The Beeb smashed it!

I didn't watch any TV over Christmas but after everyone left I watched call the midwife on iplayer and Maggie Smith on the BBC
Also on catch-up.
I listen to radio 4 a lot and unlike Paddyann's experience, I find the programmes on R4 are inclusive of all the Nations.
I don't follow sport much anyway.

I am rather surprised by the high ratings for those programmes Casdon. I wonder how bad the alternatives were!

We caught the first part of David Copperfield last night on BBC4, just wonderful. Both parts are on iPlayer. Amazing cast also.

ayse

My favourite channels are BBC, ITV and Ch4. Currently I’m paying for Ad free on both but I’ll get rid of it on one of the channels soon. I’ve not found a great deal to watch on Prime, Netflix, Now etc. Too much USA stuff and2nd rate films. I only keep Prime as it’s handy for postage and fast delivery.

Anyway well done BBC. I’m very happy to continue to pay my TV licence and I’m looking forward to new drama in 2025.

What type of programmes do you enjoy? We’ve recently found a lot to watch on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

Oh dear, the christmas spirit doesnt seem to have lasted long with some of the comments. .!! Peace on earth and enjoy whatever you like! Well I will make a list of the things I either watched, or hope to catch up with and you can make up your minds if I fit in one of your boxes!! After the saga of the bathroom, I was just very glad to be at home. So my christmas meal was a sausage sandwich, a mince pie and a coffee., but it was so lovely to sit in my seat with radio 3 and wonderful music My wretched tv kept going wrong, and dont have anything like Netflix or Sky .
So here is some of my choices, didnt get to see the wallace and gromit but hope to see it later.
So over these few days I have enjoyed
Kings college choir,
Call the Midwife
Downton Abbey
University challenge
Only Connect
Mastermind
Swan Lake
And in particular the wonderful church service from Halifax. on christmas morning. So lovely to feel part of that, and hear a yorkshire accent for a change, not all from the south east. I especially loved that they sang what I call the yorkshire carol. Well it is While Shepherds watched, to the tune of Ilkley Moor baht at. It goes with a great swing and there have been times when we were carol singing or out walking in the dales and we would sing that and it would pick up the pace.
Then I watched a bit of the Merry Widow from Glyndebourne, but if I can find it I shall try and watch it again .
My must see old films that my husband and I used love to watch together. Not on BBC for some things but I just look in the radio times, mark things up so that I make sure I get to see the things I really want to. One of the great things is that being on my own, I can choose what I like so
Casablanca Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman
The Railway Children - has to be with Jenny agutter as bobby and Bernard Cribbins as Perks
Brief Encounters with Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard.

well I am sure I have missed something out of the list but I have enjoyed all the things I have managed to see. Ah well time to carry on listening to radio 3 as it is Private Passions , a great favourite of mine , so time to get some lunch and keep listening. Hope you all are able to listen or watch something you enjoy without interruption today.

Of the 10 programmes mentioned I only intend to watch Call the Midwife, and I'll stream that rather than watch it live. I do sometimes watch other BBC programmes but they are often streamed by other channels such as Netfix (e.g. Inspector George Gently).
BBC news is no longer our preferred news channel either.
Newer series of some long running programmes are no longer so good (Shetland for example) and I can honestly say that I can't remember when I last watched a live BBC programme. I certainly wouldn't pay the TV licence fee if I didn't need it to watch some streamed programmes.

I watched Gavin and Stacey and although this was much better than the other Christmas special I thought it was tired and underwhelming. Heard the King’s speech on the radio before the carols from King’s College, but I didn’t listen to any other radio nor watch any other television. I don’t think the BBC had a better or worse selection than any other station, just nothing to pique my interest!

Ziplok

You just can’t resist yet another dig at anything you consider remotely English, can you Paddyann?

This has been a recurring theme from that person throughout the years. It's a wonder that we who live in England, receive responses from someone who seemingly deems our views 'tainted' with 'Englishness'.
I've yet to read a post which holds as much hate towards Scotland as that contributer has against England.

Believe it or not I didn't watch TV at all over Christmas, mainly. because Christmas TV tends to be rubbish. Judging by the list that doesn't seem to have changed. Except I watched Vengeance Most Fowl, which was fantastic. It showed what can be achieved with a bit of effort.

Enjoyed G&S, disappointed with W&G, King was ok. Switched off Dr Who, just dreadful. Don't watch soaps or Celebrity anything. Very disappointed with the Death in Paradise episode, ridiculous story line and new DI had no persona. Return to Paradise was a bit silly but cosy and a happy ending. Love the cast in this. If we want a cheer up before going to bed we'll watch old episodes of Mock the Week or Have I Got News For You. Do they actually ask people what they would like to watch over Festive period??? Honestly I'm not a grump but a bit of "feel good" television would go down well.

Watched BBC only on Christmas day but didn't watch all those programmes, tv has to be off sometime ! Enjoyed the ones we did watch .
Never watched Gavin and Stacey when it was on but binge watched them over the past year.

We only watched Gavin and Stacey out of that list but I still think the BBC has so much to offer. They are usually still the best for drama. I'm still happy to pay the license fee but I can see that it is probably a generational thing. My 6 offspring rarely watch those channels whilst we watch BBC1, 2 and 4 very regularly even though we have Netflix and Apple TV.

Sorry disagree the best was Wallace and from it (but who is it aimed at)
Thought Gavin and Stacey was predictable - never been a fan - too much hype
Kings speech well how disappointing ? What was that all about? Nothing of nothingness!

So you all might disagree with me, it’s just an opinion!

Ah well, thank goodness for catch-up. I found my quality drama there👍

I found a Radio Times article about calculating viewing figures - straight from the horse’s mouth! I think it said it was the BARB method.

This is the BARB methodology Lathyrus3!
www.barb.co.uk/about-us/how-we-do-what-we-do/
I’ve enjoyed our discussion too. If you think there is a better methodology out there, I’d be interested to know.

I highly doubt a drama would have secured more viewers than the evening BBC1 viewing combination of Wallace and Gromit/Call the Midwife/Gavin and Stacey, because I don’t think people want heavy viewing on Christmas Day. My opinion only, but there were no new prime time dramas on mainstream channels on Christmas Day.

A quality drama would have been nice. Good story line, script and acting. Jus for an hour or so.

Actually your post has provided me with entertainment. 🙂 It led me to look up how viewing figures are obtained for the BBC. It’s based on 5300 (I might have got the 100s wrong) households selected by the BBC.

Still to watch Wallace and Gromit, Death in Paradise, Strictly, (even though I know the result), EnJOYed Doctor Who.
How scary was that Ghost Story? Is it worth watching?

Lathyrus3

Casdon

I don’t think there could ever be a TV schedule which pleased everybody, we all have very different tastes, and can indulge them now there is such a choice available.

In a sense, it doesn’t matter if the offerings pleased you, or pleased me, what matters to the channel is pleasing as many people as possible - and with the highest viewing for 16 years the BBC did that. Well done them.

Hmm. Not sure about that. I mean there were over 50 million potential viewers who didn’t think those programmes were worth watching.

And maybe try to provide a little something for everyone rather than a feast for a minority?

What do you think would have attracted more viewers than the top 10 shows, other than all the choices that were on other channels in Christmas Day but didn’t make the list Lathyrus3?

How about a lot of people are watching their pennies this year and tv, such as it was, became an alternative pastime? Certainly numbers spending on Boxing Day sales were lower than normal times.

Casdon

I don’t think there could ever be a TV schedule which pleased everybody, we all have very different tastes, and can indulge them now there is such a choice available.

In a sense, it doesn’t matter if the offerings pleased you, or pleased me, what matters to the channel is pleasing as many people as possible - and with the highest viewing for 16 years the BBC did that. Well done them.

Hmm. Not sure about that. I mean there were over 50 million potential viewers who didn’t think those programmes were worth watching.

And maybe try to provide a little something for everyone rather than a feast for a minority?

I need to watch outnumbered again as i fell asleep

You're welcome

Well done the BBC for pleasing such an incredible number of viewers.
Equally well done those who didn’t rate all or any of them those programmes (we only recorded Wallace and Gromit, and watched the King and the Weakest Link) but still pay their licence fee to enable others to enjoy as many as they wanted.

I don’t think there could ever be a TV schedule which pleased everybody, we all have very different tastes, and can indulge them now there is such a choice available.

In a sense, it doesn’t matter if the offerings pleased you, or pleased me, what matters to the channel is pleasing as many people as possible - and with the highest viewing for 16 years the BBC did that. Well done them.

Lathyrus3

Casdon

ronib the thread is about which TV shows were popular with the public as a whole. I highly doubt the same people were watching TV all day, most were probably just like you and only watched one or two selected programmes - which is why the viewing figures are impressive?

Ok I take your point about the thread being about the most popular. I suppose I was looking at the days offering as a whole. The only thing I circled to watch was Wallace.

There was nothing else of interest to me.
From 3.10pm

Gameshow
Gameshow
Soap
Soap
Soap
Soap
Comedy soap
The news
Bed

I hope you can see my point too.

I quite agree Lathyrus3 none of that appealed to me. The Beeb seems to believe we all just park our thinking brain at Christmas and only want entertainment. There are so many things they could have done, like Christmas in different countries, big religious ceremonies of other groups but the beeb stuck with repeats like morecambe and wise which were and are brilliant, but there's only so many times I can watch them.

We watched Little Dorrit on iplayer, period drama is where the BBC excels I reckon.

Well I'm glad of this thread- and glad of the BBC too.

Falling fast after the triumph of Wolf Hall I watched the Christmas Eve ghost story to which I fell asleep.

Christmas Day I watched The King (dead on time following Christmas dinner) and then looking forward to Wallace and Gromit I caught the end of Doctor Who. I haven't watched it much recently but I was intrigued by the ending and so decided at some point soon to watch the whole thing.
Wallace and Gromit was a work of genius- I laughed out loud several times and think it was the best one ever. How you can not admire the skill and imagination that goes into these productions I'll never know.
I then switched over from Eastenders to see a re-run of Morecambe and Wise musical excerts which again was classic humour even though I've seen it time and again.
Then it was Call the Midwife, clearly filmed yet again at the height of summer but I didn't realise was in two parts, and so spent the last ten minutes wondering how on earth they were going to tie up all the threads before the end!
I've never watched Gaving and Stacey so that's the point at which I switched off. However, after all the hype I may take a peep from the beginning to see what all the fuss was about.

Yesterday I was forced to watch football followed by some musicals, and a truly awful thing on ITV called The masked singer, which seemed nothing short of flim-flam to me and was way streched out to fill the schedule I thought.

I really don't get the criticism of the BBC- so much of what they make is sold around the world and brings joy to so many.
I have also watched Christmas University challenge and listened to some excellent podcasts too.
Of course, there are problems with it being a bit exclusive in the choice of names that recur all the time, a sense that is the place for your mates, but no one can deny the sheer breadth of what is offered and the quality of the productions.
So, very little streaming for me this year. I don't subscribe to any streaming services and maybe unusually don't resent paying my license fee to have ad free viewing.

So thankyou BBC- you were a surprisingly enjoyable part of my Christmas.

Now for the new series of Traitors...