Too Many Repeats?

[Pip Madeley]

This interesting article from Chortle...

114 Pints Of Lager...
BBC defends its repeat policy

The BBC has defended itself after it emerged that it has repeated on episode of Two Pints Of Lager almost 60 times in four years.

An episode called Dump, that first aired on April 20, 2003 has been aired a total of 57 times since it was fist broadcast in April 2003. It aired three times on its first day, and four more times the following week. Its most recent outing was on March 1 this year, when it was again repeated twice. All but one of the airings was on BBC Three, but the show was also broadcast on BBC Two at 9.30pm on September 8.

The tally of BBC Three reruns, excludes any airings on UK TV Gold, which also has the series on constant rotation. Other episodes in the series have been equally heavily repeated. Episodes of Little Britain top even that tally, having been repeated more than 60 times since their 2003 BBC Three debut.

Two years ago, the BBC chairman at time Michael Grade promised to make the terrestrial channels repeat-free zones, but made no such vow over digital channels. However, another recent survey also found that the main BBC channels still constantly repeated shows such as Only Fools and Horses, Dad's Army and – ironically enough for a show about recycling – The Good Life.

But BBC Three’s policy of frequently repeating shows to build up an audience does have its supporters.At the Broadcast magazine TV Comedy Forum on Friday, Extras star Stephen Merchant said: ‘BBC Three repeats shows endlessly to good effect.

‘People watch TV differently these days. They dip in, they don’t circle things they want to watch in the Radio Times.’

And BBC Three’s Kenton Allen defended the policy, saying it helped establish an audience for new comedy: ‘If you look at cumulative viewing, it is often better than the series would get with a single BBC Two series.’

A BBC spokesman said: ‘We understand that it may be frustrating for some viewers to see Little Britain and Two Pints of Lager regularly on BBC Three if they are not fans, but both series have a huge following and audiences do enjoy it, so we try to keep it in the schedule, albeit later in the evening.

‘Research shows us digital viewers appreciate and expect other opportunities to catch their favourite shows and the number of viewers regularly tuning in for Two Pints and Little Britain bears testament to this. Another reason is that on occasions we use these shows to launch or support other programmes.

‘The BBC also shows some key programmes more than once to maximise value for money for the viewing public.’

I'm all for repeats, but 57 times in less than four years?! There's always a place for repeats on television, but it shouldn't be the same old shows. The BBC archives are full of material that many would love to see again, rather than just churning out the same episodes of the same shows...

Nowadays BBC3 feels like UKTVGold anyway, the majority of which is made up of a constant loop of a limited selection of programmes that everyone's seen a million times. At least BBC4 have occasional weeks of nostalgic repeats. Oh for the old days of proper UK Gold...

[Milky Tears]

You can check it all out like that geek Milky Tears did, Pip:

http://open.bbc.co.uk/catalogue/infa...ramme/ENTA038J


'Crusty Curtains' and 'Who's The Daddy?' are my favourite episodes.

[Alex]

I haven't missed not having BBC3 at all lately, and whenever I look through the listings schedules it does seem to be filled with naff repeats or shows like Dog Borstal or my 16 stone 5 year old (or something like that anyway).

It really is ridiculous how much they've repeated Two Pints, especially as (imo) it's a pretty awful sitcom. It's really frustrating as well because there's so many things I'd love for the beeb to repeat (Fist of Fun, Friday Night Armistice, loads of other comedies), but they have never done so (nor bother to give them a dvd release either).

[Dave Tudor]

BBC Three should just apologise fopr showing 'Two Pints...' in the first place!

When a new episode of a series is repeated a couple of times a week, it can come in handy, if you've missed the original broadcast, but I agree with Alex that other lesser-seen shows should be given an airing, rather than endless showings of (not-very-good) comedies.

It's even somewhat annoying that each episode of the new series of 'Doctor Who' gets repeated dozens of times on Three. I'd rather they repeated each series just once on BBC One, at Christmas, say, or show omnibus repeats of two-part stories on bank holidays, just as RTD wanted!

[Larry]

I don't have any problem with repeats but there are some nights especialy at the weekend you have an evening of every programm being a repeat and you do begin to wonder exactly what your paying your licence fee for. As Phil say the BBC archives are crammed full of comadies and dramas that have only been shown once may be twice and never seen the light of day again.

Even on UK Gold all you get is the same endless run of repeats of My Family, Porridge, and Only Fools but what's worse is that they seem to just show the same half a dozen episodes of each programm.

[Captain Tancredi]

The situation with BBC3 is a comparatively easy way for the BBC to get around the problem of repeats on its terrestrial channels- try a new comedy in a late slot on BBC3 to build up some word of mouth, then promote it in the Radio Times before finally giving it a terrestrial showing, then consigning it to BBC3 again. It's not a bad marketing technique, but I would agree that they seem to be going for more of a UK Gold-type scheduling where viewers can dip in and out of programmes rather than building any loyalty.

[Martin Penny]

It drives me insane that 'Two Pints' is constantly on on BBC3, there's so much more they could repeat, I didn't realise it was so popular...

[Alex]

What's really odd is that I know of a couple of BBC3 shows which have been aired at strange times and then never seen again.

Take The Message for instance - (http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/guide/ar...66170506.shtml) - a comedy show which starred one of the guys who I was in the play with last year. Petty internal politics ruined any chance it had of being successful, because it was commissioned by a head of comedy at BBC3 who left soon afterwards.

When the new head of comedy saw it, he instantly decided he didn't like it, gave it an incredibly odd timeslot (post 1am), and then it was never seen again. Considering that it was made with the public's money, shouldn't it be automatically given a decent timeslot (rather than another repeat of some crap being shown instead) and then at least the public would get to decide whether it's good or not?

This happens a fair bit, & some other really odd things happen in tv land too - especially with ITV which makes shows but then sometimes never airs them at all. It's all due to some really odd financial reason, which alas I can't remember now...

[Jason Thompson]

Even the terrestrial channels are getting in on the repeats. The most recent example that I noticed was a show hosted by Jeremy Clarkson about a ram-raid on a Nazi naval dockyard during world war 2. It was shown once, then again the following week, and this week there was a show about the making of that show! That was on BBC 2.

Or what about Planet Earth? That show was shown on Sunday nights at 9 on BBC 1, then again on the same channel the following Saturday at 6 with some of the more graphic material excised for family viewing! They're making programs for BBC 1 with repeats specifically planned from the start!

[Matthew T]

Planet Earth was repeated on BBC2 the following Saturday I think!

I have mixed feelings about repeats - I'm quite happy to see an episode of "Open All Hours" on a weekday at 7pm on BBC1, Or Dad's Army at 5:30 on a Saturday, just so long as they're not on ALL the time.

I don't like 2 Pints, but I don't mind them repeating Little Britain so often, because I can quite happily watch that endlessly no matter how many times I've seen it before, and even though I've got the DVDs! I suppose 2 Pints has it's own fans.

UK Gold is just dire compared to when it started though. When it launched in 1992, we used to watch it for the whole night! Now, as people have pointed out, it's just the same programmes, most less than 5 years old, repeated over and over.

[Paul Monk]

Repeats are fine, if done moderately. I was moaning a few weeks ago that they never repeated Primeval on itv 2 which annoyed me.
But my biggest problem with BBC3 is that its repeats the same shows over and over. If they varied it a bit then I wouldn't mind.
Also I find that new comedy programmes seem to get lost amongst them and I quite often miss them. I wanted to Rush Hour but had no idea when it was on.

[Larry]

Or what about Planet Earth? That show was shown on Sunday nights at 9 on BBC 1, then again on the same channel the following Saturday at 6 with some of the more graphic material excised for family viewing! They're making programs for BBC 1 with repeats specifically planned from the start!

that seems to be a modern thing now the BBC, also do that with Top Gear, and Robin Hood while itv were doing the same with Primevale to be honest I don't have a problem with that as it means you get a 2nd chance to watch if you missed the original showing.

[Rob McCow]

I've talked Simon out of recording Doctor Who as it is broadcast this year, because it gets regular repeats on BBC 3 and UK Gold.

Planet Earth deserved lots of repeats, it was brill!

[Wayne]

114 Pints of Lager

I'm a Sheridan Smith-aholic, so i don't care.