British Television

Jock7

Jock7

Jock7

Associate
Joined
30 Mar 2008
Posts
146
Hello All,

I have just endured another horrible Christmas and New Year with British Television, all channels were very poor with old, old repeats, old films (Some great most dire) chat shows, reality shows (Television done on the cheap) and cookery even the usually superb nature programmes were dire. The same can also be said of the other major suppliers Virgin and Sky with mostly cheap boring repeats. I can remember when our television programmes were the best in the world and it was a pleasure to stay home on a Saturday/Sunday nights to watch them. We are not the only country as I have family living in Germany and again their biggest complaint is the lack of exciting television and its boring with the same old repeats of repeats. Bruce Sprinsteen recorded a track on one of his albums called 59 channels and nothing on and this is very true. I keep hearing that there is no money for new programmes but what about the huge salaries that people working for the companies get?.

I pay for a television licence every year for this rubbish and also have a account with Virgin Media and I feel that I am being taxed twice for dire programming. I could go on and on but will finish here. What do you think about the state of British television?.
 
honestly can't remember the last time I watched it, certainly over two years ago

we have freeview plugged in, but our viewing is

Netflix with unblocker
amazon prime
now tv

and other bits and bobs :D
 
If you don't like it, you don't like it. I find enough to watch on freeview. I've got NowTV and lovefilm and Netflix as well... Gonna cancel Netflix, though, as there's naff all on there.
 
There were some good programmes, namely Luther and Charlie Brooker's TV Wipe. Nothing else stood out for me.
 
Though there was the odd good program I've noted how especially the last 2-3 Christmases have been dire with way more repeated material and poorly produced tat than I remember from the past. 2014 was worse IMO for repeating previous year's Christmas specials and uninspired productions in general.
 
I miss Saturday night game shows. In the late 80's/90's, we had some great stuff. Generation game, play your cards right, strike it lucky, big break, you bet, some great stuff. Now it's all gone to be replaced with crap like Strictly come dancing and the X factor. Stars in your eyes was more enjoyable than X Factor. But tbh, syphilis is more enjoyable than X Factor.

And bring Gordon Burns and the Krypton factor back.
 
robfosters said:
I miss Saturday night game shows. In the late 80's/90's, we had some great stuff. Generation game, play your cards right, big break, you bet, some great stuff. Now it's all gone to be replaced with crap like Strictly come dancing and the X factor. Stars in your eyes was more enjoyable than X Factor. But tbh, syphilis is more enjoyable than X Factor.

And bring Gordon Burns and the Krypton factor back.
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I rather enjoy ninja warrior in an ironic kind of way.
 
The BBC are too busy catering for the older generation (strictly come dancing, endless cookery shows, country fike, antique shows etc) because they are cheap to make and easy to please
 
Apparently Christmas tv isn't worth going all out for any more, as there's just too many channels on freeview, so there's too much to compete with.

But Christmas wise... The Agatha Christie one was good.
 
Times have changed and TV has with it. It's rare now that a group of people will watch a programme and go into school or work to all talk about it. With so many channels and differing workig hours that's mostly gone now. So programmes have to be more "instant"; you have to be able to watch something that's contained in one episode and doesn't build on a story.

Couple that with more outlets for advertising and I assume that TV advertising revenues are dropping. So on one hand TV has to rely on more spectacular effects and improving production quality and on the other hand the money to do so is falling. TV is being squeezed on both sides. US TV doesn't fare as badly because their market is larger.

Beadles About can be replaced by simply typing "fails" or "pranks" into YoTube. My kids have told me on many occasions that TV is old fashioned. They are glued to YouTube instead.
 
i cancelled my sky package in oct and i dont miss it one bit and i thought i would...but now i spend most my time watching youtube and twitch and the odd movie, was just saying to my dad tonight..mite get rid of the telly and just get a big monitor

but once the motobike season starts (motogp, wsbk, bsb, speedway) itll prob kill me unless i find another way
 
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David Attenborough Barrier Reef was amazing.

And lot cheaper way of watching decent TV, use on demanded services +Netflix, amazon etc.
 
Hades said:
Beadles About can be replaced by simply typing "fails" or "pranks" into YoTube. My kids have told me on many occasions that TV is old fashioned. They are glued to YouTube instead.
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My nephew usually spends less than 5 minutes on any one toy, short attention span/hyperactive, give him a laptop and youtube and he'll sit there for hours glued to it.
 
War and Peace, Endeavour, Deutschland '83 - now is a pretty good time to be watching the FTA channels imo - shame they put them all on at the same time lol. Christmas was dire, but it always is these days - I can't stand those bloody specials they put on at Christmas inevitably featuring a cast of British luvvies and James Corden :mad:
 
Thanks everyone but being an oldie (64 but feel 44) I do miss the old days of the television. The audiences were massive then and most of the programming was excellent. Nowadays its like everything else some good and lots not so good. I am not interested in talk shows, cookery, reality tv sucks, most cheap game shows and the soaps but at least I have the off button and can purchase films as and when I want. I only watch British tele for the news and the odd programme but worse the Six Nations Rugby is starting shortly and ITV has the rights this time, they mucked up the World Cup with their adverts and rubbish commentary pity the BBC lost out.
 
you shouldn't have to fork out again on Netflix,prime though

normal tv should be decent enough,we all cant afford these subscriptions,current tv is truly awfull imo,churning out endless rubbish costume drama's and terrible comedy

cant beat the eighties/eary nineties for decent tv,programs like frost/pie in the sky,decent comedy like one foot in the grave

only programs I like atm are the grand design/sarah beeny ones and nature programs,and qi,the rest is just trash
 
Comedy in particular has taken a dive, the 2000s had a plethora of amazing British comedies such as

Green Wing
Extras
The Office
Peep Show
Teachers
Black Books
The Thick of It
The IT Crowd
I'm Alan Partridge
The Inbetweeners

And that's just the cream of the crop, there was loads of other decent stuff. In the last few years the only thing I can think of that has been half decent is Fresh Meat.
 
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