by the minute:

New Tricks
Still open all Hours (didn't like Open All Hours either)
Death in Paradise
Midsomer Murders

I really like Call the Midwife. It is quite sentimental but I like the characters and it's interesting to see how times have changed.

I love Fawlty Towers and haven't noticed any obvious sexism. In fact, I think the two most sensible and capable characters in it are women (Sybil and Polly).

I'm sorry that Foyle's War has ended but perhaps it's better to finish on a high note.

I enjoy Coronation Street, especially its humour. I do think there's room for a soap that is more rooted in reality though.

You can get rid of them all except Corrie vampirequeen. Which is the only soap I can watch. I love Mrs Brown's boys too.

Hate all the hospital crap stuff.

I love Mrs Brown's boys - maybe because I had an Irish mammie
I also love Corrie. Maybe they could get rid of all football on TV

Come Dine with Me and anything similar. In fact the current "Show Me Your Garden" is just CHWM with a twist.

Really sticking my neck out now, due to Fawlty Towers being a "national treasure" and all that ... and of course we thought it was hilariously funny at the time too! But I happened on one of the episodes whilst panning the other day, and I was quite shocked at just how sexist the dialogue is: "Women don't have a brain between them" and that sort of thing. Into Room 101 for TV shows it goes, it is horribly dated.

And sorry for all the Corrie fans, also 'Enders, they are dreadful.

We still like "A Question of Sport"

I've never been able to watch soaps - not because they are rubbish (although I do think anti-depressants should be distributed free of charge to anyone watching 'Stenders) but because I became convinced that it was a plot by someone to force us all to stop what we are doing, not talk to each other, not answer the phone and begrudge any invitations to go out because an episode might be missed. So I made a conscious effort to not watch any.

So if I inadvertently found myself at my sister's, forced to endure an episode after four years of not having viewed it, it was quite consoling to see that nothing much had changed at all during those intervening years. The goings-on in my own and DBH's families were far more riveting, if not quite as murderous.

Yes, I think that Still Open All Hours has stuck too firmly to the original. It just doesnt really work now.
A second hand coffee machine/broken down one or whatever it was is a bit of an unworkable concept nowadays. It did make me realise how something or other this country has become. I cant quite think of the right word. Sophisticated??

I only saw a couple of minutes of OAH recently [didn't know it had been resurrected] but I find that comedy has moved on and the double entendres are a bit anachronistc and no longer funny. Having said that [how two faced am I?] I like Mrs Browns Boys . But my favourite is The IT Crowd; I must give TBBT another go but I need to get to know the characters [no need to do that with the IT crowd cause it's all about the computer people I used to deal with at work [bless them]]. I think Call the Midwife has lost it's original charm and assume it's moved away from the books and is no longer based on true stories [?] which shouldn't really matter in a tv programme but somehow does.

Absolutely VQ all soaps must go.

Cant abide:
Mrs Brown's Boys, it is as jane said, like the worst of those awful 70s so called comedies. Also find that actor who plays Mrs Brown rather creepy.

the One Show, bland rubbish.

We like Big Bang here too.

hildajenniJ I also love Big Bang Theory - Sheldon is my favourite, of course! As far as I am concerned all the soaps can be cancelled, also any of the so called "reality" programmes

I have not watched Death in Paradise so can't comment and I do like New Tricks because I like Dennis Waterman. I always watch Call the Midwife. Am currently watching a new series of Foyles War he's in the intelligence service after the war and it's really good, extended episodes. I hate all soaps and celebrity programmes and despite its theme have been riveted by both series of Broadchurch, fantastic acting and a great cast. Also hate Midsummer Murders,Poirot, and anything about Sherlock Holmes.

Who else has noticed that Friends now has 2 dedicated channels all day every day?. The executives of Sky or whoever control those channels must have thousands of shares in said channel.

I spotted the actress who played Madge in Benidorm playing a very old lady of the manor in Father Brown the other day.

So funny seeing her in period costume and so instantly recognisable.

I don't think Benidorm will be as good without the Garveys.

It would be a sad old world if we all liked the same programme's,there are plenty of channels to choose from if you are bored with the same old series.

I think Joan Collins was only in Benidorm for one episode. It was funny for the first couple of series, but I feel it's past its best now. It can go!

Has anyone watched Benidorm, it's funny but ghastly at the same time, and Joan Collins is in it. Mainstream TV is a bit rubbish these days, I think the catch up channels, netflix etc are taking viewers, as you can nearly always find a watchable film or series on which means you don't have watch the dire stuff that is on regularvTV. Keep Corrie though, just about everything else can go.

I stand corrected fe*e*t*l*e*.

My ten-year-old GS is devoted to Big Bang! I just hope he doesn't understand all of it... but fear that he probably does.

Hey! HildaW I thought that I was the only 60something who liked Big Bang! It's lovely to find a fellow lover, and another Hilda to boot. You can bin all the soaps, particularly the dire Doctors, for me.
I do like Death in Paradise though.