Boring Bank Hol TV

Look at the TV schedule for Bank Holiday Monday - boring! It's just the usual miserable Monday schedule, stuffed with reality TV and detective shows.

I remember when BBC1 would show Dr Who omnibus editions, and had the rights to show test match cricket.

There's no care about it anymore, they just shove the same old stuff on, with a couple of family films in the afternoon just to make it a bit different.

TV is boring. Let's have something a bit different. I remember watching black & white comedy with Laurel & Hardy etc. back in the 1970s, surely it's time for legends like this to be back on TV? It seems to me that there was more range back then, with foreign language movies on BBC2, Metropolis and Nosferatu being shown mid-evening on BBC2, classic silent comedy on ITV. Some evenings you'd just watch TV all night.

Now it's just all wallpaper.

Quote: Bad dog @ August 27 2009, 2:36 PM BST

It seems to me that there was more range back then, with foreign language movies on BBC2, Metropolis and Nosferatu being shown mid-evening on BBC2, classic silent comedy on ITV. Some evenings you'd just watch TV all night.

Now it's just all wallpaper.

View original

Channel 4 used to show Andrei Tarkovsky Sci Fi films on a Sunday afternoon.

Enjoyed Stewart Lee's take on Channel 4 showing its great moments for its 25th anniversary; it's like a syphilitic old man showing you the long dead debutantes he used to date when he was younger.

The real problem with British television is that very little of it is aimed at red blooded, straight men. Advertiseres concluded long ago that the Matriarch has the say in family spending power and is a major force in household television viewing habits, so the majority of programming is geared towards this market segment.

Aside from Top Gear and comedy shows (which few women can pull off successfully), most of the programmes I watch have been originated in America.

As a result, there has been a steady drop in viewing figures as blokes like myself seek our entertainment elsewhere - the Internet, the cinema, DVDs, On Demand, etc.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ August 27 2009, 2:58 PM BST

Aside from Top Gear and comedy shows (which few women can pull off successfully), most of the programmes I watch have been originated in America.

View original

I don't quite understand. Are you saying women making TV or programmes for women?

Recently I was thrilled when Film4 showed the original Solaris, but I'm sure there was more of a varied bill back in the 70s. So many films just never appear now, but you get a chance to watch the likes of the 40 Year Old Virgin three times a week.

I shall be talking with my family on bank holiday monday.

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ August 27 2009, 3:00 PM BST

I don't quite understand. Are you saying women making TV or programmes for women?

View original

The controllers of BBC1 and BBC2 are women.

Quote: Bad dog @ August 27 2009, 2:36 PM BST

I remember when BBC1 would show Dr Who omnibus editions, and had the rights to show test match cricket.

View original

I don't know what's worse?

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ August 27 2009, 3:00 PM BST

I don't quite understand. Are you saying women making TV or programmes for women?

View original

Yes indeedy, women (and homosexuals) making programming almost exclusively for women. The number of female television commissioners has sky rocketed in the last 20 years and they have the ultimate say in what we're given.

Most men have abandoned prime time television which just consists of soaps and reality television.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ August 27 2009, 3:06 PM BST

Yes indeedy, women (and homosexuals) making programming almost exclusively for women. The number of female television commissioners has sky rocketed in the last 20 years and they have the ultimate say in what we're given.

Most men have abandoned prime time television which just consists of soaps and reality television.

View original

I would say it was 50/50 at most. Like the actual population. However I've noticed that most writers are male.

Quote: Leevil @ August 27 2009, 3:04 PM BST

I don't know what's worse?

View original

Agreed.

Personally I don't like most American shows.

Quote: Bad dog @ August 27 2009, 3:02 PM BST

Recently I was thrilled when Film4 showed the original Solaris, but I'm sure there was more of a varied bill back in the 70s. So many films just never appear now, but you get a chance to watch the likes of the 40 Year Old Virgin three times a week.

View original

I'm pretty sure you're correct and not just imagining jumpers for goalposts and sunny afternoons.
It seems odd that with more channels they seem to have less films, most of which must be very cheap to show.
FilmFour shows Powell and Pressburger's fantastic classics regularly in their daytime schedules but even they have a narrower range of lesser known films.

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ August 27 2009, 3:11 PM BST

Personally I don't like most American shows.

View original

AMERICAN TV AUDIENCE (IN UNISON): Oooooo!

Quote: Nil Putters @ August 27 2009, 3:11 PM BST

Agreed.

View original

Really? You strike me as a Dr. Who fan.

I enjoy Dr. Who, but can't stand cricket.

I wouldn't want a day of The Doctor though. I want something new, and preferably funny.