Whatever Happened To The UKTV Channels?!

[Pip Madeley]

It's rant time.

What the hell happened to UKGold? It used to be a great channel, full of classic TV programmes that you wouldn't find anywhere else, and some that have never been repeated or even released elsewhere. Oh how I miss those days. Here's a normal days viewing from 1994:

7.00 - The Sullivans
7.30 - Neighbours
8.00 - Sons & Daughters
8.30 - Eastenders
9.00 - The Bill
9.30 - Flesh & Blood
10.30 - Juliet Bravo
11.35 - The Sullivans
12.00 - Sons & Daughters
12.30 - Neighbours
13.00 - Eastenders
13.30 - The Bill
14.00 - George & Mildred
14.30 - Rings On Their Fingers
15.00 - Knots Landing
16.00 - Dynasty
17.00 - Every Second Counts
17.35 - Top Of The Pops - The 70's
17.55 - Terry & June
18.30 - Eastenders
19.00 - The Two Ronnies
20.00 - Life Without George
20.30 - Rings On Their Fingers
21.00 - Tenko
22.00 - The Bill
22.30 - Top Of The Pops - shows from 1986
23.40 - Doctor Who
00.10 - Rockcliffes Babies
01.15 - Scotch 'n' Wry

Plenty of classic programmes, some from abroad, but an emphasis on British TV. Nowadays, it's awful. Too many UKTV channels, half of them don't even show the right programmes for their genre - you see programmes like 'Sykes' and on UKTVDrama and 'Prison Break' (an American programme!) on UKTVGold. Why can't they leave well alone? UKTVGold is supposed to be about old/classic British programmes. Yet all you seem to get is the stuff BBC3 can't be bothered repeating anymore, and American trash like Baywatch. Here's today's listings:

06.00 - Doctor Who Omnibus (Pertwee episode in bad quality)
09.00 - Baywatch (American, on DVD)
10.00 - Baywatch (American, on DVD)
11.00 - The A-Team (American, on DVD)
12.00 - The A-Team (American, on DVD)
13.00 - Doctor Who (just released on DVD, repeated loads on BBC3)
14.00 - Doctor Who (just released on DVD, repeated loads on BBC3)
15.00 - Doctor At Sea (film, available on DVD)
16.45 - Carry on Henry (film, very available on DVD)
18.25 - Murder She Wrote (American)
19.40 - Porridge (also repeated on UKTV or BBC2, on DVD)
20.20 - Open All Hours (repeated too often, on DVD)
21.00 - Little Britain (been shown a million times on BBC1/2/3 & on DVD)
22.20 - The Catherine Tate Show (just come out on DVD!)
23.40 - Little Britain (same bloody episode again!)
02.15 - The Catherine Tate Show (same!)

and then repeats of shows they already showed earlier for the rest of the night

As for all the adverts, don't get me started. The introduction of even bigger DOGs (that's the ident in the corner of the screen), not to mention the red button popping at either side of every bloody break... it's continuously advertising itself and other UKTV channels which is a real pain, especially when little slides come up on screen telling you what is coming next!

On the subject of Doctor Who, I'd love them to show the black and white stories again, but they say they don't think anyone would be interested in seeing the old b&w episodes. I don't believe this for a second and suspect it's rather down to budgetary considerations instead. I also wish someone would do episodic repeats, not the awful omnibuses... a waste.

It's just not interesting anymore. There's countless programmes they could repeat, some that we'll probably never see get a proper DVD release. But we have to put up with the same old garbage and *countless* repeats of Only Fools And Horses, Blackadder & Fawlty Towers... as for programmes like Catherine Tate and Little Britain, they should stay on BBC3 where they belong.

Sigh.

[Paul Clement]

I only ever watch UK Gold when there are Only Fool's repeats on now. I used to like the old mix of programmes far better, and looking at that 1994 schedule I'd definitely like to see Rockliffe's Babies and Tenko again.

[Pip Madeley]

Looking at UKTVDrama, it seems that's the home of old TV sitcoms - today they're showing Keeping Up Appearances, The Liver Birds, Ever Decreasing Circles, Butterflies, Last of the Summer Wine, Waiting for God...

UKTV Drama?!

[SiHart]

But UKTV Drama does at least show some more obscure stuff and any channel that shows Secret Army is worthy of much love in my opinion.

You're right though Pip, UK Gold isn't what it once was. I remember it starting and there being a mandate to show what it's viewers wanted to see. You could write in with your suggestions and they'd do their damnedest to get the rights to it and show it. I saw some amazing stuff that simply isn't repeated any more. There is room for a really good archive TV channel. It used to be UK Gold, but now, there really isn't one, which is a shame.

Si xx

[Andrew Curnow]

What we really need is UK Gold Gold, showing the best stuff from UK Gold's golden era...

[Captain Tancredi]

When UK Gold started up, they pretty much had the run of the BBC archives in terms of what they could buy up- I have fond memories of their Sunday morning Survivors/Blakes 7/Who line-ups- and the people doing the buying and scheduling seemed fairly knowledgeable about what they were showing. Nowadays there's a more competitive environment- presumably Gold pay for the rights to show the likes of Little Britain and Catherine Tate after BBC3 have shown them several times already, and the likes of Paramount Comedy and Sci-Fi will pick up the rights to certain series if they're going. Again, when they started out I expect they were trying to put together an evening's viewing but nowadays go primarily for sitcoms on the grounds that they're more likely to appealt o the casual viewer who's just flicking around looking for anything to fill up half an hour.

[Larry]

perhaps UK Gold's lack of variety these days might well be due to them no longer having any broadcasting rights to many programms that they used to show.

[Jonno]

I loved UK Gold in the mid 90s when I first got cable TV - particularly the complete editions of TOTP (if only a channel would show them again) and, as Ian said, the Sunday morning The Vortex - I particularly enjoyed Survivors, although I didn't manage to keep up with it.

They should rename the channel now - with US shows and films providing a fair amount of its current output, there's little UKTV and hardly anything that warrants the label Gold.

I don't know why you want them to show b&w Who though, Pip. Surely you've already got everything in one format or another?!

[Pip Madeley]

I'm always keen to upgrade.

No, it's not that, it's just that they (and other shows) should have a place on television these days. They're no less important than the Pertwee episodes they're showing at the moment...

[Larry]

it is a shame that UK Gold do seem to be stuck in a rut of constantly showing the same half dozen or so classic comadies. There are many more in the archives like The Liver Birds, Citizen Smith and The Likely Lads that are hardly ever seen and would make a nice change to see them rather then the predictable Fools or Dad's Army.

[Captain Tancredi]

I think a year or two ago they had a clear-out and discovered that they were holding the rights to a lot of shows that they weren't actually broadcasting but were effectively holding to prevent anybody else showing them. Rather than spend any more money renewing the rights, they've let them go and bought the rights to newer material, probably in the expectation that since there's only a limited number of channels interested in material from the 1970s and 1980s, they can name their price when it comes to renegotiating.

[Paul Clement]

I'd really like to see them go back to showing some drama series from yesteryear. The fact that Little Britain and Catherine Tate Show are on the schedules seems odd for a channel that used to be defined as one that showed classic television. The above two shows are far too recent.

[Milky Tears]

UK Gold went downhill from about 1999 and "died" about three years ago. UKTV Drama is the new UK Gold and UK Gold is the new US Bronze.

[MacNimon]

A 'real' UK Gold channel is what's needed, one that's a combination of the 'classic' UK Gold and the old Granada Plus. A channel which would show the best of UK-produced comedy and drama, regardless of what channel made it. UKG was mostly based on BBC, Granada (for obvious reasons) was ITV. A combined channel would be excellent, just imagine Doctor Who being broadcast from the start episodically (last time we saw that was in the early UKGold era), along with the likes of Survivors, Blakes 7, Adam Adamant, Doomwatch, The Saint, Randall & Hopkirk, The Avengers etc in the mix along with Citizen Smith, Only Fools (only one episode a week!), Blackadder, Man About The House etc, soaps like 60s/70s/80s Corrie, Crossroads even, Brookie, all mixed in with such diverse dramas such as The Onedin Line, Morse, Sharpe, A Very Peculiar Practice, and countless others. Nothing less than 10 years old to be broadcast. Even the 'classic' comedies which are currently overexposed on Uk Gold at the moment are fine, shown as they were meant to be, an episode per week, a season at a time.

One other requirement...NO imports. At all. Not even one. A channel like this would be TV Heaven, unlike the channel which likes to call itself that these days...

[Paul Clement]

Summed up beautifully.

[Larry]

A 'real' UK Gold channel is what's needed, one that's a combination of the 'classic' UK Gold and the old Granada Plus. A channel which would show the best of UK-produced comedy and drama, regardless of what channel made it. UKG was mostly based on BBC, Granada (for obvious reasons) was ITV. A combined channel would be excellent, just imagine Doctor Who being broadcast from the start episodically (last time we saw that was in the early UKGold era), along with the likes of Survivors, Blakes 7, Adam Adamant, Doomwatch, The Saint, Randall & Hopkirk, The Avengers etc in the mix along with Citizen Smith, Only Fools (only one episode a week!), Blackadder, Man About The House etc, soaps like 60s/70s/80s Corrie, Crossroads even, Brookie, all mixed in with such diverse dramas such as The Onedin Line, Morse, Sharpe, A Very Peculiar Practice, and countless others. Nothing less than 10 years old to be broadcast. Even the 'classic' comedies which are currently overexposed on Uk Gold at the moment are fine, shown as they were meant to be, an episode per week, a season at a time.

One other requirement...NO imports. At all. Not even one. A channel like this would be TV Heaven, unlike the channel which likes to call itself that these days...

And mix into that the classic chilldrens tv like Grange Hill, Box of Delights, Take Hart and Animal Magic that could be shown on Saturday and Sunday mornings and I think you'd have the perfect channel..

[MacNimon]

And if it was available on Freeview for everyone to see, rather than being a subscription channel, that would be even better. It would be great to see the likes of The Sweeney or The Professionals getting decent ratings again...a channel like this would maybe make tv execs sit up and start making decent tv again!

[Larry]

to be honest I all ways thought that UK Gold was a free channel - but you would of thought that with the amount of adverts on it they could quite easely afford to make it Freeview.

[SiHart]

it is a shame that UK Gold do seem to be stuck in a rut of constantly showing the same half dozen or so classic comadies. There are many more in the archives like The Liver Birds, Citizen Smith and The Likely Lads that are hardly ever seen and would make a nice change to see them rather then the predictable Fools or Dad's Army.

UKTV Drama has shown all of those shows Larry!

Si xx

[Jonno]

Mention of those kid's classics reminds me of a period about 10 years ago when they showed vintage Blue Peter, Record Breakers and one other show that eludes me at the moment back to back at weekend mornings. That was a shortlived treat!

[Pip Madeley]

You all see what I mean though? There's obviously an audience for that sort of a channel, so it's such a shame we don't get what we want. I guess DVD has helped, or perhaps hindered, the possibilities of such a channel, but there are programmes that will never see a DVD release - archive TOTP for instance - simply because the rights issues would make it impossible.

[Larry]

UKTV Drama has shown all of those shows Larry!

Si xx

seems to me there are a few shows that Uk Gold and UK Drama seem to take it in turns to show..

[Milky Tears]

It's a new look for UKTV Gold:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/broadcas...-new-look.html

UKTV Gold bounces back with 10m new look
Wednesday, April 4 2007, 11:23 BST

By Joanne Oatts, Media Correspondent

UKTV Gold unveiled its new on-air identity this morning which uses a 1970s classic to show the channel is "going back to its roots."

Launching tomorrow, the 12 new idents, produced by creative agency Karmarama, show policemen and Vikings bouncing around on gold UKTV spacehoppers.

A world-record breaking spacehopper attempt will take place on April 15 at London's Millennium Bridge to promote the new look.

The channel has also unveiled new versions of old TV classics for 2007, like The Generation Game and Jim'll Fix It Strikes Again, alongside more archive acquisitions including US shows Dallas, Charlie's Angels and Fantasy Island.

Emmy-award winning comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine, starring Seinfield's Julia Louis-Dreyfus, will air exclusively on UKTV Gold, along with co-acquisitions of repeats of US shows Prison Break and Shark with terrestrial channel Five.

The new shows are part of a 10 million investment off the back of UKTV Gold becoming the most watched channel in pay-TV homes.

Brucie is the focus of Media Guardian's coverage:

http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcas...049952,00.html

Brucie back on Generation Game
John Plunkett
Wednesday April 4, 2007
MediaGuardian.co.uk

Thirty-six years after he first invited viewers to see what was on his conveyor belt, Bruce Forsyth is returning to the Generation Game.
Forsyth, better known to a generation of younger viewers as the host of BBC1's Strictly Come Dancing, will present a revival of the classic gameshow on UKTV Gold.

Largely an archive show made up of clips of series past, the new UKTV Gold series will also feature newly filmed segments as former contestants attempt to recreate the challenges of yesteryear.

Called The Generation Game: Now and Then, it is the latest classic TV format to be revived by UKTV Gold.

The channel also resurrected Terry Wogan's chatshow with Terry Wogan: Now and Then, and will bring Jimmy Savile back to the small screen with Jim'll Fix It Strikes Back, which begins on UKTV Gold tomorrow.

UKTV Gold's Generation Game revival is being made by former BBC head of entertainment commissioning Jane Lush and her independent production company, Splash Media.

"Bruce is now really busy but he loved the idea," said Lush, who worked with the veteran presenter - who is 80 next year - on Strictly Come Dancing.

"Bruce invented a genre in the way that he used to tease the contestants and joke with the audience."

The UKTV Gold channel head, James Newton, said the return of the Generation Game "reinforces our strategy to reconnect with viewers with their favourite shows in a contemporary way".

UKTV Gold has spent 10m on new programming in 2007, and today unveiled new channel branding, featuring gold coloured space hoppers, which will go on air tomorrow.

Other new shows include US comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine, with former Seinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus, which UKTV Gold has exclusively in the UK for the first two series.

Forsyth will present five episodes of Generation Game: Now and Then, which will be filmed in front of a studio audience in the late summer of this year.

UKTV Gold is a part of the UKTV commercial joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Virgin Media Television.

[Pip Madeley]

UKTV Gold unveiled its new on-air identity this morning which uses a 1970s classic to show the channel is "going back to its roots."

Good...

more archive acquisitions including US shows Dallas, Charlie's Angels and Fantasy Island.

Emmy-award winning comedy The New Adventures of Old Christine, starring Seinfield's Julia Louis-Dreyfus, will air exclusively on UKTV Gold, along with co-acquisitions of repeats of US shows Prison Break and Shark with terrestrial channel Five.

... BUT THEY'RE NOT UK TELEVISION GOLD!!!!!!

[SiHart]

We'll see how long it takes them to stop relying on Only Fools and Horses to prop up the schedules... when that stops, then things might have improved...

Si xx